You can plant it now, it won't do much, but will survive, go through its life cycle, and with proper care and growing conditions, a year from now will produce a quality bulb. It REALLY needs to be planted in the fall. The plant is influenced by day length and temperature, and, just as if you tried to plant a tulip bulb in the spring, it won't perform as it should.

If you are willing to gamble a little you can have a fantastic fall been harvest that can even be extended over a month long period with a little help from a row cover. I planted my 3rd crop last night in zone 6. but I figure I can plant one more time around July 15-20. Keep in mind that as days and nights get cooler the plants will grow slower than now but the flipside of that is that once the beans are formed in the fall they just hang on the plant and don't overmature nearly as fast.

This question comes up in some form every year at this time, and it is interesting to see the variation in responses from past years. In the past, people in northern states have often been very cautionary about planting perennials after mid September, though my own experience is that the vast majority of hardy perennials are planted fine in the fall as long as the ground is still workable. And essentially everybody who responded above seems to agree -- that's different from past years. In Michigan, as most other places in the NE, we have had an unusually warm fall (record late 90 degree temperature October 7), and the ground is still very warm -- great for planting almost anything. I have occasionally had some issues with frost heaving of fall planted perennials in late winter and early spring due to alternating freezing and thawing of soil. But a firm but gentle step right on the crown of the plant to push it back into the soil will solve almost all problems like that. Woody plants can be planted even far later, well into December even in the north especially for deciduous plants. Even hardy roses are fine late into the fall. Pickering Roses in Ontario routinely ships their roses out for planting to the northern states in the first week of November. I remember planting about 20 roses one early November in temps of 10 degrees F. I don't think my frozen fingers ever recovered, but all the roses grew fine the next year.

It is fine to plant your lilies now. Put some mulch around them to slow down the rain & that should help some unless you get heavy rain. I can't picture your slope but if you think it needs some bricks use them. Daylilies once they grew would help at the bottom of a slope. It all depend how low your slope is.