Maurice, I knew that they would slow down in the middle first, but never expected such great bloom and rebloom toward the edges. What you said made sense though, in that there was no competition for them. Nothing else was planted near those two clumps, and they were probably planted two feet apart originally, but almost touching with I dug them out. They came with the house, so I don't know how long they had been there, but the previous owner said they had been there a long time. The house is about 16 years old, so they aren't any older than that. I suspect that they weren't as old as the house. What a job it was to get them out of the ground! I almost got the tractor out to lift the clumps!
