Smittee, I agree with funsocaltiger about the local ones being bigger than what you get from those mail order ones. I haven't ordered anything through the mail yet, although I've heard some good reports from those who do. I find buying from the local stores allow me to poke around with the plants, check if they're healthy and finally take my pick. I usually scout for them at Home Depot, Lowe's, Walmart and even K-mart. Plus some other local nurseries if they happen to sell them. You'll most likely find Cavendish variety (whether it's the tall, dwarf or superdwarf specie). Occasionally, you may get something nice. I got my Kru from HD, Zebrina from Walmart. One Walmart also had some Basjoo. One thing nice with shopping locally is if you find something wrong with the plants, you can almost always bring them back for a refund. I brought one of the diseased cavendish back to K-mart one day and they took back their plant. Talking about diseased plants, make sure you look out for smelly juice oozing out from the pseudostem. It's a sign of virus infection. If you are just starting, you may find Cavendish a good one to start out with because they're the most easily available ones and fairly cold tolerate too although there was one winter when one of mine died. However, the corm didn't really die. The following spring, it had a new plant. Choose some more disease and cold tolerant ones to avoid some heartaches. I haven't planted them long enough to know for sure, but Ice Cream, Praying Hands and Manzano seem to be quite hardy. Hope you find something you like to plant soon. Once you start planting, you'll never want to stop. Welcome to banana addiction.

Welcome oregontejano, I have lived in Texas most of my life and I LOVE the coast here. You can grow many tropicals on the Lower Coast (from Corpus Christi southward), even coconut palms from North Padre Island southward, and they are becoming quite popular in the Brownsville/South Padre area. I would suggest that you move to the Corpus area or southward, because this area is Zone 9B/10A, and there are so many neat things you can grow in this region, and the fishing and snorkeling/scuba diving is pretty good too, especially in the summer and early fall. Last July, while snorkeling at the jetty at South Padre Island, I saw 10 sea turtles in an hour and a half! Anyway, for palms (my specialty), you can grow queen palms, Medjool date palms, Canary Island date palms, pygmy date palms, Senegal date palms, pindo palms, Mexican fan palms, California fan palms, Texas palm (native to the Rio Grande Valley), the dwarf palm (native to East Texas and the Upper Coast), Mediterranean fan palm, Chinese fan palm, lady palm, various Chamaderea palms, and I am sure several others that I forgot to mention. You can also grow my two favorites from North Padre Island southward to the Rio Grande Valley, and those are the coconut palm, especially the Mexican Tall (the coconuts of which wash up on our beaches from spring to the fall, and yes they will sprout), and the royal palm, though the royal does better with some protection from salt spray. The coconut however, loves salt spray. As far as flowers, try: hibiscus, bougainvillea, mandevilla, oleander, ixora, bird of paradise, etc. The croton does well here too, especially with some protection from winter winds. For flowering trees, the ordchid tree does well here. If you move to the Rio Grande Valley, you can grow large beautiful royal poiciana trees, and they produce a lot of beautiful red blooms in the summer, and even seed there. For fruits, you can grow: sea grapes (close to the coast), mangoes, avocadoes, papayas, pineapples, guavas, pineapple guavas, coconuts (the coconut palm will produce coconuts in the Brownsville/South Padre Island area), lemons, limes, oranges, tangelos, grapefruit, etc. Welcome to our own little tropical paradise. Just be advised that every 10-15 years the area gets hit with a really hard freeze, but some tropicals will recover afterwards, and the others grow so fast, that all you have to do is replant the following spring! And remember to be willing to provide extra water, since as it was stated above the area is semi-arid. But other than the occasional hurricane (the Lower Texas Coast has the least incidents of hurricanes of any part of the Gulf Coast!), it is a really great place to live and much more reasonable cost of living wise than many coastal areas of the U.S. If you have any questions, just email me at: mr.coconutpalm@yahoo.com John

Davesgarden has half-accurate info blended in with contradictory user contributions. Read with great caution and realize that some people's experiences or negative comments on plants are based on their brown thumb or limited experience since they killed their plant the first time by bad care or site location, etc. Do google image searches for various key words, or just go to the bookstore and finger through tropical books for one rich in photos that catches your eye and meets your aesthetic.

Our GE microwave transformer/magnatron caught fire and filled our home with thick black noxious smoke. It was only about 2 years old! It was scary, were were lucky the breaker turned it off because it wouldn't turn off!!! If this happened to you call Contact Consumer Product Safety division, Consumer product Safety commission, in our area the phone number is 631 724-0154, also call Underwriters Labratories, and document it on "bringgoodthingstolife.org Make sure it says .org not .com. Because ge just sent us from department to department an "didn't notifiy the proper department" after a few days they will finely realize you are not going away if you keep calling, then they will send you to their Electric insurance, then you will get a call from their attorney asking you questions, beware tell him to you have to consult an attorney before you say anything. Then Samsung who actually made the microwave, their insurance Chubb will contact you, thats when it goes from bad to worse. Our fire was on Dec 24th, 2010, Chubb accepted restoration January 5th, 2011. I found out I should have just gone through my homeowners because GE just bounces you around and around and around. I should have called an attorney and Consumer Product Safety right away. Any one looking to buy a microwave should google GE Microwave class action, GE micowave law suit, GE micowave follow it by either defect, malfunction, transforer fire, magnatron fire.