I wish I knew why I lost these plants in the ground. I'd much rather grow them there than in containers. My soil is mostly sandy, low nutrient, acidic which allows me to grow many California native, South African, and Australian shrubs as well. There is rarely standing water from our rainfall except in one spot of my garden and then is usually soaks in by the next day. But we do get a fair amount of rainfall, mostly between November and February although this year we had a lot of rain in March. Being on a ridge we also get more rainfall than people do a mile away closer to the ocean. It's because of the rain that we have so many trees. We get a lot more rain than the Bay Area and probably more total than Seattle. When we first moved here the 8 year average rainfall was 65 inches (165.10 centimeters), but we've had some drought years so now it is down to 50 inches (127cm). In El Nino years we experienced 90 to 100 in. (228.6-254cm). We usually have no rain at all between May or June and September-October and the months on the edge of the rainy season are very low rainfall. We do have summer fog and I understand plants can soak up moisture through their leaves from it. So yes, we get a lot more rain than British Columbia and the San Francisco Bay area. The plants I can grow successfully are not the same ones people grow in southern California. From discussing climates with Lauw in France I learned that when it rains there is not the same times it rains here even though he too has a Mediterranean climate. So what is the speculation, too wet in winter, too dry in summer, soil problems? I continued to water the Peonia plants in containers until they started to dry out. Plants in the ground in my garden are very dry in summer. The plants in containers were rained on. I moved them to the shade when they went dormant and the trees probably shelter them a bit from the rain, but they were still outside. Mary Sue Mary Sue Ittner California's North Coast Wet mild winters with occasional frost Dry mild summers