Hi, Dre, and welcome!
I live just north of you in Marin, and I’m in a micro-climate that’s similar to San Francisco’s; the main difference is that we tend to get sun earlier in the afternoon. If the plants were mail-ordered and had visible green growth, then I would expect you would see new growth within a week. The only exception that I’ve experienced was with a daylily that arrived after a 12 day misadventure through the midwest via the US mail system during a heat wave in August. That one went dormant initially, but began to grow within a few weeks, and even managed to flower that year in late October/early November.
Just in general, I now only buy daylilies that are shipped in early spring as soon as the snow melts from mail order nurseries that sell only field-grown daylilies in a climate that experiences a deep freeze for at least a couple of weeks. It’s great that we don’t have a deep freeze here, however, daylilies are susceptible to a fungus called daylily rust. It’s virtually impossible to kill without prolonged freezing temps, and is very unsightly. (See
http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_d... ) Blue Ridge Daylilies is a favorite seller of mine:
http://www.daylily.com/cgi-bin... and also at:
http://thebloomingauction.com/... (If you do buy from both auctions, then let Bob Selman know via e-mail, and he will combine the order, which reduces the shipping price.)
Regardless of where you purchase daylilies, it’s a good idea to look for cultivars that are Early Morning Openers (EMO) or Cold Morning Openers (CMO). Since we consistently have overnight temps in the 45-55 degree range (and generally not particularly hot daytime temps), they sometimes have difficulty fully opening. Also – with rare exceptions (Carr’s “Living in Luxury” comes to mind), the elaborate edges of some daylilies tend to be more modest in our moderate climate.
Happy gardening! : ) - Elizabete
