What you did was great, Mike. Well done. Those daylilies would have trouble getting established amongst a bunch of tree roots.
But, will they get enough sun where you planted them? The one in the pot is easily moved, but the other one that you built the little raised bed for, I hope the tree isn't shading it too much?
Also, how big is the pot you put the other one in? Daylilies grow very large root systems with thick roots and rhizomes that will send up next year's flowers. They need quite a bit of elbow room to grow well into a clump.
As far as the tangled roots, the thing to do is just to untangle and loosen the root ball as delicately as you can with your fingers (or chop sticks work well too) before planting, and spread the roots out so they are more or less fanned out and downwards from the crown of the plant. Sometimes soaking the plant in a bucket for a little while helps to loosen up a massed root ball, too.
It's most often not a good idea to just plant a root-bound plant like that without untangling at least some of the outer roots because it will often just keep going round and round, choking itself and not venture out into the new soil the way it should to properly grow.
