Simply place your bare root daylilies into buckets and cover the roots with damp sawdust (like bare root strawberry plants in spring), wood chips, ground bark or pet bedding. Do not allow the medium to dry out; you want the roots to stay moist, but not soggy. This method works well if your garden will not be ready for planting within a few days. If you only need to delay planting overnight or for less than a week, a simple bucket of water will do. Just cover the roots, adding a weak solution of liquid fertilizer if desired, but switch to plain water the second day. For large clumps, you can also use cardboard boxes with a trash bag liner, but in all cases, keep the daylilies in light shade while they are waiting to go into the garden. A bit more work would be to dig a temporary trench in a vegetable garden, but it is much harder to dig and transplant the daylily divisions that way. There is also the danger that you might "forget" to move them, and months later, they will have become badly tangled in the soil. Sawdust, porous mulch, pet bedding, etc. is much easier and cleaner. Remember to give new transplants one inch of water each week throughout the first summer, so they can settle-in before winter. Depending on the weather and the season, you may see new green growth starting from the center of each fan within a few days. New roots may also start to form under the damp sawdust during spring or summer transplanting. Daylilies planted in the fall will generally not see new growth, unless you are planting Evergreens or Semi-evergreens in a mild climate. The nice thing about this system is that your daylilies will be acclimated to your local climate before planting and they can stay happy for several weeks if necessary - no need to rush them into the soil if the garden is not quite ready. Northern gardeners, please plant transplants at least 3 to 4 weeks before frost, to give the daylilies time to prepare for winter. In severe climates, you should mulch your daylilies for at least the first winter. |
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