I think a lot of it depends on location. I was touring the yard today and noticed that one of my Endless Summer that is blocked with an air conditioning unit just to the west of it has green buds starting to leaf out all the way to the tips, while in the same bed to the east of this ES about 15' away, three ES aren't leafing out at all yet, but it looks like the stems are dead. To the west and north of the lively ES about 15' away is a planting of three ES that have green leaf buds part-way up. Point is, the plants are all in the same general vicinity, but the microclimates are playing a role here.

Hey, even though those three ES look deader than a doornail now, they will sprout from the ground and be loaded with blooms all summer - gotta love ES in this zone!!!!

"gotta love ES in this zone!!!!" Oh, for sure! And, gotta love those microclimates, too. Hopefully, my ES will survive every winter like this one; but I have a feeling it was because we had a milder than normal one this year. If it dies back, and grows from the base, do you find that the new stems are strong enough to hold the flowers upright?

My ES are still young - this will be the third summer in the ground for one grouping, only the second summer in the group for the other groups, so the flowers aren't all that huge yet. I did not notice any flopping last summer on the new stems, though, and the flowers were of a good size. :)

Oh, that's good to hear. I can't wait to see my (one - lol) ES in bloom - they must look really nice in groups. Thanks, mxk