You don't mention what zone you're in. If you're lower than zone 7, I'd suggest you put Lee Pickles in a protected area. It needed extra help here to survive,and I eventually sent it south.

Good luck!

Floota,

I looked at daves garden and all things plants, and both sites said Lee Pickles was good to Zone 4a. I am a zone 5/6, and thought I would be safe for Lee Pickles. I guess I will plant, mulch next winter and hope for the best. How often are those sites off for zones, and is there a better source to look zones up?

Thanks,
Gale

I really can't speak for the information on either of those sites, and was only commenting on the performance of the plant in my garden on the edge of zone 6/7. It survived but didn't thrive, and I've grown daylilies long enough that there is little patience for wimps here. Why tolerate a plant that might have 5-6 blooms a year when there are so many plants that perform wonderfully?

floota,

I'm new and hopefully will see my first blooms from the 35 I planted this year next summer, and I agree, if any get just a few blooms they will be replaced. This brings up a question, how long on average does one wait on performance of a daylily? From what I have read on here the first year can often not be representative of later years.

Thanks,
Gale

The zonal thing is pretty odd. I gave up on it because I have a friend in Michigan with even worse weather than we have here in Ohio and she can grow a lot of things I can't. I have also heard that some people up in parts of Canada can grow almost any Daylilys because they have snow cover for so long. My problem here is the freeze/thaw cycles that go on over the course of our winter.

I generally try to buy new plants from people in areas like mine or locally.

Hi, Gale,

I usually give them 3 years to determine if they will do well here. Since I am in zone 8, many do well, even northern hybridizers, but I have my failures too.
kay

Bambi,
Snow cover improving survivability of Daylilies makes a lot of sense. I live in a semi-desert and most years do not have much snow, at least for long periods of time. We also will have multiple freeze/thaw cycles in a given year. It would seem to me, that with the high cost that Hybridizers want people to pay for newer fans, they would make obtaining accurate zonal info a priority. Luckily, I found this site and a tremendous amount of collective knowledge. In hindsight, I should have posted my final list on here before placing the order.

Organic,
Thank you for the info, 3 years is what I give other perennials, so that makes sense to me. Starting to sound like a few failures come with the territory.

Lee Pickles not good here either.

HMMM-while slow in multiplying, I haven't had any trouble with the blooms on Lee Pickles. Hillbilly Heart did NOT like to be moved so I let it struggle on it's own finally and it straightened out. Soil conditions can influence the plants as well though. My Dad lives a couple miles down the road, He has plants that thrive in his yard and struggle in mine and vice versa. He has mostly sand, I have light to moderate clay. My Aunt lives in the same zone, but 2 hrs. away and the same thing applies-things that fail to thrive in her yard sometimes come our way and are fine. Another fellow gardener that waters his plants with pond/river overflow water has larger blooms and deeper colors and his plants just take off rapidly.

Thanks for the additional info, I always appreciate it.

Gale