Hi Mike,

I've had my daylilies in pots for 3 years now. I have appx 500 pots. I've lost 3 or 4 plants in the last 3 years. Now, my weather is nowhere near as cold as yours, but we do have many days in the low 20's. I've been really pleased so far with using pots. I have terrible clay soil that gets so hard that I only have a few days in the spring that I can dig in it. I do have many beds, but I've spent years ammending the soil and it just too hard to dig, ammend, kill weeds and pull grass that I've found it easier and not much more expensive to use pots. I guess watering is the hardest part. In summer this is a daily chore.

I've read most of the threads of pros and cons and most have valid points, so this is just my own oppinion. I'm glad you had good luck with your plants and hope you continue. Just remember, that water in the heat of summer is critical for pots.

Have fun and blessings, Mona

Thanks Mona for the advice, it is appreciated. I am finding that most perennials seem to do well in pots.

I overwintered a large number of potted daylilies. I'll try to do a count today, but I'm thinking at least 100. I'd started the autumn with the pots in a sunroom, but I subsequently realized that the room was too warm (plants were leafing out) but without enough light to simulate greenhouse growing conditions (leafing out but not looking so good). So, like you, I placed them in an unheated garage, and like you, I didn't lose any. (Transferring from a lighted room that allowed for some growth to a dark, unheated space probably is not a good idea BTW. I don't recommend it; it was simply a matter of necessity this one time.) But I wonder whether the outcome might have been different if I'd had more evergreens, more tender ones, or different winter weather....

also, I'm very careful with the potting mix. It's very well-draining - drainage was one of the key factors on my mind as I created it. If I recall, the mix contains some bagged potting soil, lots (LOTS!) of aged compost from my garden, lots & lots of perlite I think it is (something like that)....the whole shebang placed on top of about 1/4 pot full of packing peanuts.

I've lost plants in the past, but of course I can't tell you what factor or factors were responsible. Was it weather? The cultivar? Potting mix? (In the past, I'd also mix in manure, which I've read may not be a good thing.) Without an actual experiment, I can't explain the losses.

Potted plants do require work during the growing season. Constant & careful watering. Fertilizing as well.

At the new house, I won't have to grow daylilies in pots any more. Or, if I choose to, I can limit the number to a very few and keep them in enormous pots. (I've seen that done to great effect at a nearby AHS display garden, where there was one very large pot of Whatley's RAM on a patio overlooking a planting of hot-colored daylilies.)

A last comment: while I've grown daylilies in pots and have overwintered them successfully, I've never taken a chance with my best daylilies. If a grower has said that a guarantee applies only to daylilies grown in the ground, well then, that's where I've grown them. Same with super-expensive and hard-to-come by plants -- I would not risk losing those, and I've always found a spot somewhere in the garden for them.

A last last comment: the potted daylilies look GREAT right now. They're substantially farther along than the ones I did have time to get in the ground. Interesting....I wonder what that means?

Way to go Mike!

I too over wintered many...168 Daylilies...many pots of Siberian Iris....Bressinghams Blue Hosta.....Liriope and a few other perennials....I did lose 3 Daylilies. I don't think that is too bad for the method used. These guy's were all in 1-3 gal pots and started out with a covering of 3-4 inches of mulched leaves. They do have a brick border on the North and West sides. Other than that they just sit on a concrete pad (Blocks 18 inch x 18 inch) They were not watered or messed with in any way till the day this pic was taken...they had just started to push new growth. I then just pick up each pot...knock off the excess leave mulch that is left and then set them out with some air spacing. I think it was about the 1st of April I started cleaning them up. Now they all look great and are growing like weeds. I will continue using this hassel free method...only change I will make id they ones I over winter in pots will all be in 2 gal or larger pots from now on. This has worked well, allowing me to dig/divide and trade or sell off the ones I want to replace in my beds In spring and have no "Shock" to my new transplants. Life Is Good...:)

Please excuse the terrible pic...

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Mike, over the winter, did the foliages die back? Or did they continue to grow? Did you have to provide extra lights?

