The bulbs, roots, and crowns in dark plastic bags are back on the shelf at my local Walmart. Spring will soon be here!

I have never bought any daylilies in bags. I will admit that I wait months later for some of the bulbs that are bagged plants to be clearanced. But have never purchased daylily crowns/roots. You can not see inside the bags because they are dark green or black. So I was feeling around the bag to try to determine how big the plant roots/crown were. And I could feel some roots and what I suspected was leaves. So I took a chance at $5 per bag (which includes 3 crowns with roots) and bought 2 different cultivars.

I purchased Frosted Vintage Ruffles and Final Touch. Both are dormants, but I have several daylilies listed as dormants and they have done well here after 2 years. For $5 each bag of 3 plants, I figured it wasn't too much money wasted if they didn't survive and thrive.

Here is what was in the bags. I have them in plastic containers soaking in SuperThrive and Spring Water:

Frosted Vintage Ruffles


Final Touch


Has anyone else here ever purchased these bagged daylilies from places like Walmart? If so, how did your plants do and did they appear to be the correct cultivar?

FYI - The leaves seen in the above post are white because the 6 plants were enclosed inside dark bags. I am sure they will green up in a couple of days in semi-shade outside in pots.

I suppose it's worth a try if you wanted those cultivars. Unfortunately, my experience with many bagged plants is that they are often not true to name. Some are also tissue cultured and thus not so reliable.

Becky : )
I bought a set of bagged daylilies a few years ago. I'd grown some other bare-roots so I chanced it- not knowing enough about daylilies to worry about what I was doing. I soaked them for a couple of hours before I planted them and figured I was only out a couple of bucks if they didn't make it. I planted them first in a spot that didn't get enough sun- they grew but didn't bloom. I moved them to a sunnier spot two years ago. I kinda forgot about them until this summer when they all bloomed. Even had rebloom scapes. I wish I had kept the tag (any ID ideas anyone?)

Little Purple NOID


I'm sure you'll have success with your bagged babies : )

Becky, when I first started growing daylilies I bought several of the bagged ones from walmart. I had great success growing them, they thrived. The only problem was I don't recall any of them being true to name. I have gotten rid of most of them, but I do still have quite a few that are now labeled with the common name found in my garden NOID!

Thanks, y'all!

I got them potted up and they are good size fans, so maybe I'll see some blooms this year. I couldn't resist and bought 1 more bagged daylily cultivar. "Night Beacon" photo is lovely, so I couldn't resist for another $5. Unfortunately, I didn't check out the stats on it and now I see that it is highly susceptible to rust. Oh well. Maybe I can use it for breeding with another cultivar that is rust resistant to get something unique.

We shall see if they come true to cultivar. I wonder how you can tell if they are grown from tissue cultures?

Interestingly, most of the cultivars that they sell in bags are listed as fast multipliers, so maybe they are not grown from tissue cultures. I hope not.

The one downside I've noted so far ..... being in those small dark bags, the leaves have started to grow on most of the crowns which are causing the leaves to be curved and distorted because of being upsidedown in the bags.

Becky, I'll be interested to know what your Night Beacon turns out to be. That is one I remember buying, then looking it up and seeing it had a rust rating of 4.9. Then actually being relieved when it turned out to not be Night Beacon!

I will keep you posted, Larry!

I bought a few of them myself when I first started with daylilies. Not one of them was the correct daylily, but they all did good. None were even close to the correct color, either. Now, if they were free, I wouldn't take them! I've had the same problem with iris, but I'm not as picky about iris, and I've got some beautiful iris, but I have no idea which iris they are.

Well .... should we take bets on whether any of these bagged daylilies will be the correct cultivars?

I bought 3. Perhaps 1 or 2 or even 3 will turn out to be the correct cultivar? Or none?

This shall be interesting .... I will post photos here when they bloom to get everyone's opinion.

None of mine were correct, and I probably bought 5 or 6 bags. They weren't even pretty. I hope you have better luck!

