Wow, that is a bad season for you. And so many different things caused the problems. I am sorry to see that. I knew you had some troubles, but when listed like that, wow. If I had that many not scape, it would be about 1/3 or more of what I have.

My year was mostly pretty good. A few that usually had a lot of buds [seedling Bombay Silk x Vintage Wine, Vt The Last Melon and a couple others I don't recall at the moment] still had 10-14 buds or so. A number of early ones were a little low on buds due to dry weather but really not too bad. One or two didn't bloom at all but that is not unusual. The oddest thing was that my entire bed in front [except Coral Majority] didn't bloom well over all [there are 24 varieties there] and it is a bit of a sheltered area, being next to the house.

Meanwhile a number of new seedlings had lots of blooms, some up to 36 blooms, a couple in the 20s and many in the teens.

So overall I liked my season. Not amazing but decent. And not over.

Brad

I've often wondered what triggers one daylily to bloom over another. Mine almost always bloom if they are established regardless of changing weather conditions. Rebloom is the jewel in the crown here, and it is sporadic at best. Last year it was surprising at how much rebloom I got over previous years. This year it's back to normal - as in very little rebloom at all..... I'm sorry you've had such a strange year Debra. I didn't realize you had rabbit problems also. Have they increased since you tragically lost most of your Gypsy Cats? After my Yardley passed over we had an explosion around here of rabbits, but mostly the mature rabbits leave my daylilies alone, baby bunnies however are a different story. Have you tried those ground spikes around your daylily beds? I use those on the more rabbit prone areas to keep them away and so far so good..................Maryl

I had some established daylilies to bloom much less than usual..Intelligent Design, White Eyes Pink Dragon (but it currently has five rebloom scapes.), Fernstone's fifteen scapes were killed by the March Frost and Dragon Lady and many others were turned to much but recovered although less bloom than expected. Many did better than usual, and except for a very few, Mean Green, Deiliverer and Butterfly Breakfast come to mine. My rebloom has been and continues to be ridiculous this year and it seems to be far from over. It has been a very strange year.

kay.

Brad - I knew the number that didn't scape was large, but I didn't think it was more the about 30 until I actually made a complete list. Maybe now you guys understand why I was so thrilled with the few that gave an outstanding performance. In the past, sometimes there were a couple that didn't bloom, but I've never had anything so widespread. And I've never had the thing happen with established clumps only having one or two scapes. I'm glad your season was pretty decent.

Maryl - I've always had problems with baby bunnies. It was not quite as bad when the Gypsy Cats were in their prime. I lost some scapes on new seedlings very early in the season to rabbits - two in particular that I was dying to see bloom. What is the brand name of the ground spikes you use? I'm not familar with those. My problem was I didn't start spraying early enough with Groundhog and Rabbit Out.

Kay - I think the tremendous rebloom you've had this year pretty much makes up for the early ones that lost their scapes or didn't bloom well. In good years I ususally have more than 50 registered daylilies rebloom, and in bad years about 20. But this year I've only had seven registered ones rebloom, and those all had instant rebloom. Most of my rebloom has been on seedlings.

Debra

Add insects to the problems. I have never had so many aphids. And at one garden, terrible thrips; at another garden, horrendous earwigs. I have also never had such huge foliage early in the season, but it was ominous; foliage doesn't translate to blooms.

That being said, a few of yours did well here: Sword of Justice for one. The March freezes I think had greater impact on mid-South gardens, but here too, February was so mild that plants were shocked by the March cold. Perhaps farther north, March had less of an impact, though Sherry has sounded quite disgusted too. The over three weeks of intense sun with no rain in late May/early June definitely had a negative impact also.

There have been worse years. Certainly, we were dry, but not in a sustained drought. Part of this season's disappointment here comes after a banner year last year. That performance was echoed in Wisconsin last year (Solaris Farms, for example, reported superb plant growth) and in any places that got rain. May/June rain is crucial for performance here; last year, we got it and this year we were shafted.

I am surprised to hear that you found this year worse than last, Debra, as you vividly reported last year the frustrations with heat and dryness.

I have a little over 200 daylilies in my collection. I had 8 established daylilies that didn’t bloom this year..…usually only one or two plants don’t bloom. I have 11 daylilies waiting for first blooms… 3 of these have had three seasons with no blooms yet. I am guessing the weather the past two seasons hasn’t helped. I have 3 daylilies that flat out disappeared. The bud count , generally speaking, was lower on all of my best performers. Short scapes was the most frustrating thing for me….75% of my plants had this problem. I did notice that the daylilies that have midday shade faired better with scape height. Real drought conditions in May and June probaly had a big impact.

