Lilies can be kept in the ground year-round practically anywhere. Are yours Asiatics or Orientals, or something else? In your climate, Asiatics may be short-lived. They prefer some cold. Orientals might have some of the same effect, but they don't need as much cold as Asiatics. Lilies "set" their flower buds for the coming year over the winter. If they don't get enough cold, the buds aren't set, or fewer are set. When lilies have multiplied/split, you will usually see a second stalk. If they have made little babies on the stem, you'll see a rather small leaf or two near (but not quite on) the main stem. If you don't see either of those things, you can't divide them except by scaling them. That's not easy. I wouldn't try it unless I were willing to risk losing them altogether. If you scale them now, not only will the plants from those scales not bloom this year, they may not bloom for several years, when they finally get big enough. You can get more continuous bloom from lilies by doing staggered plantings, if the bulbs have been properly stored and haven't gotten completely dried out in storage. I wouldn't buy lilies from anybody but Ednie's at this point, since they store them properly cooled (refrigerated with exact temperature and humididy control.) In fact, you can get lilies from them any time of year, as they supply commercial year-round greenhouse growers. No doubt there are other such suppliers, I just don't know them. I wouldn't buy lilies from a hobby catalog now, either, except the very most reputable ones. I've gotten burned in the past, getting completely dried-out, papery lily bulbs when ordering late. They grew, just barely, and took three years to reach blooming size. Oddly enough, I WOULD buy late-bargain lilies now from a store, if they are packaged in a way that allowed me to see and evaluate the bulb, and feel how heavy (not dried out) the bulb is, and they passed my inspection. Lilies can be planted in fall or spring. That's why vendors offer them that way. In cold climates like mine, fall planting is riskier, as they may not have enough time to develop their roots, but it can be done. Actually, lilies can be transplanted at any point in their life cycle if you are careful with the roots. BUT - lilies never go completely dormant and don't like to be out of the ground. They cannot stay full of water that way and slowly dry out. They don't have a papery outer coating like tulips, daffs, and glads corms do, to keep them from drying out. That's why late lilies may not be a good idea. If they haven't been properly stored, they could be very dried out and in very bad shape. As for the dahlias - I'm just jealous. I haven't transferred mine from pots into the ground because it's so dang cold and wet, I'm afraid the stress will cause them to rot. Jeanne

Well, I just looked at the weather. We had like 4 days of rain predicted yesterday...and now one on Friday IF WE ARE LUCKY and then not again until next Wednesday. All week, temps in the 100's AGAIN. This is 3 weeks straight and it is nuts. I am not kidding when I say my garden is almost dead. When it rains I will be terrified trees will fall on the houses. It is really sad here. It is UNBEARABLE outside. Sorry to whine and complain but I feel like I need to begin planting saguaro cactus. Even YUCCA is drooping...and we can't water until Sunday. I don't think the climbing aster is going to resurect, the butterfly bush is almost gone...roses are flowering in protest but the flowers are paper dust when they open... Nothing else is blooming, almost everywhere there is a perennial or annual it is bare dirt now. GGG

