I have a couple of daylilies rated cold hardy to a half zone or so warmer than mine that I really want to grow. I was thinking about putting fist sized stones around their bases to hold heat from the day (we get a lot of sun.) Of course good mulch to within six inches of the base.

I'm open to any suggestions or if you want to you can sit back and chuckle at the cockeyed optimism of some daylily nuts.

Charlemagne (Charley)

What are the names of those cultivars? Perhaps somebody here has already tried them in zone 4 and can tell you how well they do.

Great suggestion admmad, should have thought of naming them myself. They are:

SNOW CRYSTAL
COSMIC KALEIDOSCOPE
BLUE BALLOON

Thanks

Charley

I have been growing 'Cosmic Kaleidoscope' in my zone 4 garden since 2011 - it has not had any problems so far.

I have had 'Snow Crystal' for about one year so it has lived through one winter.

Qualifiers:

I have good deep snow cover for most of the winter with usually one complete thaw in January each year and then snow accumulates and I again have deep snow cover to the end of winter after that (till about the last few weeks of March to the first week of April).

Lowest minimum winter temperature is about -32C or -25/-26F but that only happens once or twice every few years.

I have dug down through the snow once during several winters and each time the soil has not been frozen under the snow. The snow depth was at least 12 to 18 inches where I dug down.

Maurice

Thanks for all of the information

Have you, or anyone in 4b, had BARBARA MANDREL?

Charley

Charlemagne said:Maurice

Thanks for all of the information

You are welcome.

Have you, or anyone in 4b, had BARBARA MANDREL?

Sorry, I have not.

I'm thinking Charley's zone 4 is a lot different than Maurice's. Being probably high altitude and desert climate with very low humidity year 'round makes a huge difference to hardiness.

Charley, I'd recommend that rather than trying to keep the root zone of your daylilies warmer with stones (that you'd have to remove in summer because they'd collect too much heat) you might try just being sure they don't get too dry through the winter. Insulation from cold is one thing, but cold and dessication is really tough on most plants, especially those that store moisture and nutrients in their roots like daylilies do.

Use a generous (deep) mulch of organic material like wood chips that will retain moisture, and also water at least once a week if it doesn't rain or snow. This is from my experience growing daylilies in Salt Lake City, where we lived for 20 years, and my kids still live. It's high and dry but a zone or two warmer than you. I don't have any problems with daylilies here in Florida, needless to say they hardly slow down through the winter here.

Thanks Elaine

We are back in Oklahoma in the winter but have a young neighbor who waters for us.

Another big difference is that with so many sunny days we don't have persistent snow cover. That's funny because we are only about eight miles from the Taos Ski Valley.

I was thinking of the rocks on just a few daylilies so taking them off would not be a huge chore.

All of this input is helping me think, I appreciate it all.
Charley