beckygardener said:That leads me to believe the bigger and more mature the plant, the more blooms?
Yes.
For most plant species, the larger the plant, the more flowers. Sometimes, also the larger the plant, the larger the flowers. I suspect that also the larger the fan the more likely it is to rebloom (given all other necessary factors for rebloom).
For daylilies the basic plant is a fan. As the plant increases in size it is more likely to produce new fans and develop into a clump. Plant species that produce 'clumps' can operate in two different ways. One way is that the fans in the clump can cooperate and share resources (for example, water or manufactured food) because they are joined. In the other way, fans in the clump compete with each other for resources (for example, they can shade each other and compete for light). For daylilies, small clumps probably have a majority of fans cooperating while for large clumps the balance may be tilted to fans competing with each other. Competitiion will act to decrease bud counts, etc.
So, the larger the fan the more buds and flowers. This will be limited by the inherited fan size that each cultivar can reach. Fans (for example, newly sprouted seedlings) have to grow to a certain size (more or less) where they are mature and can then flower. The first scape is unlikely to have the highest possible number of flowers. The number of flowers is likely to increase as the fan grows larger (older). Under some growing conditions it may take many years for a fan to reach its maximum mature size. For example, in their natural growing regions and conditions daylilies might not ever reach their maximum possible sizes. In some growing conditions it might be possible for a daylily to reach its maximum potential size in one year. That would require optimum growing conditions (a very long growing season, optimum temperatures, optimum water, fertilizer, sunlight, weeding, no pod setting, etc.).
As a clump increases in size (number of fans) it will probably have a size with the highest average bud count but then as the clump continues to increase the average bud count per fan is likely to decrease. Some fans (perhaps those near rhe outside of the clump) may have higher budcounts than those in other parts of the clump. Then it is time to divide the clump. Depending on growing location and conditions clumps may need to be divided frequently to get maximum growth, flowering, increase, etc.
