I have had performance issues with several daylilies, but I hate to mention them by name, because there are so many factors that could affect it. First, many daylilies do not do well their first year with me in my Zone 4 garden. I've learned not to expect much. Sometimes they don't look anything like the pictures. They're short, few blooms, crappy branching. But by the second, and definitely third year (the "magic year" IMO) without moving, they usually perk up and do well. I had trouble with a number of daylilies from two sellers on the LA - they either didn't bloom the first year, or never increased well - and I later learned those sellers use BAP. So I don't buy from them. Both my mentors, experienced hybridizers, have cautioned me against tet conversions for a number of reasons, so I have avoided them. Finally, some southern bred plants are just iffy here in Maine. If I buy them at all, I get them from a northern grower who has already determined that they are winter hardy. (I learned this after losing several southern intros my first year.) Once in a while I take a flyer on one I really love, knowing it's a risk. I bought a beautiful recent intro from the hybridizer in the deep South for spring delivery. I figured at least I could use its pollen that first summer, even if it died the next winter. Well, it grew all summer, but never bloomed (it had arrived plenty early, before bloom time in AL) and then it died the next winter. So I got no pollen, no nothin'. $50 down the hole. The hybridizer had sent a bonus, another intro of his, and that one has increased and bloomed its head off for a couple years now, so you can never know for sure. I will say that I have noticed many famous intros that have very meager branching and bud count (not just here, but in more southern gardens I've seen) and I have one where the foliage after bloom is so crappy I can't believe the hybridizer introduced it. So, seeing them in person, in a local garden, before you buy is your very best bet, if you're able to do that.