About 10-15 daylilies had very good seasons….it was great to see that despite the disappointments.

The better performers were Purple Paw Prints, Primal Scream, Stone Palace Trailblazer, Mary Todd, Schnickel Fritz, Before, Flutterbye, Sailor Sky, Dances With Giraffes, Quasar Cutie and Faber Saber.

Rabbits were awful this season but they left my daylilies alone and feasted on other things.….devastated my tall phlox, heuchera and some hostas.

Sherry

Update: I found three more this morning that never scaped: Tully Mars, Born in California and LIttle LIght of Mine. I wasn't sure about these until I got the weeds out of them this morning. So that brings my total of non-bloomers to 58, or about one-sixth of my registered daylilies.

Debra

Our season was less than stellar too and it had nothing to do with the trees falling. Our daylilies were treated to warm Eebruary temperatures and then shocking cold temperatures all through May with several frosts interspersed. Then the heat turned on in June and the water turned off. There was no rain until the storms at the end of June but then it turned dry again.

Like Mantis, we had huge leaves on the daylilies early one but that didn't translate to great scapes. Performance was all over the place with many reliably vigorous daylilies like Apache War Dance producing scapes at least a foot shorter than normal. Many other varieties had short scapes and/or few buds. Some performed wonderfully well as if the weather were perfect.

Late bloomers seemed to bloom earlier than normal. Some bloomed at their normal time. Delinquent Doll and Mango Crush have both been excellent this year, but Paradise Road is half dead (it was wonderful last year).

We have had an amazing amount of rebloom considering the dryness. We are even seeing some of the crushed daylilies reblooming as well as a few late bloomers in those beds produce scapes. We have even seen a lot of rebloom in the first year seedling bed among diploids as well.

I can't make much of a prediction about seed production as we basically stopped hybridizing after the storm. We did continue to make a few crosses, but seed harvesting has just started so it will be a while before we know how bad/good the harvest was.

The one bright spot seemed to be the three-year-old seedlings. They did very well. Of course, we really don't know how scape height/bud production was affected since we don't keep stats on them when they are that young, but our overall assessment is that it was a good year. We have many marked with blue flagging tape. We don't plant to move them all this season--we haven't gotten the four-year-olds moved yet, but since that bed was partially smashed, they will stay in place for another year. Some of the best ones hadn't even started blooming when they storm happened.

There's still lots to do this season and we won't get it all done. We estimate that we will be working on cleaning up the mess for at least two years.

Bob is waiting on me to join him in planting seedlings. We are only about half done. This has to be finished before we can start on the lining out and moving selects.

Nancy

One thing I forgot to mention was we noticed that some didn't bloom this year. We planted Joe Burrow and Bryan's Song a couple of years ago. Both have made nice little clumps but neither of them bloomed this year. I was really excited to see Joe Burrow bloom. Well, it should be great next year.

Mantis - Insects were a problem here too - mostly with an explosion of thrips the first two weeks of June. It's interesting that you had different insects in the three gardens you tend. I had a few aphids this year, but not nearly as many as in past years. I've only had earwigs one year. That must be more of a northern problem. Lack of rain here in May and June affected bud counts too.

Sherry - The short scapes are very frustrating. I would say 90 percent of mine were shorter than normal, with about 50 percent having scapes just at the foliage level or down in the foliage.

Nan - You mention Apache War Dance being a foot shorter than normal. Here I only got one scape on AWD, and it was only 10 inches tall with three buds. I'm glad to read your three-year-old seedings did well. And how great that you are getting so much rebloom.

Debra

It appears this has been a year for the books! It is interesting that most of us from all areas of the country and different zones have experienced so many of the same issues.

I did not count the ones that did not bloom. I recognize 5-6 of nonbloomers from Debra’s list that I did not see either. I was double whammied early in the season by the late multi-day hard freeze. I think this took out early scapes. Then I had the lopidea insect infestation that took out the buds on so many plants. That accounted for 400-500 nonbloomers. Some of these were NOIDS but they were noids I liked! None bloomed in the jungle bed (another 100). My big front bed of approximately 300 fared much better although I had quite a few nonbloomers in that bed as well. I also had the cow incident where the runaway cow trampled many, pushing some into the ground. Deer nibbled on some taking all buds.

Rebloom came on strong with many second, third, and even fourth rebloom cycles. However, last week the deer returned despite continued spraying. They successfully wiped out all reblooming scapes.

Whew! That was a long narrative about the woes of my season. However, the ones that bloomed were usually wonderful! Maybe all these issues are telling me to downsize!!!

