Expert: Long Island Gardener - 6/7/2007

Question
I HAVE ABOUT 75 LILLIES I NEED TO MOVE.WOULD IT BE OK TO DID THEM UP NOW PUT THEM IN 3 GAL POTS UNTIL NEXT YEAR.I AM REDOING MY YARD AND DON'T WANT TO LOOSE THES.

Answer
Hemerocallis is one tough plant. This is not ideal, but if you do everything right, they most certainly will survive, and I am even more certain that if they do they will recover.

They'll need to overwinter somewhere.  Can you put them in a cold garage or unheated basement to keep them cold without freezing them?

Watering is the trickiest part of this.  You don't want the roots to rot.  But you don't want them to be thirsty, either.  A well drained soil high in sand will give you a safe growing medium that will keep air around the roots and avoid growing anaerobic bacteria, the kind that rot the root system and make the soil rank.

Not a difficult exercise, mind you. But a lot of work.  Spraying these with 'Messenger' harpin protein will elevate their recovery and get them back to blooming nice and quick next year.  Spray it on the leaves like you would spray Roses for blackspot.  If you do half, you'll be able to monitor the recovery rates yourself -- I think they'll be fairly dramatic, from what I've heard.  You could water these in, but so much would drain out and be lost it would be wasting a lot of harpin formula; I recommend foliar application, which is instantly absorbed and provides a lot of treatment over a bigger area.  You can find a retailer on the Eden Bioscience website.

Any questions?