I love early and late blooming daylilies and now that I have so many, I don't have a "peak" bloom. From a hybridizer's standpoint in zone 7, it is easier to produce seeds on the early and late blooming ones because the weather is cooler for the earlies for making the cross and seedpods mature better on the lates because seeds are developing during cooler weather. With heatwaves three years in a row, it became very difficult to set seedpods during the mid-season or mature viable seeds in the heat.
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There are advantages and disadvantages to both. For earlies, bud count and branching can be affected by cold springs in the north. But you have a greater chance of seeing rebloom with your shorter growing season if the first round of bloom comes early. Other disadvantages...if you live where gall midge is a problem, the earlies are the ones that are most affected. And if you are a hybridizer, you have to remember to carry over some frozen pollen from last year, or you'll find yourself with only one or two of these first bloomers with no fresh pollen to use!
Lates and very lates.... these are my favorites because I have a long season and have plenty of time to ripen seedpods. But for northern hybridizers, the shorter growing season can make it impossible to mature seedpods before a killing freeze. Add the reblooming earlies and mid-season and peak bloom goes right into fall in a variety of colors. Very lates are pure joy! The foliage is lush and green when everything else is looking beat up by the summer heat and showing dead scapes and die back of outer leaves.
