Mike, your yard, sorta resembles mine!

I've never tried growing lilies in containers, but plan to give it a try this year. My only concern is over-wintering them. We get some pretty cold weather in the winter. I'd have to put them in the garage, but it's not an attached garage and isn't heated, and it gets pretty darn cold in there sometimes. Anybody have any experience/tips over-wintering containers of them in zone 4 or so?

I've red (and practice) you should use pots deep enough to emulate depth suggested in ground. Most of my pot lilies are the shortys.

I have grown lilies in containers many years now. I like having them on the deck and I usually use bulk bags I get from Costco. They is reasonably priced and have a pretty good track record for me for being correct. I can then at the end of season donate to local gardens or neighbors or evaluate if it is yard worthy. Lol. Sometimes I'll keep one or two from a pot to locate in the yard, depending on what I have room for when the time comes and how excited I was about the lily. Our deck faces North, so there is less super hot sun, allowing the pots do better. Having tried a few different mixtures, the moisture retaining ones are one NOT to dry. Lilies hate that wetness. A local place near here has a very little peat (if any at all) mix that I use for both seed starting and pots and have success with both. The mix comes from some place in Illinois and the woman that owns the greenhouse said she has tried so many mixes for her thousands of plants greenhouse over years, and had the greatest success with it.

Overall, lilies hate pots I think. I have had rapid multiplication of asiatic lilies in pots, not all but some. It is as if they think I am killing them and they go nuts producing bulblets. Put them in the yard, same lily, little to no reproduction. Also the bulbs seem to shrink just a bit from spring to summer. I don't really care though. I still love the orientals next to my sliding door on the deck, so I can smell them in the house for weeks as they bloom. There's nothing like it. Mmmmmmmmm.

Thank you both for your input. I will definitely give it a go this year.

I usually start them inside too. It gives them a little extra time and they end up blooming before my regular orientals. So it actually makes the season longer. Deeper pots are better. It helps also support the stem, if that makes sense. Too heavy and too tall in small pot equal disaster

I've got lots of big deep pots. Probably about 18-24" diameter and at least 18" tall. They should work. Would be fun the have early orientals!

Regarding planting depth in pots versus in the ground: remember that the deeper you go in a pot, the less drainage capacity there is, even if you use the same soil composition throughout. This is due to the capillary action aided by gravity that pulls water downward. (Remember the ubiquitous sponge test.) I would never plant the base of a lily bulb below 1.5 inches. Lilies that don't produce copious stem roots need extra room below the bulb to grow roots. In a pot, for these lilies, soil above the bulb serves only for moisture retention, cooling and stability of the plant in the pot.

I grow lots of lilies in pots, although usually they are younger (up to their first year blooming) because most often they are from seed. Every winter here in zone 4, all my potted materials stay outside, under a loose tarp that is "sealed" only after the ground freezes deeply and temperatures stay well below freezing. This was the last week of November 6+ years ago, and the first or second week of December in the last 5 years.

This current winter is so ridiculously warm that all my pots are still in the garage. The soil and weather has not gotten cold enough to ensure that no freeze thaw cycles would occur under the tarp, so I have not placed them outside since under the tarp moisture can condense with temp fluctuations and cause even worse problems than colder temperature might (I have a lot of cactus and alpine plants that can perish in wet cold.)

I just went out and looked in the garage, and I have some martagon bulbs and Lilium davidii (an asiatic) bulbs out of the soil in plastic bags. They were extras I was planning on bringing inside to the fridge to sample taste test. It so happens that I have a min/max thermometer a few feet away. the lowest temperature reads 12 F. The temp now is 38 F, and the bulbs are perfectly fine.

I have Aurelian (trumpet and L. henryi crosses) seedling - sprouted in 2011 - also in the garage, many with evergreen leaves (probably because they are young). These are situated within a foot in front of the two car garage door that opens at least twice a day. I don't have a thermometer there, but I would expect it to be at least five degrees F colder. Judging from the still green foliage, plants are just fine.

Of course, depending on the type of lily, all will not be a cold hardy. Orientals, I would expect, would be more cold sensitive.

Thanks for the great information! I've printed everything out and will keep it handy.

Our past several winters have been really warm too. At least last year we had a lot of snow, but didn't even have that this year. I see my heuchera and sempervivum had a lot of heaving problems with all the freeze/thaw cycles this winter.

This heaving thing, I just don't get. i am 53, have been growing plants since I was in grade school, and I have never EVER had a plant heave.

Heaving is quite common down this way, especially for Rudbeckias, fortunately, their ubiquitous nature assures their longevity in the garden. Lilies' depth in soil usually preclude their susceptibility to heaving in my garden. If I recall correctly, heaving was the causative agent responsible for the demise of several Foxtail Lilies (Eremurus) I once proudly grew ..