I bought one tequilla sunrise and 2 sunrays. The tequilla sunrise looks great - the flowers are so pretty! But, they die pretty quickly and then look awful (till I pop 'em off). Is it because of the heat wave we're having? Or do their flowers normally only last a day or two.

Now, the 2 sunrays I have look quite awful. I bought them from BJ's and kept the receipt because they were pretty neglected and I knew it was a chance buying them. One is growing new foliage but the other is deciding if it wants to live. (I talked to it just now and told it to hang on and that it would like it here - hee hee). Same thing - their dead flowers look big and ugly and I'm not even crazy about their healthy flowers.

I THOUGHT I was buying 3 tequilla sunrises because I planted them around my bird bath and thought it would look nice if they were all the same. Oh well.

Another question, will they fill out or are they more vertical growing? Also, it's pretty heavy soil where I planted them so should I dig them up and mix in sand? (I read these varieties aren't too picky so I really don't want to do that).

I'm wondering if I should have bought moonbeams since they perform so well, but I wanted something less delicate looking and I already have a moonbeam in my front bed.

Thanks!