Pat I agree there is advantages and also disadvantages to everywhere. I will say from my experiences and also corresponding with other growers across the country and even abroad my conditions here in extreme SW KS along with those in this area are about as demanding as anywhere. And this not applies to tomatoes but other crops including field crops. Here irrigation is a must many years. I've also been told that by horticulturalists that work for the state extension services and come out in this area. A plant that will perform here will perform almost anywhere. That is why several growers watch my reviews every year and request what has done well for me. We have some advantages also. And I know it could be worse. But overall I know growers in the central and eastern part of KS who agree are conditions are way more demanding than their's just a few hundred miles east. I know from reading this forum my conditions are more brutal than many on here. The extended severe drought is very abnormal for us. But the heat can be expected every few years. I can remember a year when I broke a bone in my hand and I continued to work in th engine rooms and we had 25 plus days in the 100's if memory serves me correctly. The difference was we continued to get rain. I expect 15-20 days over 100 in a normal year. Now to be honest if it would rain like normal there is no where else I would rather garden. I have learned to garden here and would have to relearn somewhere else. I can grow all 3 groups of onions successfully in a normal year. We don't get bitterly cold and stay that way usually. I can grow things using all 3 planting methods( depression like those in the arid regions do, flat or raised beds like they do where it rains.) The last 3 years the depression method has been the best. Like I said there are many advantages. And hopefully with the lean to and someday a finished greenhouse I'll be able to garden even more effectively. I used to get aggravated with the companies selling seed and plants. Now I have to just smile and shake my head. I like it when I question a vendor what varieties they offer do well in a hot, semi arid, windy climate. And they say all we offer are very good. I asked a lady that told me that about tomato varieties you mean to tell me that all 350 varieties you offer are good and especially for my climate? She never replied. I don't pay attention to the zone maps anymore. And a company that won't ship plants when I want them I just don't buy from anymore. And even now I sometimes have to learn when I grow a new crop. The unique thing about my area is we are in a small micro climate. The soil temp here will be warm enough top plant about any crop. Maybe 10-15 degrees warmer than just 40-50 miles away. But we will have the cold morning followed by days in the mid 80's to 90's after lows in the upper 20's and lower 30's. This was my second year to try growing sweet potatoes. Next year I will follow the advice of the only grower I know in this area. Have them in the ground no later than the first week of May. Use protection around them whether hot caps, plastic buckets, ect. This year my plants arrived and the next day was 100. I've still got 4 plants that may survive out of 35. And anytime after the 15th of May here it is normal to have a 5-10 day stretch of temps in the upper 90's and lower 100's. I've tried shading them ect. They need a week or so to get a root system established before the brutal heat sets in. So next year I may start them myself so I can get them in earlier. I enjoy and also learn a lot from this forum and also some other I visit. And I always have to experiment with new methods to see how they will work here in my garden. I have picked up some new habits. I've started growing flowers between my tomato plants like Dawn does. Last year saw a lot more butterflies and ect. This year not many yet. But then again the flowers are just getting established good. But overall gives the garden a little diversity. What I like about this forum and a few others is there is no one saying their way is the only way. I have a problem with that. Due to the extreme variances even in the state of OK there are very few set methods that will work in all climates and soils. But sometimes I learn something that really helps and makes a difference. Like I said earlier I wouldn't want to garden anywhere else. But I know my Mother gardened from Arkansas to NM. And said this area was the toughest area to grow in. She was just like me though and didn't want to go anywhere else. I'm not complaining. We don't have humidity issues and diseases in a normal year. I'm blessed with great sandy loam soil that grows great crops most years despite my deficiencies. Just remember that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I've learned to enjoy and use what I have. Jay

Yes, yes we've discussed this ad nauseam, the irony or twist or whatever you want to call it is that this plant certainly does not need California summers. It doesn't need them to survive and it doesn't need them to have an extra shot at surviving cold winter. Believe me I'll be the first to admit when something from a dry summer climate is ungrowable. Before the 2nd great freeze we had the wettest June ever here, it killed some of my newly planted stuff and caused a huge 40' Morus to defoliate but apparently survive. None of the redwoods are in a particularly well draining spot (though neither are they in swamps) and they all made in through the following winter that was horrendously cold. I remind you that during some ice ages the glaciers came about as far south as the WA/OR border. Certainly S. s. has a "genetic memory" to survive much colder conditions than its current zn 9-10 haunts. 2500' ft. in the coast ranges wouldn't be very cold but the worst frost hollows at that elevation could certainly be into zn 8 territory and then the plants surviving zn 7 on the east coast doesn't seem so far fetched. In the Great Freeze of 1990, a low altitude location in Marin County reached an astonishing 4F! The Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek was something like 12F. And that's just what we know in recent human history. It's a known fact that 'Chapel Hill' survived a verified -9F in, what was it, 85? It was already a large plant then, nobody was covering it with Tyvek and warming it with orchard smudge pots LOL. As I said the Barnes tree surely saw temps around 0F more often. I'm not saying mine will survive another winter like 1899 but I'm saying they will probably survive well enough during my lifetime. Knock on wood (this winter is now over with respect to potentially catastrophic freezes) but it's fascinating that as bad as the past two winters were, as well as this brief spell of this one, it hasn't gone below 0F here when it certainly did in 85 & 94 and several other cold winters back to the infamous 1899, when the Atlantic froze as far south as Virginia Beach. Has something fundamentally changed?* I don't know but by the time I find out it hasn't I predict my redwoods will be big enough to survive almost any winter this area throws at them. * to clarify, I mostly think I just got lucky, but I can't rule out that something could mean that for a few decades we have, I don't know, a pattern of longer winters that don't get quite as cold, versus shorter winters with more serious freezes. Of course I much prefer the former. I also think my research in where to place this garden paid off: I had a vague sense 11 years ago that I should avoid totally flat terrain and that has been a good choice as is evidenced by vast swaths of the interior Delmarva going below 0F in one of the prior winters because the cold air had nowhere to drain.