Hi all
Had second night of frost. Lilies are above ground, gonna lose a lot this year. Anyone else in norther tier of US get slapped by frost this week. Gonna make it a slow year for hybridizing. Probably won't lose any completely most are nice mature bulbs but it will slow my hybridizing down. The trumpets took a hit and martagons as well. Orientals not too big and OT's short too, maybe they made it. We will see over the next week what survived.
Eric

My usual last frost date is mid May. So not really late frost. But this year warm weather a month ago sped up emergence of lilies to the point I'm going to lose stems this year.

No problems in my garden, but then there rarely is, even when other lily growers in the area do. You may remember us Minnesota people talking before Judith's talk began at the ORLS meeting. I have always mulched to keep the cold in; now with climate change, I mulched my garden in late January this year.

I did wonder about the pots I had overwintering in the garage. Everything was going so well last fall outside, pots drying out, ready for storage, then just before temps dropped precipitously, we had an inch of rain in one day and I didn't get the pots sheltered so they got totally drenched. I was afraid they might rot. But so far so good. They sprouted earlier than the in ground lilies, yet no frost damage either. They are on a bench elevated 6 inches, and I had put a temporary rabbit fence around them just in case. During that last cold spell when we did have freezing weather, I did drape a bed sheet over the fencing just to keep the actual frost off (like Lorn used to do), but the wind had free reign underneath.
here they are now:

Oh, I didn't realize you had a such cold in the last day or so! It has only gotten down to 30°F here.

Eric, we had 29.3 F two days ago. I am sorry to hear about your lilies. Several lilies turned to mush. I can almost count on it these days with the warmer winters, the ground not as cold, and things coming up earlier and further along. I have too many areas to treat here with the water mister freezing and slow morning thaw. I am used to some disappointment this way every year. I will also add that it is a great way to evaluate seedlings. If they survive these weather lows, it is an excellent quality.

Eric always has lots of snow compared to us in MN and and the southern half of WI. His ground always stays warmer: even more unfortunate for him.

I'll evaluate the gardens during the week. a lot of my blackhearts took a hit. Thank god I scaled them fall 2021. Those pots are sheltered so they didn't get frosted as hard.
Eric