Picked up a couple of these today, Becky.
Naughty Red & Dream Legacy

I'll add pictures later.

Edited to add photos,

Ya'll are making me jealous
I've got months! before I can get back into the garden...

Stan - It will be interesting to see if they bloom true to the cultivar. I am sure hoping so!

It is a very cheap way for me to get some nice older cultivars, if they do turn out to be the actual cultivar.

I saw Dream Legacy at my Walmart, but I have several that look similar, so I passed that one up. I missed the opportunity to get Bela Lugosi as they were sold out when I went back to the store a week later. Someone must have bought most of them. Probably for a garden area.

Becky, I agree. Picked up Crimson Pirate that way last year. A very inexpensive way to get a few more. Worst case, the extras make great gift exchanges, or something to add around a mailbox planting etc...

Stan thanks for jarring my memory, I went back and checked my plant list and sure enough Crimson Pirate was one I bought as a little dried up root and crown from Walmart. I also got it as a bonus from G.H.Wild, I have several clumps of it now, so I don't know for sure which clump came from which original source. It does very well here and photographs beautifully!

ShakespearesGarden said:Becky : )
I bought a set of bagged daylilies a few years ago. I'd grown some other bare-roots so I chanced it- not knowing enough about daylilies to worry about what I was doing. I soaked them for a couple of hours before I planted them and figured I was only out a couple of bucks if they didn't make it. I planted them first in a spot that didn't get enough sun- they grew but didn't bloom. I moved them to a sunnier spot two years ago. I kinda forgot about them until this summer when they all bloomed. Even had rebloom scapes. I wish I had kept the tag

Little Purple NOID


I'm sure you'll have success with your bagged babies : )

Diana, your NOID looks like Purple De Oro. I had a few that multiplied quickly.

@Pat236: Thanks for the ID idea! I hadn't scrolled down to catch that is thread had a new entry. I'll see if the flower changes this year, but Purple D' Oro is probably correct...

beckygardener said:The bulbs, roots, and crowns in dark plastic bags are back on the shelf at my local Walmart. Spring will soon be here!

I have never bought any daylilies in bags. I will admit that I wait months later for some of the bulbs that are bagged plants to be clearanced. But have never purchased daylily crowns/roots. You can not see inside the bags because they are dark green or black. So I was feeling around the bag to try to determine how big the plant roots/crown were. And I could feel some roots and what I suspected was leaves. So I took a chance at $5 per bag (which includes 3 crowns with roots) and bought 2 different cultivars.

I purchased Frosted Vintage Ruffles and Final Touch. Both are dormants, but I have several daylilies listed as dormants and they have done well here after 2 years. For $5 each bag of 3 plants, I figured it wasn't too much money wasted if they didn't survive and thrive.

Here is what was in the bags. I have them in plastic containers soaking in SuperThrive and Spring Water:

Frosted Vintage Ruffles


Final Touch


Has anyone else here ever purchased these bagged daylilies from places like Walmart? If so, how did your plants do and did they appear to be the correct cultivar?

I did an experiment with these walmart bagged daylily plants a few years ago. I bought 15 different ones and planted them all. They all grew, but slowly. Some took 2 seasons to see their first blooms. Not a single one was what it was supposed to be. One looked close, but the ploidy was wrong. Of the 15, 8 ended up a being a plain yellow. 5 were a red spider type (think crimson pirate) and 2 were pink with a darker pink eyezone.

Also...Night Beacon and Final Touch were both cultivars I had picked up from Walmart. Neither were even close.

I considered filing a complaint with the BBB but never did. I happens so often that there is no way I believe this to be some mistake. These companies are deliberately deceiving people. (Though, I don't think walmart is actually responsible, but the company listed on the fine print of the packaging).


I'm pretty much 100% positive that this goes way beyond daylillies and affects many other plant type sold this way in the big box stores like spring bulbs (daffs, tulips, etc), lily bulbs, bare root bagged hostas, etc.