We have a patch of common orange day lilies that won't bloom. Lots of great foliage, but no blooms. They get plenty of sun and water, but they are probably 30+ years old. Should they still be blooming, or are they done.

I have daylilies around that age in the field behind my house, and they bloom profusely with no care whatsover. I also see them growing around the old farms in the area and they have certainly been there longer than 30 years, so I don't know why yours are not blooming Maybe you could try a light fertilizing. Maybe someone else has some ideas, as well.

I'd say what's your secret? I see so many old, large patches of H. fulva growing everywhere in my area, including my own place where I've got a patch of around 150-200 plants. From landscaped properties to around the foundation of a long gone house in the middle of the woods. I've planted them in areas that receive little sunlight and little more than coarse sand and they still perform decently. I've ripped them out of the ground, tossed them into the woods and had even those throw away plants survive, bloom, and spread.

They don't usually grow in very tight clumps like some other daylily cultivars do, but perhaps if the patch is large enough you could tear out little sections here and there. They should quickly get new fans showing up in those areas and may help promote blooms? Just guessing here, as it's certainly the one daylily I've never had poor bloom years with.

I have a patch that may be close to 100 years old. It is not blooming well and has been like that for many years. It is a very large patch and probably has fewer then 6 scapes per year.
As patches become larger the plants in the patch start to compete with each other for light, water, soil minerals, etc. As they do that, the fans become somewhat smaller. Flowering well depends on many things, but the size of the plant (in relation to its optimum size) is one of the most important.
If you want the plants to flower I would suggest fertilising them with a high nitrogen fertilizer. You could also thin the clump by removing a proportion of the smaller fans. If it is a large patch you might be able to remove a large proportion of the plants and open up some bare soil between the plants that are left.
It may take more than one year of regularly fertilizing the patch before flowering starts. How long will depend on the average size of the fans when you start fertilizing and how much you fertilize.

Had a patch that was about 20 years old, really slowed down on the blooming, thinned them out a lot, blooming back to normal. I never fertilize them.