Michele - Thank you for confirming what I am seeing. I know I wasn't losing my mind or imagining things! LOL!
I will have to pay attention to the scapes on my partial shade daylilies. So far, I haven't noticed any difference in the bloom factor from last year to this year on any of those plants that bloomed again this year. They are not in deep shade and do get a few hours of direct sun each day and the rest of the day is filtered sunlight from the Oak tree. I was really impressed with how nice they look this year! I always thought that once they had rust, they would always have rust. But apparently that is not necessarily true. Healthy and happy daylilies can better fight off or cope with fungus, diseases, and pests. I think extreme heat is the real factor in my yard, not so much just sunlight. When the temps are cooler in late Winter, the daylilies all around my yard looked good, but as soon as the temps began rising to 85+, that is when I started noticing the rust on the full sun daylilies. I always thought that daylilies were able to cope with heat and drought ... but that does not mean they will cope well. They just don't necessarily die right away from those conditions. It does weaken them and make them more susceptible to pathogens and pests. Which in turn may be what actually causes their demise.
