Hey :)
If you can, I would move the plants against a wall, but I think freeze/thaw is more of a problem than anything, so if you're able, try to tip the pots sideways, so they won't accumulate rain and then freeze/thaw again. I f there are a few that are your favorites, you can tie a clear plastic bag over the top, tie a knot in it underneath the pot and just poke a small hole near the side of for air. I do this only when I hear the weather is going to really start getting cold, and try to give the plant air on dryer days with sun. Might be too much maintenance (I also filled a clear bag with leaves and sunk the containers right into the bag for insulation.
I'm not sure what to use- I do use Miracle gro and also have made my own mix out of part peat moss, pine bark fines, and soil conditioner pebbles, but that will also be water-repellent until it starts breaking down, so maybe someone else has a better suggestion?

Coming from way up in the frozen north of Canada, I have overwintered a few daylilies in pots successfully with only snow protection and a sort of micro climate tucked in a sort of cozy spot. I would suggest what CTC mentioned with tipping the pots and tucking them in with insulation around them. If some of mine can survive -40C winters then I'm sure you will be fairly safe.

I just potted up 300 plants to give them a head start before winter and I use my own soil mix. These will go in the ground before it freezes. I use top soil or a triple mix with peat moss, a little perlite and alfalfa pellets. They seem to like it so far. I will post pics when I get them arranged. ;)

Geez, I have tried to respond to this twice and both times the server has timed out. Last try!
Given our similar climates ( Western VA) you should be able to overwinter in pots successfully. GOOD DRAINAGE is absolutely essential, as Cracking says, or they will be prone to rot with our freeze-thaw pattern. For the past couple of years, I have over-wintered pots in a well drained area ( didn't need to tip pots over because of drainage) in a full sun area, slightly sheltered from the wind. I did put mulch all around the pots (about 15) and they all came through just fine. I currently have at least 15 in pots but am hopeful that once I get 30+ orders dug over the next couple of weeks that there will be room to put everything in the ground. It is better not to have to overwinter in pots, but with precautions, they will do fine.
Good luck!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I hadn't thought of tipping them on their sides.

I also have a very long deck along the main level of my home which has a concrete walk underneath, up against the brick siding of the lower level. A little water gets through the spaces between the deck boards, but not a deluge. Now I'm wondering if that might be a better space. It's on the south side, so would probably get a fair amount of sun during the winter. Whether that's bad or good is another question.

You guys are great! Thanks for your help.

Oh, and P.S. ~I just got an order from Blueridge Daylilies. I ordered 7 and he sent 9 more as gifts!!! Holey moley!! I'm going out soon and make a list of everything, then get the pots ready to put them in.

Bob Selman is very generous with his bonus plants, and the plants are usually beautiful too!

I can't advise you, since I have never overwintered any in pots, but good luck to you.
kay

OOh, blueridge!! Which ones did you get?

Definitely what floota said: DRAINAGE is KEY. I don't know anything about the composition of Miracle-Gro with pine bark vs. Pro-Mix BX, but I think your best bet is the best-draining, lightest mix you can find. So, of the two (and going solely by your own comments), I think you want the mix with the pine bark. Or if not that, then you will want a soil that contains a high relative volume of nonabsorbing stuff -- perlite or whatever. In fact, one can buy orchid mix that is primarily a mixture of pine bark pieces and volcanic rock; this gives the drainage that epiphytes demand. You may or may not want an orchid mix (and I've never used it with daylilies). But you can buy orchid mix designed for the specific needs of different types of orchids, with the size of the pine bark usually the main difference among the mixes.

About placement: ctc is correct about the danger of freeze/thaw cycles. People who overwinter hostas in pots keep their plants on the north sides of structures, not the south sides, in order to prevent or at least reduce the occurrence of freeze/thaw. For them, early spring thaws that prompt growth followed by freezes are a big danger for hostas. Same with daylilies. You definitely will want to keep any evergreens at a temperature cold enough to prevent them from trying to grow during winter or early-spring warm spells.

