We have our only addition garage sale in early may and many of my daylily do start blooming until mid to late June. I have some fans planted away from the main clump and would like to pot these for sale if i get any buyers.
So has anyone does this before with good success or would that ruin any chance of blooming for the year? I plan on giving them generous dirt amount as well and not just bare fans.

Potting them now would not effect them blooming if they will survive the winter in your area being potted. Hopefully someone in your zone will chime in on overwintering daylilies in pots.

I am not a big pot fan but that is just me. You can wait until Spring and as they come up divide and pot them. I think the freeze is what gets a lot of them in winter.

A local nursery wants me to pot up several for her but if I do it will be next Spring.

I have had good success with overwintering seedlings in pots. I have a spruce tree in my yard and I take all of the pots, lay them on their side under the spruce tree, and take a bag of mulch and completely cover them. Out of about 7 pots, I only lost one. I usually do this in late October or early November, depending on the weather. I like to wait till it at least gets consistently cold. Don't want them covered up if the temps get too warm.

Some daylily sellers "dig on demand", only digging the plant if someone wants to buy it on the spot. They cut back the foliage but leave the scapes, if any. That stops the plant going into transplant shock from inability to effectively transpire and thus the scapes survive. But I'm not sure if you're thinking of potting them before winter or after? I've moved and divided daylilies in spring before they normally flower and they still flowered. If you do it early enough before the leaves have grown much then it's easier, but you can do it later as long as you don't leave the leaves long enough that they wilt. I haven't tried it, but keeping them in pots over winter would be harder on them in theory. When I've had potted daylilies late in the season that I wanted to leave outdoors I've sunk the pots in the ground and they've been fine, that buffers them from the temperatures. The only time I've had them not flower was when I've brought them indoors for the winter, then they often don't flower the following summer - assuming the fan size is sufficient for flowering in the first place.

Sue, yes EARLY is key for them to bloom. I don't like for them to be up over a couple inches.

Hemlady, hmm I have about 50 seedlings that need a home. They are crosses from RGS. I really need to get busy and make me a new seedling bed.

I find that trying to over-winter daylilies in pots is hazardous to their well-being. I had many cultivars die one year when I tried sinking the pots in the ground. I have had a number of daylilies in pots above ground over many winters but each year the number of survivors has dwindled by about 10 to 15 percent. Winter kill may not be the only reason they have dwindled. I do think that for a plant to survive winter in a large pot it needs to be substantially hardier than the zone in which it is growing.

How large a pot, Maurice? When I've wintered them sunk in the ground they wouldn't have been large pots (typically the size retailers sell them in) and the plants were well established in those pots.

Its nice to know others have had success over wintering in pots but i think i will dig on demand as long as i can make a sign big enough for people to notice and i can also provide photos of starts i am selling.
As i am sure all of you know the weather can be unpredictable just about anywhere so there is no telling how far my plants will have progressed in growing or if scapes will even be up on ones for sale. I think all of mine for sale are mid season bloomers. If it turns really warm early here like one year we skipped our spring and went right into summer than scapes could be up and trimming the foliage back seems the wise thing to do and something i never thought of.

sooby said:How large a pot, Maurice? When I've wintered them sunk in the ground they wouldn't have been large pots (typically the size retailers sell them in) and the plants were well established in those pots.

The plants arrived in August and were put into pots dependent on the size of the plant, especially the crown and roots. The pot diameters would have been from 6 to 9 inches.

admmad said:
The plants arrived in August and were put into pots dependent on the size of the plant, especially the crown and roots. The pot diameters would have been from 6 to 9 inches.

That's not much different from what I used although I think they would have been less than 9". I do have one currently outside in a pot sunk in the ground that has been there for several years and it is in a pot nearer to 9". It did flower this year too. When I've done this before, and it's years ago now, it would most likely have been with plants I purchased potted, at least some of them from local daylily sellers so they wouldn't have been shipped.

I don't know why it would have worked for me and not you, unless it has to do with the origin of the plants, and/or the media used, and/or winter rainfall frequency or amount, and/or difference in native soil. It is sandy loam here, am I correct in thinking you're on clay?

My seedlings were sown directly in the pots in early spring and grew all summer in the pots. Tipping the pots over prevents melting snow from saturating the dirt and then freezing, which can kill the plants. My seedlings were small, maybe 4 to 5" in height and did just fine but you must cover them thoroughly with mulch. I used a whole bag.

sooby said:When I've done this before, and it's years ago now, it would most likely have been with plants I purchased potted, at least some of them from local daylily sellers so they wouldn't have been shipped.

I don't know why it would have worked for me and not you, unless it has to do with the origin of the plants, and/or the media used, and/or winter rainfall frequency or amount, and/or difference in native soil. It is sandy loam here, am I correct in thinking you're on clay?

The plants were shipped from the U.S.; it was a substantial order and I lost nearly all of them. It was when I was in Georgetown, unreliable snow cover but fairly good topsoil (triple mix added to what the builder left as topsoil - which was not high in clay) in that particular bed. The plants would have been protected by a cedar hedge on one edge of the bed.