Most of the crested ones I have survived over the winter. I did lose one Deep Fire Crested, but have several of those. I have another named one that died, but I have to track down its name (the tag blew away over the winter).
As I see it, there are several forms for the cresting. One form, the plant grows so that the crest part forms basically a circle that gradually forces the rooted part out of the ground. A second form grows along the surface of the soil, but zig-zags so that the plant doesn't form a circle. A third looks like Chris's picture above, where the crested part does not grow without limits and the rosette more or less resembles a rosette. The forms are relatively stable within the particular form, but there cn be some switching about.
Most of my crested ones physically lost size over the dry winter we had, but then so did a lot of the normal plants.