So (my opinion only), that south-facing space under your deck might (MIGHT -- not will!) be a poor spot for the plants. It depends on how steady the temperature is there. Do you have a sense of that?

Regardless of placement, I think that, going into the winter and before a freeze, the plants should be watered once. And then, yes, tip those pots on their sides, with the open end facing away from the direction of storms. If you do not and if you get freezes, water/snow will freeze on top of the soil and then, if you get a thaw, will of course, flow through, possibly incompletely. And then may freeze again.

How many pots do you have? You could mulch around them, as floota does. Some people I know arrange straw bales around their pots. The risk is that that will attract mice and voles. Depending on the number of pots and thus the effort involved, you could place metal screens along the bottom to cover the drainage hole and across the top as well.

Someone who lives down the road and who has (in my opinion) a world-class hosta and woodland plant collection all within something like 8+ deer-fenced acres also has a smallish nursery operation. Hostas and other plants remain outside year-round. This person uses some kind of nursery cloth that keeps the temperature under it both above freezing and steady. (Steady is important!) I have not investigated the cloth further, so I don't know how much it costs. But I have been thinking about getting some because I still have so many daylilies in pots. They were to go in the ground but I ordered so many daylilies for this fall that I have no more room left!

If you have a cold basement or garage or other structure, you might consider overwintering the pots in that. But you'll want it cold enough to prevent growth (so a basement, which typically is over 50 degrees, probably wouldn't work). Of course, if you have a cold area in your basement, maybe a root cellar or something, that could work.

But you never know! One winter, I put all my potted daylilies in the basement of our house. The basement was typical of Victorian house basements except that the former owners had had a cement floor put in. There were several windows (which did not open) and a furnace that kept the main basement warm. There was a second, smaller basement that had no windows and was very cold. But the issue of warmth hadn't occurred to me, so all the pots were in the main basement. In fact, it never occurred to me that the combo of light from the windows + furnace heat made the basement a poor place for overintering plants in dormancy at all. When I checked on the plants in early spring, they were all trying to grow, and obviously had been for quite some time. Pale, pale yellow-white foliage; tall, thin, reedy foliage; and billions of aphids! I was lucky though -- I didn't lose a single one, not even the poor forgotten daylily that remained all winter in a plastic bag, without any soil whatsover. Needless to say, I will never attempt that kind of stunt again.

I know someone who overwinters some plants, including a few daylilies that stay in pots year-round, in the garage. All the plants are ones that go dormant during the winter. (Tropicals are overwintered in the basement.) However, the garage is directly off the house, and she places the pots close to the house side, not near the garage entrance. There's a fireplace in the room on the other side of the wall, so the plants remain too cold to try to grow but do not freeze.

I keep at least 150 daylilies in pots year round and over winter them in my garage, have been doing it for at least 5 years. I make sure that they are well watered and leave them outside until they are frozen solid. One winter I had to dig them out from under the snow. The daylilies are kept in 5 gallon or larger pots. My garage is unheated but it is attached to my house. I place the pots against the wall of the house, stacking them one on top of the other, about 5 high. From tracking the temperature in the garage, I have found that the temperature stays around -10 celius. I think this is the secret, you don't want wide fluctuations in temperatures.
During this time I have lost 2 plants. Mike C

I've been following this discussion with a lot of interest, because I have all my daylilies in pots, and am a little unsure how I am going to overwinter them. We have a small, totally uninsulated shed, but I think it will be more stable in temps than any other option I have. I'm sure in my area, fluctuating temps will be the biggest danger. I'm glad to hear about things like people stacking pots, because I wouldn't have thought to do that, but it'll certainly help to not have to clear out so much floor space.
Casey

Casey, this has indeed been a very educational thread. Like you and Floota, I'm a bit concerned about the afternoon warmups we get here. It's not continuously cold, like Honalee's great frozen north ;-).

