I have about 30 different daylilies as it has become my obsession during the last 3-4 years. Most do well, but I have one that doesn't live up to its description. The foliage grows well and it blooms well, but the scapes are much shorter than the 38" they are supposed to be. It is Well, Hello Beautiful (Gossard, 2017).
The scapes are barely a foot tall! Other daylilies in the same flower bed don't have this problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Has 'Well, Hello Beautiful' been planted in the same spot, and for how long? It often takes at least three years for a plant to settle in and reach the stats it was registered with, if they ever do. Thinking that this might be one of your latest acquisitions?

I had a day lily that had the same problem for several years, 'Cezanne'. The flowers were large but on 6" scapes so basicly on the ground. I tried making sure it got routine fertilizing & treatment like others in that day lily bed but nothing changed. All left to try was moving it to another day lily bed. I moved it & it started getting normal scapes the next bloom cycle. I'll never know what it was but a couple of years now & it has 12" to 15" scapes. That's still shorter than they should be but time may balance it out. Give that a try if possible.

I thought the exact same thing, Larry. But that's a lot of fans for a new plant. I see three other scapes (spent) and maybe a 4th if that thing in the upper right corner is a bud.

I agree with Tabbycat, too.

It could be just about anything, and Larry's guess is still a good one as far as I'm concerned. I bought a plant from the same hybridizer and it took four years to put up its first scape, and that scape was short like yours. It was a relatively small single fan when I bought it, and I moved it once in the middle, so it just took that long to mature. (I'm not knocking the hybridizer. I bought several other plants and received gift plants that have all done extremely well for me.) For some reason, this one just took a long time.

So other things that could be part of the issue, soil condition. Maybe it's not getting enough nutrients or water when it is building scapes. And I notice it's a dormant plant. I don't know where you are from, youda, but I've heard some people who live in the hotter states say that dormants just don't do well for them. So those are two other things it could be. But I vote for Larry and think if you give it one or two more years, you will see improvement.




edited because I missed Tabbycat's response and didn't want to look like a jerk for ignoring what Trudy said.

'Cause For Pause' has never been at its registered height here often blooming near ground level. I moved it in the fall for one more chance before mulching...maybe it can't handle 7b temperatures as it doesn't act "evergreen" either.

Another reason for short scapes could be grubs eating the roots. Dig it up this spring and see if you have any white grubs feeding on the roots.

How deep is it planted? Sometimes depth can cause shorter scapes or no scapes at all. This has happened to me a few times.

NOTE: Mulch in flower beds that has not been changed over a period of time can also cause DL fans to become deeper in the ground due to the decomposition of the mulch.

Do you naturalize your Daylilies? If growing them naturally, there is a chance that scapes and foliage are shorter than normal due to lack of water.

I bought 10 fans of J Nichole and it has good foliage. Good flowers, but on stunted scapes. I've lost 4 fans. The area may not get as much water from sprinkler. I'll try extra watering to see if it improves.

Vossner-

I seem to recall that it is always very short....

The reason I got rid of J. Nicole, beautiful flowers but such very short scapes. A shame.

Huh, maybe that's why this person sold them. I can't remember if ALL are short. I'll have to watch it closely.

The registration scape height for 'Jolyene Nichole' is 14".

https://www.daylilydatabase.or...

Jolyene Nichole is always short. That is the major drawback.

Jolyene Nichole' is one gorgeous daylily! Short scapes support big, round blooms of deep rose pink with ruffled edges. Registered as a mid-season bloomer, but often one of our first to bloom.

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The above is the description offered by Oakes DL regarding this cultivar. It appears there is NOTHING wrong with this DL—it's just the way it is: large flowers with short scapes.

I love the pink shade of this DL but I know I will eventually replace w/another pink with much taller scapes. It looks off next to my other DLs since they're all together.

Plant her in front, with some other shorties, it's nice to get some height layering.

We have some that started out being nice and tall big blooms, reaching stats and then in a few years they kinda don't meet the same stats.
Maybe because whatever garden we have gotten them from fertilized them up kinda like on steroids. They go through withdraws here we don't load up plants on fertilizer. Only once a year here. That's just our experience.

@Diggerofdirt That is logical and fits the biology of most plants. Plants cannot move once their seeds have sprouted in a spot. They cannot move to a location with better resources. Natural selection has given most plants the ability to adapt themselves to the resources available to them in their location. One result is that the same plant will look and act quite differently depending on how/where it is grown. If it has abundant resources it can grow faster, larger, have more scape branches, be taller, have more buds, possibly (or not) have larger flowers, etc.
One side effect of growing in a location with abundant resources is that the plant can increase more quickly. As a clump becomes larger and larger the fans within the clump compete with more and more neighbouring fans for the same resources. As that continues the new fans produced become smaller and all the associated characteristics decline from their previous values.
The end result can be that the more resources the daylily clump is given the more often it has to be divided to keep it at optimum height, flowering, bud counts, etc.

I should add that as a clump increases in size the fans closer to the outer edge of the clump suffer the least from the "self-competition" and therefore should have the "better" characteristics. Given enough time the fans near the centre of the clump can die and the clump becomes a ring. Given even more time, new fans may be able to re-invade the centre of the ring. I have a clump of Stella that had become a ring. It has not been divided in the last 25 years. It took less than 25 years for it to become a ring.

Absolutely. Funny story or not. Last year I was going to take my maw in law to doctor instead of my husband. She didn't want me to take her. She was mad at the thought of me taking her. It made me mad. So anytime I can get out my madness I go to weeding or do something to the garden. I moved all of my relief daylilies. None of them were doing really well. I planted them under a dogwood tree and everyone of them has sprung up and look healthier. Fans a lot bigger. Scapes healthier and taller. I honestly believe it depends on soil conditions. What they were in before was Alabama clay. The soil under the dogwood is rich dark soil. Easily dug. Unlike what they were in.
Also our friend told us to separate large clumps every few years so they won't choke each other out.