So many pentas are propagated by cuttings. Ask Longwood Gardens where they got the plants. Get a plant and take cuttings. Also before you buy seed, on a search engine type in "pentas trials" or similar. You can get good performance info that way, particularly if a trial is in your area. If you search you may land on one variety or color. Check the main list; often they trial several pentas if they do a penta trial. Some of the pentas that are readily available from seed turns out not to be great trial performers. The biggest issue is lack of uniformity between plants. On your search results you may have to click several pages before you see all trials. Example link below. UGA is always good as well as UoF and the Dallas trials and many others. Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell

you also need to consider that few runners (if any) are ideally suited to san diego's climate. true, many runners can and do thrive here, but our climate is foreign to most. most notably, we tend to be a lot drier as far as humidity, and our winters do not get anywhere near the levels that are known natively to most runners. Of the cuff, I would include phylo's in that sentence. there is quite a bit of evidence out in the plant world that many plants do need cold spells for their prolonged survival. for instance, you don't see too many japanese maples in san diego for good reason - really tough to grow here, and they typcially die after a few seasons. the beautiful ones at Disneyland in Anaheim that people frequently talk about are actually replaced every few years. the relatively benign winter temperatures don't allow many species the rest they need for active and succesful growth the following spring and summer. might be true for some bamboos, might not. but it wouldn't suprise me if it was. as well, potted plants suffer from moisture stability and nutrition deficits much more than in ground plants. Case in point - I had two mex weepings, same size, in 15 gallon containers (both about 4 feet tall). I then put one in a 1.5x1.0x1.0 planter, and another in the ground. I backfilled the one in the ground with as much amendments to help as I could, but the native soil in backyard SUCKS, so only so much you can do. The soil in the planter is primo stuff. One year later, the in ground bamboo is about 15 feet tall, with two big shoots coming up outside the original planting zone (i.e. through the native, crummy soil). The planter, despite the great soil, is maybe 8 feet. the greatest growth stimulator for bamboo that i have seen, bar none, is putting them in the ground

That's a nice photo of 'Chansonette'- I agree that 'Kanjiro' and 'Chansonette' are good candidates for a smaller sasanqua. I'm really not familiar with 'Cotton Candy', but any sasanqua could be pruned for size. Bob Green of Alabama has been breeding a number of sasanqua-type camellias, and most are bred to be fairly compact. I'm not sure how readily available those varieties would be in California, though? Here is a link that might be useful: Sasanquas at Green Nurseries

Here in southern New England next Sunday morning (5 days away) and Monday morning we're scheduled for a frost -- both mornings are supposed to hit right around 32°. I planted my Morning Glory plant late in the season and though it now has many buds I sense it needs another week or so before it blooms. I'm worried a frost could kill it before it does. It's sprawled all over its 6' trellis -- too tall for normal plant covers. Any advice on how I can protect it? I've been browsing on the web and have some ideas but wonder if anyone here has had experience specifically with vines.