TECHNY SPIDER (and some of the other Reckamp daylilies) are very finicky plants. They come from a very inbred line and some seem to thrive only in zone 5. TECHNY SPIDER grew great for me when I lived in Michigan, but after I moved to zone 7, the size of the fans decreased year after year until I had to eliminate it from my garden. RUFFLED STRAWBERRY PARFAIT lives here but doesn't have nearly the scape height or branching. It's something to think about if you are a hybridizer because you want to produce daylilies that will live in many differing climates, not just one. I moved four siblings from a cross of TECHNY SPIDER X JUILIE NEWMAR down to North Carolina and 3 of them did the same thing.....dwindled down to nothing before I discarded them. Instead of using Reckamp cultivars, I'm more inclined to use Roy Klehm's. He's had use of the Reckamp line for many years and the Reckamp genetics are in his lines so he has already done the legwork in sorting the weak from the strong in the next generations. The Klehm cultivars are hardy, vigorous plants that increase quickly here.
