I was recently given 6 Oriental lily (Lilium) bulbs – bare root. It seems much too cold (late February) to put these in the ground. They are currently naked in the garage, but would it be better to pot them until the ground is workable? I have not raised lilies before, other than daylilies.
Generally, it is good to plant bulbs soon after you get them, but if you need to wait (due to cold weather and unworkable soil), keep the bulbs somewhere cool, and keep them “in moist sand or peat moss until scales plump up and new roots begin to sprout” (Sunset Western Garden Book, edited by Kathleen Norris Brenzel, 2001).
The Gardener’s Guide to Growing Lilies by Michael Jefferson-Brown and Harris Howland (Timber Press, 1995) confirms your thought that it is too cold to plant them out in the garden (I would wait until the threat of freezing temperatures subsides). According to the resource mentioned above, your lilies will do very well in pots, so what you could do is pot them now, and if you decide you would like to move them into the garden when it warms up, you could either put them, pot and all, into the border, or gently remove them from the pot without too much root disturbance, and plant them in the soil.