I'm In San Antonio. Winters are generally dry and mild. Spring and fall have more storms. We get a few cold snaps but have ample warning to prepare. I just dont trust the crummy clay soil we have here to plant in the ground. I will make room in our next home for a raised bed with my own sandy soil mix for in ground planting.

pearl08, I gave up (in vast disgust) buying periwinkles years ago because they always succumbed to that fungal issue..........(funny thing - the ones that randomly sprouted from seed each year in my beds NEVER had that issue, perfectly healthy!) This year I tried the Cora variety and have been pleased. No sign of disease and haven't noticed any particular fading problems (and mine are planted in full, blasting west side of the house sun). They do get a lot of air circulation, perhaps that made a difference. I hope these do turn out to be at least a partial answer; these flowers were always staples in my yard and have always reminded me of my grandmother (she always had them, many years ago, and I don't remember her ever having fungal problems.) Lynn

Good luck!

I'm sad about the picture posting thing, too, Skybird. Your pictures will be sorely missed! I'm already thing about how empty this years edition of "what's blooming in your garden?" will be without them! There are several thing I like about this new set up as well. For one, it works somewhat better on my phone than the old one. When I go the list of different forums, they are all the same color, even the ones I have been to (though, the same can't be said about the posts inside those different forums...still grumbling that, that got put back to the old way!) I like that the forums I have posted on are all listed, with new comments in the "my Houzz" thingy. Makes it much easier to keep up with the activity rather than trying to remember "did I reply to that in the tomato forum or the vegetable one?" Haha, well, the not watering or mowing is sure tempting, but, since I'm spending the money anyways, I can put it towards Astro-turf instead and have the best looking yard in the western United Stats! It's fun to pretend...