The foilage on the diploids died back and disappeared. The ones on semi-evergreens etc. had some green showing all winter. (maybe a very small fan or right at top of crown).
No heat was provided, My house is 8 years old with good insulation: however, I do imagine there is some heat loss especially around door from house to garage. It is a double car garage with 2 doors, each has small glass panes across the top (each 16" x 14" - 8 in total). This was the only light source - no other light or heat provided. My wife used one half to park her car. It is a brick house so I imagine that there is some retention of heat. Don't know how much is lost when she comes and goes. Could monitor temperature next winter. I also overwintered 4 pots outside(3 of the smallest and 1 of the largest pots).
I left pots outside until the frost was in the pots (the soil was very hard) and they had stopped growing before I stored them for winter. Did not cover them up, sat them on concrete floor, but also stacked some.
I have bought daylilies from one individual who stores large #'s of his inventory in unheated detached garages. He stacks them on top of each other. There is another individual in zone 4 who I buy from that leaves his pots outside. He uses 2 gal pots, places them against his basement wall and covers them with lots of leaves. They average 4 ft of snow during the winter. He also finds that they start to grow before the ones in the ground. He does not ship plants that are in the ground until end of june (lots of snow and to allow them to mature), ships nice mature fans. For example, he left Special Ovation in a pot(evergreen). If he does not sell the plant he then returns it to the garden. He has 6-7000 plants.
I imagine using these methods you may loose a couple of plants but from reading the forums it appears that there are losses even when the plant is grown in the ground.(smile). John Kirkland that is in the ground is only now starting to emerge.

Just to clarify, the seller in zone 4 has a very small amount of his daylilies in pots. Mike

It seems like I never get them all in the ground, but this past fall I did something really bad. It was mid October and a box with 6 clumps and some single fans showed up. It was too late to plant, and I didn't think it was really a good idea to pot them and leave them out either. The plan was to bring them in pot them up and winter them in the basement under lights with all the other stuff that had been out for the summer. I threw them into a tote with some holes drilled in it about 2 inches from the bottom. I left the tote in a very sheltered corner under an awning. Well a bunch of leaves blew in and I never did get around to potting them and bringing them in. I checked on them all winter, and they looked fine. Everytime we had a bad cold spell and a thaw I figured that they would be dead for sure. Well they ALL not only survived, but increased! There were no single fans, and the clumps got bigger. I planted them in the ground Tuesday. You can not imagine how happy I was! There were 2 TET conversions in the group.

It does look like I lost 2 that were in pots, niether of them are a big deal, they were both dips, and I have more of both.

The only time I had high winter losses with plants in pots was the year I put them all in a pen I made with chicken wire and plactic fencing and covered them with leaves. I believe 2 things happened. I think some composted, and I know that some field mice made homes in some of the pots and dined on them all winter. Now I just put them between the garage and the privacy fence. This year there will be none left in pots.

I have also found fans that I dropped in the garden while moving them in the fall the following spring. These are tough plants.

I've grown daylilies in pots for years. The only ones I lost were in smaller than 3 gal. pots (dormants that I got in the fall). The ones in pots do just as well or better than those in the ground. (stupid voles). I like having a 'portable' daylily garden. It's great for picture taking!
Lrae

mike1,

It's great you had such success with overwintering them in pots! I tried with just three daylilies this past winter, in two large containers, and they all made it. I'll probably do a couple more large containers this year. I'm running out of garden space, but a few large decorative pots can always be squeezed in, lol. I wasn't sure how well they would do, so it was just an experiment - no frills, no pampering, just two large (5 and 8 gallon) containers sitting outside. It worked! But I don't think I'll risk anything expensive - just tough dip oldies that I'd like to have displayed in an elevated clump.

Laurel

Well after taking off the leaf mulch and setting the pots out off the Winter Pad.....they are shooting up fast now. I will continue to use this method. I will make all pots 2 Gal or larger. I feel this provides the perfect insulation pockets between the pots. Even some Florida Liriope did well using this method.

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Wow you sure have a lot of pots. As I get increase I plan on over wintering all of my daylilies in pots - ev,sev and dor. Would like to see how many are winter hardy using this method. Do you have a list of which registered cultivars have done well in pots. Mike.

Sorry Mike...I don't have a list like that. I have been doing this with the pots for the last 3 years. It made no difference to me what type they were. I pot up everything I get, each year. Some make it into a bed that year...some don't. Those that don't end up on that pad and get mulched with chopped up leaves. This past winter it was 168 different Daylilies. I think it was about 125 last winter and around that same number the year before. I can tell you that the only ones I lost (3 this winter)were ones I potted up in the late summer or fall. It seems that once they are established in the pots they are tough enough to handle it. No matter what typr they are (Sev, Ev or Dor). They get no other care till early Spring. I think they drain well and they stay insulated enough that they do just fine. I tried some different perennials also this winter and they did great too. I will stick with this process. Much easier on me then putting them places I might not want later or rushing into doing things half-way. The increase has not been much different then in my beds. It is also a nice way to use up all my leaves..LOL

Rick

Rick;

I have tried all different types of perennials and have had excellent results. Can't say I have lost much. Starting a list in case anyone is interested.
Mike