It was probably not the best chance to take, but I had to take it anyway. I really wanted to test 'Kushi Maya', the hybrid that came from Hyde, through Faraway Flowers, to see if she was hardy to zone 5. I planted the lily in a raised bed with ample amounts of compost mixed in the soil. Instead of fully preparing it for Winter like I had planned, it ended up having less than 1 cm. of mulch over the top. Seems I fell way behind and really took my chance here

Last year, Spring planted, 'Kushi Maya' was one of the last to come through. Last week, I started to get nervous, I dug around a bit, and didn't see a thing. Then arrived the 80 degree weather on Tuesday, and up she came. Ya-hoo! Hardy to Zone 5! Thought I would share the good news!

Mags you had me scared as I started reading your post! Can't wait to see photos!

Oh! I didn't mean to scare you, I was just running through my thought processes. They are kind of pessimistic thoughts now, aren't they?

I recall Ramona saying that it was temp tested into the 30's. I think we got down to -20.

We'll see how she does when she blooms.

Now that is good, useful information. I know orientals don't like extreme cold and nepalense doesn't like winter wet (my problem with nepalense). It sure looks like it will be hardy!

Also of note, nepalense failed the winter here on one try. Orientals do alright, especially the ones that were Buggy -bred. They must have a secret gene

What do you figure was your coldest temp last winter? You had a good snow cover didn't you?

I think the lowest was -20 F. I can double check on an official number. The coldest temp did happen with snow cover, but we had cold with little to no snow cover over that time too. You might recall me worrying about that....

Useful information! Thank you

I usually say that people who ever so gently dig to find a shoot have way too much time on their hands, and are the truly obsessed. Maybe for Kushi Maya I'll make an exception.

It's hard to know what was the temp of the soil where the bulb was when it was 20 below. (Now you try making a sentence without a comma and three was's.) If I remember right, here in Minnesota we were actually about 5 degrees warmer at that time, but still with no snow. However, when we did get a thick blanket of the white stuff, the frost came out of the ground in many areas here. So the cold must not have penetrated that deeply here. What's that mean? I dunno.