That's a shame. I'm sorry for what must be a great disappointment. I covered mine in heavy clear plastic which might not have been a good move either according to what I've read. But they look ok through there so far, and we've had it bad here. Mine are close to the foundation which may have helped too so far. I may have to stake them because they were coming up nice and straight this year, now I don't know. They might be affected later even if they look ok now.

I don't know a whole lot about lilies, just getting started, but maybe they will send up new shoots if the bulbs aren't spent. Somebody might give you advice about feeding them to give them a boost. It will definitely set them back.

Depending on how many I had and if I was strictly going by my own intuition, I'd be inclined to cut back the mushy tops, and might also dig them up carefully and pot them for this year. Depending on how much work I wanted to do, I'd find that link about scaling lilies and take a few scales off, pot up or replant the rest, and see if I could tease them into growing, it takes time and patience for that. See if somebody else weighs in on that.

How many are like that and what kind? It zapped a ditch lily I don't care about, but now I know what they can tolerate because it's hard to kill those. It WILL be back, I just KNOW it, and it's weak because it popped up in a spot that doesn't get enough sun, was a little sheltered by neighbor's garage, too. Our temps were down in the teens for several nights running, still supposed to be low 20's tonight.

I'll be interested in knowing if they recover. Think about the lily bulb growers! Some of them have probably been hit by this, too!

Here is a link that might be useful: Scaling Lilies

Personally, I'd do just the opposite. Yes, trim off the offensive dead material once you figure out what actually isn't going to recover but I'd leave them in the ground. If you dig them you're going to ask the bulb to basically grow all new roots which logically should further drain the bulb. Leaving it in the ground it would have it's root system intact and hopefully the bulb could sit there in the ground and be ready to come back next spring.

If the growing point, which in a lily is in the tip of the bulb, has frozen then most likely your bulb is done for the year. If it hasn't frozen out it's possible that though you'll loose the leaves formed so far, your bulb could go on, grow and flower. You'll just have to be patient and see.

BTW, welcome to the world of farming! Think how you'd feel if you had 200 acres of corn pushing out of the ground and had a late frost? Thank goodness I just have a half acre field of daylilies and I know they're going to come out!

Janet

If you're lucky, only the growing tip has been killed, but the plants will still make a partial stem and some leaves. This will strengthen them for next year. So be careful about trimming.

That's ok. I'm learning as I go. I don't know if my regals will bloom on the east side or not anyway.

All of my lilies froze to the ground one year, When the tops finally dried out, I cleaned them up. Fertilized them like I always do with tomato food. They all came up the next year and bloomed. I was more than thrilled, believe me!