Thank you, Larry. You are most kind. I am the southern-most daylily grower in the state of Louisiana and actually, my growing conditions are more in line with Tampa, FL. I can count on one hand the number of dormants that have survived over the years. 'Grey Witch' (Reed, 1999) is one, but acts as an evergreen here. 'Willow' (Russell, 1960) has also done very well. It dies back to the ground but has not failed to emerge again. There are a couple of other dormants that have done well, but I can't recall at the moment which ones.
Sadly, even semi-evergreens may be iffy here. If they lean more to the dormant side, they will generally die (some die quickly, others dwindle or they may even last longer than two years), but I don't know unless I try to grow them and this is where the trickiness come in. If they lean more toward the evergreen side, they will generally be just fine, but it's a true gamble... I've lost many, many semi-evergreens.
When I first started with daylilies almost twenty years ago, I didn't pay attention to dormancy, either. The trial and error method has been costly but I eventually learned that growing conditions here are too extreme for daylilies that must have a rest period. Dormant daylilies will usually live one season, maybe two, but I can almost always count on them either disappearing entirely or struggle with dwindling to the point of death because they are in a constant state of growth. Because of this, dormants do not get the rest they need. It is not the fault of the cultivar. It's my fault for trying to grow a plant that is not suited for here. I stopped trying to grow dormants years ago or they are treated as throw-away plants.
It's my understanding that some cultivars go dormant because of temperature drops. Others go dormant because of shortened daylight hours. I would suggest that those dormants that respond to shortened days would have a better chance at survival in your zone that those that are temperature sensitive. I wish I could give you a few suggestions, but since I avoid all dormants if I can, I am less than useless in that department.
There is a school of thought that embraces adding dormants to evergreen lines. This may be a dandy idea, but I probably don't have the amount of time left on earth to see how well that would work out for me.
In summary, trying to grow dormant daylilies has been an abysmal failure for me.
