I absolutely *love* Halloween Green and it does well for me here in SE Michigan, zone 5b. I don't count buds, but there are always a LOT of them. One thing I will say that I noticed last year is the scapes are definitely taller than 24" here in my garden. One of my friends saw a picture I had of it with Pinewood Lily Pad which is next to it, and asked about the height when she compared the registered height of HG to PLP. So last fall I measured the scapes and this is what they were in my garden: scape heights were 33-36" on the three I measured - the other two I had cut to bring the pods in, in Oct. HG is on the north end of the big daylily bed and that is the end that is closest to the woods, with big oaks and hickorys - but it's certainly not under them. All the scapes on that end of the bed lean a bit toward the sun/south.
Edited to add: this is the pic with HG and PLP that I mentioned
