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Potted daylillies

Posted: July 29th, 2022, 6:10 pm
by bolson32
I know this is probably stupid but I am trying it anyway. I bought some large, tall planters for in front of my house and planted re-blooming daylillies in them. Any tips on helping them survive the winter?

Should I bring the pots in the garage? Bury them in the snow?
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Re: Potted daylillies

Posted: July 30th, 2022, 10:47 am
by MorpheusPA
That's not stupid, a lot of people do that. Bring them into the garage when they go dormant (October?) and let them go reasonably dry (don't go crazy about it, you don't have to, and a bit of damp is not a problem). Keep temperatures at or around freezing as best you can in Minnesota.

Put them back out when the weather starts to move toward spring--around here, earlier than the forsythia bloom (50 degree soil temperatures) is fine, it's our very late March or early April weather, which is probably your mid-April weather. Water a bit, but don't drench, and let the weather take over. Water in summer.

Those pots are horizontally a bit small and vertically huge for a lily, which don't root deeply but do root horizontally, so you'll probably have to root trim every few years, but lilies are also very forgiving.

Re: Potted daylillies

Posted: July 31st, 2022, 10:25 pm
by bolson32
Would there be a better deep rooting perennial for these planters? I just figured daylillies are pretty hard to kill so I wanted to give them a shot.

Re: Potted daylillies

Posted: August 7th, 2022, 1:43 pm
by MorpheusPA
They're fine. Anything in the lily family is pretty hard to kill!

(Sorry for the delay, work's been a bit insane!)

Re: Potted daylillies

Posted: August 24th, 2022, 9:54 pm
by bolson32
Precisely my thought!

One slight negating I've noticed is the leaf tips burning up. I'm guessing this has to do with the fact that they sit in the west side of the house in a black pot. Might literally be burning up. Nothing outrageous, but somewhat noticeable.

Re: Potted daylillies

Posted: October 10th, 2022, 9:58 pm
by bernstem
The issue with planters in general, and tall narrow planters in particular, is the the planting medium gets much colder than the ground. I would not expect even daylillies to survive without bringing them into a garage or other cold location. You want the storage area to be at or just above freezing to keep them dormant. You should consider watering lightly on a monthly basis.

If there is anything that is likely to survive in the pots, daylillies are probably it, but I wouldn't take the chance with some of the more expensive varieties (they can easily go over $50/plant).