I've got several in different locations, but they all get water a couple of times a month, so I can't comment on if they're drought tolerant⦠The one with the nicest foliage is lightly shaded for part of the day, but the ones that bloom the best are in full sun all day long, and frankly it's all about the blooms for me.

If you don't sheer them back after each bloom, they're going to eventually look bad, so when there's a bunch of finished flower stems, trim way back into the foliage to get a new flush and prevent dead wood. I severely cut back the whole bush at the end of winter before the new spring growth starts. You can also *not* trim it at all, let the branches bend and touch the ground during the summer, and then let them root for new plants.

I can't remember where I read it, but I think S. greggi isn't the most long-lived plant, so if it starts to go downhill, it's probably best to just replace it with a new one. Even with good care you're eventually going to end up with woody stumps and less than vigorous growth.

I trimmed them severely about a month ago, and they were just beginning to look ok again when we found a puppy on the side of the road. In the 2-1/2 weeks the puppy was here, she managed to crush the middle out of most of them, and generally give most of my plants the crop circle treatment.

I put some in the ground here in the hill country many years ago (like 16 years!) and have done absolutely NOTHING to them and they continue to grow and sprawl out and bloom. Completely drought tolerant it seems. I have one white and one pink variety.

We have white, purple and red varieties that usually do fine on the north side of Dallas with supplemental water just two or three times a year. Only problem has been root rot if they stay wet too long over the winter in our blackland prairie clay. The amount of watering you describe does seem like a lot for our area; can you tell if the roots are healthy?

Also, do you have improved cultivars or generic plants? Our 'Furman's Red' is the fullest and best flowering of the bunch. The rest are generic and tend to look more like less dense modest flowering desert shrubs.

MMy pink preference Dalia greggie is planted on a good slant in hill country limestone rubble and it survived 2011 without a watering. It did not look good but it recovered the next year. I never water it. I trim it in months that begin with J. Harder in January . It does not stop blooming in the summer. I trim it anyway when it slows down I also Have X san antonio, Therese, salmon, purple, I buy them by color because too many growers want to see there special name in the trade. I do think the Pink preference is more hardy that some of the others. I had some of the colors need replacing after 2011. I can not speak for growing in Dallas in clay ( that's what I here you have) ⦠Oh I have good luck in growing them on a mound of Washed decomposed granite sand and compost over red clay in Wimberley in a garden I planted there in full sun. The pink preference blooms heavy. I have watered it once this summer. It did not need watering but I did for some other plants at its feet.

I remember typing an answer, but it's not here. I don't know what cultivar I have. I got them maybe 10 years ago from Txgardenlady. Remember her? When I dug some out and moved them in the spring, the roots looked fine. They are alive, just not as healthy as i've seen in the pictures of other people.