Over the years, I have learned to be EXTREMELY careful about planting daylilies grown SOUTH of here in the late fall. When I used to order regularly from the Stamiles and Luddy, I'd order but have them hold anything for spring shipping, and the plants always did fine! Plants grown in this climate or futher north usually do OK if planted by around 20th of October. But I did have to learn this lesson the hard way. The first time my garden was to be on Regional tour way back in 2005, I had a case of the last minute "hypers" the year before and ordered a bunch of new intros from Florida and other southern climes the fall before the Regional. ( which, stupidly, was too late for much impact, anyway but I've seen a lot of people on National/ Regional tours who do the same thing.) Big, big mistake!! I put them in around Mid-Oct. and then we had about a 40 degree temperature drop and hard freeze about a week later. I lost many, many expensive plants that year and have never done that since. It honestly surprised me to read on this thread that some of you north of here are successfully planting this late - hope you won't have a sudden cold snap anytime soon. We're cold here and no way is anything else going in before spring. I'm actually thinking about reinforcing the new ones just planted a bit more with a few more bags of mulch! That year we got the cold snap, I remember ( it was right before Ned Roberts passed away) he brought me one of his new intros from FL to Lilyhemmer, and I was so thrilled to get it! It froze in the cold snap, along with some of David's and Mort's new ones ( they were still in FL) and a bunch of new ones from the Stamiles and Luddy. Difficult lessson.

The second time the garden was on Regional tour ( 2012) I decided years in advance that I would NOT put anything new in after 2010 so that everything would be nice clumps. For the most part, I stuck to that.

After reading some of these posts, we decided to give the daylilies planted in
September some extra assistance with the low temps tonight.
So, they are covered with boxes and insulated heavy fabric.

Thanks to all for your input.

If it's of any help to anyone, one year I had to dig a few hundred lilies to work at eliminating the scourge of Houttuynia cordata 'Chameleon', and ran very short on pots. I put them in double plastic bags from the supermarket. They have survived and flowered...and I did win the war on the Houttuynia.

That was a lot of work, I'm sure, but glad you won the war!

Pirl!

Pirl. Haven't seen you around in quite awhile. I know you used to frequent DG quite a bit.

Pirl

I uncovered the newest daylilies, and they did not freeze.
Everything else looked frozen early this morning, but are
looking just fine now.

The low temp was 22 degrees.

Two nights ago we had 3" of wet heavy snow when I woke up the next morning. Our temps are ranging about 10 degrees below normal here in VT. for this time of year. I also saw many woolly caterpillars( red and black furry creepy crawlies) while blowing leaves and mulching my garden in the past 3 weeks, a sure sign of a very cold and snowy winter (so says the 'Farmer's Almanac'). So when I read, Char, you were still planting dl's 4 days ago, I gulped. To be on the safer side of our zone 4 short season, I never plant anything after the second week in September. I planted 6 new dl's in the beginning of September, mulched the heck out of them, but still worry that they had enough time to establish a strong enough root system. The irony of the weather here is that because we had such a warm couple of weeks in Oct, I still had dl's with rebloom scapes with buds only a week ago. Moral of this story in Vermont, is just 'wait 5 minutes' and watch the weather change dramatically! Hence, the snow and below freezing temps recently.

Welcome, Pirl

Thanks for the warm welcome, everyone. I'm a transplant from Cubits so hardly new and actually an oldie as compared to a newbie.

I am still "on the dark side" (the other place) Hemlady!

Now I see my error in the above post: I moved daylilies, not lilies. I'll be moving actual lilies later this year.

to the daylily forum Pirl!

Sorry for the shocker that I planted newly purchased daylilies outside a week ago here in Vermont. This is not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last. In all the years of planting late I have only lost one, a deep southern bred sev which I knew better than to purchase. While these plants were growing south of me, everything is grown south of me , they were not growing or hybridized in the deep south. The two plants are registered dormants, had good root systems, were planted in a micro climate on the protected south side of the house, in a bed with good garden soil and a few inches of leaves over top. I wished them well and can say with reasonable certainty I will see them growing in the spring..... If not, I will post notice of my own stupidity in the spring

* I do not recommend planting this late in the north *

Thanks, Char. I've seen your daylily tip and loved it. Makes all of us daylily lovers wonder why we didn't think of it long ago.

As they slowly go to sleep for the winter I've planted many and transplanted many more. The only ones I tended to lose were single fans - maybe they just grow stronger as they increase in size. I've lost more I kept in pots, in the dog's pen (shady), than those out in the sun. There is a price to "live and learn".

I'm in z 6, and I plant certain things, like iris and daylilies until the snow covers the ground. If you have good snow cover in the winter, I wold definitely go ahead and plant.

Ok, all you experts I've been reading this thread and have another question about what to do with daylilies acquired this late in the year. Can I just stuff them in pots and overwinter them on my enclosed back porch? Or would they be better off planted outdoors....except I don't have any beds for them at the moment?

I'm certainly not an expert but I do live in zone 7 so I'm sure others from your zone could advise you better than I.

Just looking for suggestions from people with more experience. Daylilies are fairly new to me.

Just curious, if anyone wants to chat online occasionally about daylilies, or gardening in general send me a friend request on Facebook. My full name is Teresa Barrow.