I may very well end up with them in the garage. It's attached to the house, but has never gotten down to freezing inside. Since all but evergreen DLs presumably need some very cold temps, Mike1's idea of letting them first freeze and then putting them inside sounds like a good one. I can try to pick out the evergreens and get them in sooner, perhaps.

For a soil mix, I'm going to try a combination of two things I have on hand already: mushroom compost and Nature's Helper. Honalee, would alfalfa pellets be a good thing to add now, as the plants will stop growing fairly soon? I know it's a very mild fertilizer, so it probably wouldn't make them have a big growth spurt or anything.

Floota, what did you use for mulch outdoors? I have lots of leaves every fall, but didn't know if they would provide enough insulation. Do you ever use pine straw?

LindaSkyview

Make sure that they are not tippy or they will fall over. I have also draped tarps over them after stacking, not sure if this helps insulate them. They need to be well watered before it freezes. In the spring you put them out in the garden, do not need to hardening them off. I have had good success with the garage method. Too many daylilies and not enough Real Estate. Mike C

I'm still trying to refine the process of overwintering daylilies in containers. It's ironic to me that the many roses in containers that I have overwintered outside for 20 years or so are less problematic then the so called easy care daylilies. However, I have been successful for years now with placing daylilies in 12" pots under the eaves of my house squashed inbetween some of my large potted roses. This has been on the east side of the house. I think the bigger pots of roses insulate the smaller pots of daylilies and being under the eaves of the house means that they get very little moisture during winter. This is an ongoing experiement however, so I've had daylily pots scattered around every conceivable spot I could think of outside (including the composter which gives off a certain amount of bottom heat), and except for the one already mentioned, my best luck has been doing as Mike1 said. When late fall arrives, I move some of my pots up to the west side next to my house, underneath the eaves (again for the water reason). This is my warmest easy access area. So far I've always left them outside until at least all the foliage has died back. Then if the temperature starts to plummet to my "nervous" range (under 10 or so) and stay there, I begin moving them into my unheated attached garage. Mainly I leave them out as long as I can because I don't have that much room in the garage and I don't want to encourage growth with the warmer inside temperatures. Last year we had a new low of -7 outside. The daylilies in the 12" pots squashed between the roses survived like champs. It was hit or miss on the others left outside in various locations, and 100% success with those moved into the garage....Good luck to all us "pot people" this winter....Maryl

i have over wintered pots outside meny times and have never had s problem yet, I would put your pots where they are out of the notth windas much as possible.I dont have leaves, but have lots of pine neddles, so, i slwsy pile the pine needles sroung. the pots.ffor soil, i have always bought a a' 'EXPERT GARDENER POTTING SOIL FROM walmart, but, lately they have any, so I bough miracle grow potting MIX. the MIX is different from the soil, snd I really likr it, snd will ptobably be using that from now on.as for watering, I alwways ck each pot to dee if it nreeds water,snf if its dry, i wster it. if it snows they wont need water,

Jean

LindaSkyview ~ I add alfalfa pellets to ammend the clay soil here and as an additive to plain top soil. I find it helps to lighten up the soil and adds nutrients slowly so the roots can develop a bit more before winter sets in. gives them a bit of a boost when spring comes.

Around here, only the toughest of the tough will sail through the winter in pots. Low to the ground and tucked in with other pots around them or bags of leaves, straw, even boards around them. I try not to overwinter in pots but I have lots of Real Estate as Mike C put it! Lol ;)

I rotted out almost my entire greenhouse one year using Miracle Gro potting soil. It does not drain well in pots. I will not ever use it again.

Putting the pots in the garage when they are frozen and winter has set in makes my life vey easy; because, I don't do anything to them until spring when I bring them out. I clean the dead leaves and water when they dry out. They stay frozen until the warmer temperatures in the spring. Mike C.