'Hip to Be Square' was new in the gardens as of spring 2022, but did not produce its first blooms until summer 2023 (not unusual here for arrivals from the south, and this one came north from Florida).
Having its first summer to settle in and 'get its roots down' before our long northern winters is always a benefit for new arrivals, along with being planted into compost beds and mulched immediately upon arrival (holds moisture over dry summers and helps keep the weeds at bay). And it took to zone 3 northern winter like a duck to (frozen) water... so to speak. It bloomed well in 2023 for having been a newbie and still an immature plant.
And 2023 was not a good year for the gardens... the weather was out of sorts, the season swung from dry and cold to wet and cold - a lot of daylily photos with raindrops this past summer. It turned into a short season and many daylilies did not reach their usual height on scapes... likely due to weeks of heavy smoke from the northern Canada wildfires that settled over many of our gardens. From that perspective, I would give 'Hip to Be Square' a thumbs up for doing so well. It bloomed for almost three weeks and was consistently polymerous... including the day it threw a poly in 'double' form ... and 'double' is not its usual thing.
I was pleased with its performance, despite the 'off' year. I am very happy to discover it's cold-hardy, and consistently polys. As for multiplying and bud counts, taller scapes, and so forth... to be fair, I would need at least another summer to give it a good study. So far, it's on the right track.
