One book that I have been enjoying is called Gardening and Landscaping in Central Florida by Marlys Bell. It does not tackle the Tropical look specifically, but illustrates all the issues that living in zone 9a/b has to take into consideration. Throughout the book it gives suggestions for what types of plants to put in for what kind of situation and goal. "If you want green and lush through out the year, try these..." type of suggestions. It also doesn't cover some of the more exotic types of plants that might be used, but more covers the ones that you "plant and forget" as the book tries to follow the Florida Friendly concepts of "Right Plant, Right Place", "Water Efficiently", "Mulching", "Appropriate Fertilization", "Responsible Pest Management", "Recycling", "Reducing Storm Runoff" and "Protecting the Waterways". I don't think this book by itself will help you to achieve that Tropical Look, but it can definitely help you to make sure landscape works instead of having to be replaced a few years down the road. Another book to look into is free over the internet and has lots of good information about Landscaping in Florida. The Florida-Friendly Guide to Plant Selection and Landscape Design (for some reason the Update Message button keeps adding a space at the end of this link and breaking it. If/when you follow this link, check the address bar and remove the spaces from between the d and f in pdf) was put out by the University of Florida and is chocked full of good information. And at the end of this pdf is a rather large illustrated list of plants to consider for use. But you have to read over this list with care as it covers all plants for all of Florida, so a beautiful, tropical looking palm might turn out to be Zone 11 recommended. I like this book so much that I downloaded it to my computer so that I always have it on hand instead of having to find an internet connection and to check online. If the above link takes you directly to the PDF file instead of giving you the option to download it, you can right-click the link and choose "Save Target Link as..." to save it to your computer. Those are the only two books that I have to suggest, as they are pretty much the only books I have so far (well, I also have Florida's Best Native Landscape Plants but this will definitely NOT help you to achieve the Tropical look... well... it could... but not to the extent that I think you're looking for.). But these two are so full of information to take into consideration that I wish I had found them when I first started working with my yard. Edit: And now that the caffeine has penetrated my system a little more and my eyes are a tad bit more open... I realize you never really said you wanted the Tropical Look... just you wanted a book about Tropical Gardening... Oops. This post was edited by Leekle2ManE on Sun, Apr 14, 13 at 7:52

If you want to read about the history of the fruits, David Fairchild's books are great. "The World Was My Garden" is my favorite of his books. His others are still quite good. Pineapple Culture by Gary Okihiro. The book that I probably reference the most when it comes to growing fruits and finding out information is Julia Morton's Fruits of Warm Climates. It is by far the best book on tropical and subtropical fruit in existence. Luckily it is available for free online at :http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/index.html You can find the soft and hardcover copies for sale on Amazon and other retailers online. PROSEA - Edible Fruits and Nuts. A very detailed book about tropical fruits. Whitman's Five Decades with Tropical Fruit - Lots of info and history about growing many tropicals in Florida. Wilson Popenoe by Rosengarten - Good history. All of the CABI books on specific fruits are pretty good. Lots of very detailed information. They are compilations of articles written by different scientists from around the world for each specific fruit. I'm sure there's a bunch more that I'm forgetting but these are the main ones that stick out in my memory. If I think of anymore i'll post.

Is there a possibility of donating your books to a library and having them available as "books on line"? You wouldn't have to ship most of them, and won't have to worry about humidity. You're not going to be happy with lots of paper in a very humid atmosphere. They will get yukked up. Alternatively, go to cheap shoe stores and ask for the "Do Not Eat"'s ... pack up all your books in plastic storage boxes with those little packets in them... Ewwww... not a very pleasing thought for someone with 'walls of books'. Next question is... why do you need to bring 'walls of books' with you? Do you read them repeatedly? Sorry, just enthralled with the "Clean Sweep concept"

The Tropical Look by Robert Lee Riffle is superb. It is on sale at the moment here in one of the inner city Brisbane stores.