My brugmansia came back after the summer heat. Here it is right now and it's getting quite big. It does very well in the shade and it's been giving me quite a lot of flowers lately. Yes, elephant ears work here. I'd suggest getting some from the alocasia family, not colocasias. I've tried colocasias, they grow well in the spring and fall but they just cannot take the heat at all in the summer, in my experience. Here's one of my Borneo Giants in full shade They will die back when it hit below freezing for more than a couple hours, but if that happens, don't water them again for the rest of the winter or else the bulb will rot. Just wait for them to pop back up in spring. Same thing with Cannas. If you're going for tropical, get some Cannas, since they LOVE being in full sun here. another one I'd recommend is the Chinese Parasol Tree. Big foliage and can take some sun. I have mine in morning sun/full shade in the afternoon. The plant loses its leave in the winter and goes dormant. Here's mine now after a week from coming back from dormancy. It's already grown about 6+ inches! Birds of paradise are great as well here in Phoenix. They're frost hardy down to 25-26f I believe. Split-leaf Philodendron are great as well. Just plant them in the shade. Plus you can find these easily at HD or Lowes. I wouldn't risk planting a castor bean though since you have pets. They drop a lot of those red spiny bean pods all over, and from what I've read are very poisonous. I'm not sure about the brug's toxicity though. Their flowers might be poisonous?

Greystoke, Well, the beast is up and running. A few kinks to work out. The lid isn't tight enough and I get some dripping. This should be easily solved using either weights or maybe plastic clamps. I'm not too impressed with the misters. They don't quite "mist" as advertised. And they certainly aren't covering 360 degrees. I am managing to get complete coverage on all the pots so that is something I guess. I've had issues with the heater but that has been more of a user issue. I went with expanded clay as a growing medium. There wasn't much thought behind that decision and that brings me to this question. Is the media available mainly a personal choice or is one a better choice for a specific type of growing/plant? I had some 3 inch cups and some of the pellets would fall thru the gaps. This resulted in looking for the larger pieces to put on the bottom. I'm primarily a soil grower and it is hard for me to "trust" what is going on here...especially with the plants I've chosen to experiment with. I am starting off simple and using only the B'Cuzz Root in the sump. I also have their foliar spray. Hopefully the plants won't be dead within a week. I'll monitor any changes and hope to see some progress.

Hi Raza, I live in zone 9 in central FL and we had temps in the mid to upper 20's and a few 30's for appx. 8-10 nights in a row. I have several mango and lychee trees planted in the ground...Some of my trees had severe damages(some I'm not sure if its still alive) a couple of my mango trees only had minor damages. I protected them all pretty much the same...had lights or catalytic heaters underneath them and covered them with frost cloth and sheets, yet some were "severely damaged" any way. I'm thinking location had a major factor(micro climate) in my yard. I do have one Container mango. I have it in a 24" pot that I brought inside the garage, I used a "dolly" it weighs a ton, but all I did was bring it inside the garage and didn't have to cover it or anything and was completely fine for the 8-10 days I had it in there. I would open up the garage when the sun came out and it was above 40's and brought it back in at night. I would do what Mango kush suggest and just bring them inside for the 1-5 days a year that you need it. Check out the tropical fruit forum like he said, lots of people grow their mango trees inside. Good luck! Here's mine when it had fruits last summer. I repotted and trimmed it in August...Its in a 24" pot now.

I'm not sure if my experience will help, but I'll try. I have dwarf cavendish outdoors in a shaded location and they can stand shade in lieu of full sun, but they grow slower, and pup less frequently. I know you read that bananas feed a lot, and they do, but not as much as you plan. When I moved in they were neglected for a year (bank foreclosure) and were fruiting so they were neglected on watering and food. Now that they get irrigated at least weekly whether by rain or hose and are fed more regularly they are still slower to pup and fruit than other cultivars I have that get the same attention but more sunlight. So my advice would be to mulch them, don't let them dry out, feed "regularly" but vary the food source. Bananas also like clean wood ash, but don't use ash from paper or cardboard. As far as pups go, once the korm grows and spreads I think you'll have to find bigger buckets too. I also think you'll do better with multiple pots of bananas rather than one. I find that on occasion my pups will outperform the parent in fruit growth and pup production just by being in a different location. I hace some 8 or 9 different bananas and find very different growth habits based mostly on light.