I forgot to mention, the one thing that seemed common to many daylilies (1/3?) here [not the newest seedlings (or if they were short-nothing to compare to-, they will be incredibly tall in the future) and not the VTs] was shorter scapes, but not radically short. Some were my fault as they were overdue for transplanting. One thing for sure, the weather-current or previous-doesn't effect the VTs. They are very consistent and have a small range of variance. That, and an abundance of buds and a late season are reasons why I chose a couple for crosses.

Brad

Kate - With the cow and the lily beetles, I think you may have had the most negative impacts of anyone and probably the most daylilies that didn't bloom. I know I'm more serious about downsizing now.

Debra

Wow Kate, that is a horrible loss. So sorry to hear that. Sorry that many others didn't have the greatest years either.

Brad

Lol, Debra! Is there a prize for that?!!

Yes, I have way too many. And yes, I need to downsize more. I think if I was not still working it would be more manageable. Mine is just a hobby garden so your losses are of a much greater magnitude with your hybridizing. Hopefully a better season next year will be in store for all of us!

Kate - There should be a prize for worst season - just to make you feel better. I thought once I retired I would manage my gardens better. But that has not been the case. There hasn't been a Spring when I've gotten everything weeded. My gardens really got out of hand the year my mother was in and out of the hospital for so many months, and during the year when I had breast cancer surgery and radiation treatments. It was during those years when I got so many bad grasses and vines growing in the beds. I'm eliminating a couple of borders and reducing the size of my front bed. I need less to treat for insects and deer.

Debra

There was one plus to my season. Most of June was unusually cool, and I set seed pods on cultivars that had never held on to them before. I was especially delighted with seed pods I harvested this week from Soli Deo Gloria, Raspberry Twizzler and Silver Sword. I even set a couple of pods on Entwined on the Vine, and I thought that was pretty much impossible.

Debra

Wow Debra, that's a lot of no shows, I immediately thought what Brad wrote that it would be more than 1/3 of mine. I do have only one on your list and it is Little Light of Mine, and it scaped and bloomed well here. And of course the deer, so unfair!

Sherry when you say low scapes were they all low on those plants?

OMG Kate that is Awful. I am so sorry. But very glad to know about the great (4 cycles even!!) rebloom!

My season here was alright I guess. I compare everything to 2012. At least they are not rotting and I didn't have any losses. We always have very cold winter days, but we also always have rain in May. This year not a drop. 2 half inches in June one of which came with at least a 20 minutes hail. It was so sad to see nice fat buds lying on the ground. I tried to tape some scapes but it didn't work well. Then one small rain in July and finally two days ago we got a nice long rain and more than an inch, yay! It was however a great peony year go figure. And my mock orange was spectacular in the spring, the oldest plant (shrub) in the yard and i have never seen it so covered in blooms. Clematis horrible. Aqulegia 5 feet tall lol One astilbe had a bloom spike for the first time ever. So weird!

Several of my established daylilies and old seedlings that never skipped a year were no shows this year. Four and four, I understand not a lot but I also have a very small yard with the smallest collection.

I also noticed a lot of whiteness on some I suppose aphids, brown scabs, and of course lower bud count. Also some had less scapes than they usually do. A few were sick with some deformed flowers. None had all scapes low but almost all had half normal half short or at times really short scapes. But those 40 inchers were a bit lower and I did not mind it, made the beds look more uniform )) Season got even more compressed, they started at the very end of June, mids on July 4-5 and lates mostly on or near July 10. But my biggest disappointment or aggravation (don't laugh) is that we got some kind of animal who is going All over the yard. A lot! (I don't see very well and have balance issues). Oh that and my camera. Same flowers same time like previous years yet the pictures are dull and very often blurry, of some I have not a single clear pic this year.

Nat - Normally Little Light of Mine is one of the best bloomers in my front garden. It sounds like your season was short and compressed this time. My season was the normal length, but it had all the other issues.

Debra

Nat, My better performers generally had scapes a bit shorter this season but not enough to complain about. So many of my other daylies were blooming in the foliage. Indian Giver’s blooms were so low in the foliage the flowers couldn’t open correctly. Add lower bud counts too.

Sherry

Soli Deo Gloria had wonderfully clear and dark flowers here, and Debra also had a good year with it. Little Light of Mine was so awful I decided to discard it. Now we're getting plentiful rain--when it's pretty much over for blooming.

Mantis - We've been getting a lot of rain in August too. I'm seeing a few more late scapes and rebloom scapes emerging after getting more than 3 inches of rain in the past two weeks.

Debra