Very cool, Sue. Thanks for the detailed explanation. Those pictures are crazy awesome!
I had assumed when I was told that water was important, that we were talking about that 2.5 to 3.5 week period when the scapes were increasing in mass. When they were going from the "oh, look, those aren't leaves. It's a scape!" phase to when starts (or finishes?) blooming. Last year was a good example for me, as it was very dry in July. I documented declines in branching and bloom counts in far more plants than any previous year, as well as more dropped buds.
Not very scientific, so I could easily be wrong, I guess.
My other point wasn't well made, and that's that if Larry's performance stats are off this year, there are other factors besides the foliage that could be impacting it, so it's hard to say what he should expect.
