I'm NOT in a tropical climate -- far, far drier. But what Nik said: nikthegreek(9b/10a E of Athens, Greece) What the roses may find stressful as plants is not the heat or humidity but the lack of winter coolness That rang true for me. While not tropical, here in coastal Southern California, we also have No Winter Chill. In that situation, Austin roses that were perfectly well-behaved elsewhere morphed here into Jolly Green Giants ... growing 12- 14-ft. tall, and blooming only at the very top. If we cut them down, they responded by hunkering down and growing back to 12-ft., to produce one large bloom or cluster. After a few seasons of that, we had to acknowledge the advice we had received that these were not the ideal roses for our conditions. We still grow a few Austins . . . Golden Celebration is great here (but would blackspot for you). Prospero is one of my all-time favorites, as is Belle Story, and my DH loves Cymbaline.

Jojo! Thanks for that info. I shall have to make sure my cat has no access to them come the winter. As for the stray cats, oops. As for the squirrels, good riddence..lol This is a very beautiful thread. I just love the pictures too. This is very encouraging for many of us here, especially after seeing X's, Monet's, and Laura's! Lauar: Just lovely as always. Oh the pictures you share here are so amazing and many here haven't even seen all your palms! I will hop along tomorrow and I promise to take some pictures of the ones you sent me:-) They are doing very well, loaded with leaves of course in the FULL hot sun! I might be able to get them to look like X's and close to yours if I do this right! X made some very good sense which I think many have not even thought of, at least I. Again, thank X Laura: By the way Mom just received your card and is just so thankful for that and all you do. We will write you later. :-)))))) I'll bet your even your plumies hate that heat. i wonder how Jojo keeps hers so healthy and happy? X: Do you fertilize your Adeniums at all? Jeff and Hankeat, Thanks. Karyn1, such a beautiful flower you have there, Bravo Mike

Thankyou so much, longaeva54, for those two links! I am pleasantly surprised with the array of tropical and subtropical fruit trees and shrubs they offer. I think I'll get a container-compatible 'condo' mango variety, such as a 'Pickering', Nam doc mai, Julie, Ice Cream, etc. I plan to keep it outside in my garden from late spring to early autumn, then return it indoors before the night time temperature falls below 7 degrees C. I can provide supplementary artifical light in the form of two 4 tube 4ft 216 Watt 16,600 lumens T5 HO fluorescent units. That's a total lumen output of 33,200 lumens. Is this sufficient to assist the mango during the colder months? These growlights emit heat, but less so compared to HPS. With my two T5 units running simultaneously, the temperature in my conservatory reaches a sultry 35 degrees C. I keep the relative humidity high, at 90+%. My plants love these high humidity levels, especially my seed-grown carambola, which has put out an abundance of new growth. At lower humidity levels, I found that the heat from the T5 was driving moisture away from the leaves of the carambola, causing yellowing and twig die-back. Even my avocado plants like the high humidity levels and have put out a flush of new leaves. Despite such high humidity levels, I rarely encounter fungal growth on my plants. I think the high temperature discourages fungal growth. Bananafan: yes, I will post pictures of my plants; please stay tuned! I first have to get myself a decent digital camera. My mobile phone picture quality is terrible! I hear that Canon make some economically priced, yet good quality, digital cameras. Has anyone had experience with Canon?

H. scheideana blooms every year for me here in Berkeley, and is certainly evergreen in a wind protected and dappled shade setting, with lots of fertilizer and water as long as it doesn't freeze. It truly is adapted to our cool winter weather, because it pushes both flowers and new foliage for me even when temps get down into the hight 30'sF. There are also several other more commonly available species that will also do as well outdoors as long as the foliage doesn't freeze. These include H. latispatha, H. spissa, H. bourgeana, H. aurantiaca, H. matthiasae. Some of these can be bought online from suppliers such as Aloha Tropicals, or Stokes Tropicals in Louisiana. There are a few other suppliers in Southern California, but they don't ship. For those here in the SF Bay Area, getting the H. scheideana thru Monterey Bay Nursery is probably the easiest solution. Don't count on any of them flowering if you can't get the plant through the winter without freezing, as we just don't get hot enough to get blooms on new growth in less than a year, like they can in south Florida. Anyone growing 30 kinds of Heliconia in California has quite a collection, but I am willing to bet that over half of those varieties need a lot of help to get through a wet/cold winter, and are even less likely to survive year round outdoors here in northern California. If you stick with the kinds from higher elevation cloudforests in Southern Mexico, you can have thriving blooming clumps. Check out the Palmetum at Lake Merritt in Oakland to see a large clump of H. scheideana in bloom now. I do have some friends growing them in Sunset zone 15 conditions rather than 16 or 17, but you risk losing them to frost and never seeing them bloom.