Jan, I have a mix of mostly dormant, semi-evergreen but also several evergreen, they have survived my very cold long winters just fine by going dormant, they don't grow as fast as the others though.

At this point spring will be pretty late arriving this year. I am curious which will survive and what doesn't. And to me, it doesn't matter if I get no blooms on some this year, as long as they survive.

According to the news, we had 99 days in a row of snow cover. That should protect the plants in a normal winter, but our frost line Is much deeper than usual.

Heck, I even lost some dormants last year, when we had good snow cover but more moderate temperatures. It's a fact of life here, and it doesn't help that I like to push the ranges a bit.

I am just anxious for some sun and spring like temperatures......

@philljm, I will be pushing some ranges too but I guess it is best not to experiment with expensive daylilies. I think I will put the good ones in big pots this year till they get bigger. Also, if it gets really cold or wet I can bring them into the garage, at this point it would be pushing my own range if I have to carry in 50 pots, so I must not buy any more!! I love what I have though, it's been a great year for me.

edit to change name from jan to philljm. sorry!

I also have all three types of dormancy here in my Minnesota garden, we have had a lot of snow cover this season. The weather people were talking about how deep the ground froze they said it was deeper than normal. Good portions of my garden are still snow covered the temp here today is 15 degrees so it will be awhile before I know how my dayliles endured this winter.

It is 70° here today, and I have things that are sprouting. I have one that sprouted and then got frosted on so he is not happy! Tomorrow we get cold again, back into the 30's.

philljm said:EVERY daylily I own is currently dormant. They are all brown and looking dead. It will be interesting to see what survived this winter, with the almost record breaking deep frost, frigid temps, and ice build up on top of snow. Not a bit of green anywhere - not even the grass, except for some hardy Forget Me Nots peeking up right against the east side of the house.

And even though I am in Wisconsin, I have almost an equal mixture of dormants, semi-evergreens and evergreens. Plus I have some seedlings I am trying to identify the foliage, and am still not sure what to call them. Perhaps I can call them "dormant when the winter is frigid"

Spring, if it ever arrives, will tell. ~Jan

For what it's worth, and because I can enable with the best of them, I had a lot of success overwintering plants in pots on my unheated porch. They were inside from around November 1 and they aren't going out until later this week. I gave them ~500mL of water around the beginning of December and nothing until (the pots were frozen solid most of the time) last weekend when they all got some snow that would slowly melt down into the pots. I've got new growth starting on everything out there. I was really nervous with how cold it was this year but this experiment has been a success for me.

My evergreens didn't go dormant however......The problem I am finding with my plants this year is that they all decided to sink themselves. Well, not all but a majority of them did. I have been keeping an eye out on the pots (since these are the sell plants and a lot are sold) and they started growing again when we warmed up and seemed to be doing ok. I noticed that some of them started turning yellow on the outer leaves and the middle seemed to stop growing; I figured it was due to the days we'd get into the low 30s after having high 70 weather. After they seemed to be getting worse I got to looking closer and found that they have sunk themselves halfway down into the soil. I have never had this happen and always plant them the same way so it had nothing to do with how I planted them; we plant them with the soil just barely covering the roots because we know they can settle into the soil. Anyway, I assume these plants did not like the sleet/snow freeze (it actually got down to around 8° with the wind chill) we had and they tried to hide from it; the sleet/snow didn't melt for 3 days

I got a late start working on them today because my granddaughter has a bug that's going around but tomorrow will be a full day of digging them out. When I was doing it today I was digging the soil from around the plants and was scooping out half of the soil. These are in 2 gallon pots and the plants were pretty much all the way at the top (with a little room to be able to pick the up around the rim) when planted in the fall. They pulled themselves halfway down into the pots and that is not good; it's a good way for them to rot

I would have much rather had them all go dormant!!!!

I had the worst winter ever as far as daylily mortality goes. I grow most of mine in small pots (10-12") and they have overwintered outside in different semi-sheltered spots for years. After this winter only those that were in the warmest spot (facing west) have a decent return rate. Even there I lost my 4 year old Dutch Yellow Truffle. Didn't seem to matter whether the daylilies were listed as D, Sev, or Evs. We usually only get into the teens, but this year we had many, many days of single digit temperatures, our lowest being 3. In ground daylilies seem to be unaffected. I'm wondering how Dot's pots in Texas did. She uses bigger pots and is further south then I am, so will be interested if she had any damage at all......Maryl

I have some out in the new bed that look like they sunk. I keep starring at them thinking, 'no it can't be', but maybe so...I was wondering what to do. I was thinking the stuff under them must have decomposed or something. LOL. I am scratching my head, I wish they were in pots!!

Susan, it sound like the new soil has settled causing them to sink a little. Instead of potting up your plants you should put them in the ground asap. I believe that will give them a better chance to survive. The only exception is the ones you receive in the late fall. All of mine go in the ground regardless. I saw some green out there today.

Mike they were in the ground....

I was wondering if the roots shrunk because it was so cold, do you ever have that problem Mike?

I was talking about the ones you potted up.
The winter will wreak havoc on newly planted plants. They will recover. Trust Me!

Well...we never got this cold before. My daylilies that are in pots are fine (except for the ones that rotted), but Michele's sank. I was rotating mine with the ones on the steel shelf and the ones on the picnic table so they could dry out between rain storms. I was playing musical pots all winter. LOL. I do not know why my new bed sank but I will just dig them up and add more soil one at a time, it will give me a chance to add more alfalfa and milorganite. Can you think of anything else? They are in a place where they should grow rapidly, they will get over six hours of morning sun till it goes behind the house, that was one reason for planting them there next to the road. LOL.

That will be a lot of work with all the plants you planted. I would just remove some of the soil off the top. Disturbing them could set them back. If you are going to dig then try and get all the soil with the root ball.

Yeah, that would be good. I can get DH to help lift up the whole root ball and I can pour good soil under them. They will be fine at their location they will grow real good. Also planing on adding alfalfa, I heard a hosta grower say that the alfalfa will feed hostas for four years, I wonder how long it would last with the daylilies. It does a lot for the soil too so maybe every fall would be good. I have the pellets. Should I mix them with the soil or just throw them around the garden?

I was noticing that I planted some of my new daylilies very shallow, some of the white roots are showing above the ground. But, I intended to plant them shallow because the soil is so boggy there, but I did not intend to plant them quite that shallow, maybe they will actually pull themselves down and I won't have to bother with putting more soil around them.

It's raining again...talk about boggy there? Try boggy everywhere! I should have named this thread.. 'All my evergreen daylilies rotted'. LOL...

Sorry it's 28 with lake effect snow flurries here...

ETA: I'm a little worried about RED BULL. I added it early last fall and right now it's looking the worst of everything.

Oh dear, Red Bull would not have been cheap. Good luck James. I have one coming.

I have a single fan coming in spring from Mljomo. It was expensive but not as much as buying a DF.

@JWWC, is your plant outside?