One of my columbines, OkPrairie, has done surprisingly well in the heat. I wouldn't say it looks stunning, but still has its foliage. I think it is 'Texas Star', so maybe with that name, it has been bred for heat tolerance. The other one is Nora Barlow - the double pink and white, without spurs. It always suffers, so I pulled the dead foliage off, and it has already sprouted new. EEs are tropical and hence, need lots of water. They will let you know, like the spathephyllum does by its weeping foliage, that they need water. In fact, the spaths are also aroids, as are the elephants ears. Do you have regular colocasia esculenta? I have two of these, and they seem to be the worst for water needs. I bought new ones this year, Alocasia plumbea nigra, A. wentii (36" high max, with dark green leathery leaves with maroon back), colocasia esculenta 'Ruffles' (leaves have ruffled edges), colocasia esculenta 'Illustris' (also common), colocasia esculenta 'Black Magic', colocasia esculenta fontanesii (black stemmed with dark purple green foliage), and colocasia gigantea 'Thai Giant' (leaves eventually get 5' long). I also have remusatis vivipara (foliage is like an EE, but at summer's end, like now, they produce these funny little tubercles that come up from the ground about 8" high, and produce bulbils that can be planted for new ones). I also bought another aroid (these are all aroids), pinellia pedetasacta (green dragon), which is a fast growing shade groundcover. It only had 1 leaf on it, and in two weeks, it now has 5 coming up - very pretty! I can't wait until the fontanesii flowers; the spaths are supposed to be white with purple vertical striping! Next year, I am going to break down and grow Amorphophallus konjac and philodendrum binnatifolium, which should be hardy here, according to Tony Avent, and Troy of Bali (who grows amorphs out the gazoo). I would also like to start some of the species calla lilies. I have gone aroiderserk! Sorry, I'll get off my aroid bench now! Susan

Meyermike, LaQuillo is where I fell in love with Coconut palm trees...I was so impressed on how large and how green the trees were!!! As you know...as the years go by they don't seem to be as lush and green as they were 20+ years ago...probably because they sold the plantation and noone is there to take care of the trees!!! That's a bummer but they still look great to me. My kids love that beach...it's the first place that they had local food cooked by the road in those fryers...where the local ladies slapped the ingredients together with banana leaves...I'm glad that I didn't look to closely in those vats of oil!!! LOL...but it was truly delicious...whatever it was!!! A long time ago when it was a local secret, we found our way to the large waterfall swimming hole...That was so much fun...Now they have the path partly paved and with hand rails at certain spots...That was a little depressing because part of the experience was to see if you could handle the trail and the joy of making it down and to find the falls!!! Not to mention having to climb back up after you swim and dive all day!! I enjoyed hearing the "Coki" frogs while on the climb down to the waterfall...I love El Yunque!!! I hope you are receiving some sunshine up in MA...we just had a great downpour..but it only lasted 15 minutes!! We need more rain here in VA... A job down in Disney sounds like a great idea!!! Maybe Pooh Bear or sleepy could be fun... then you could prop up your feet under a few shady palms and play up the character...sounds like a plan!!! LOL Laura

"Michelia Alba is one of the most difficult plants to grow in Hot, Dry, climate. Worse to impossible to grow it in terracotta pots sitting in the sun all day. Unless you are a professional with unlimited buget, don't try it." I haven't had to do anything special with mine. I'm also pretty far from a professional :) I'd say it's less picky than some plants that I've seen others grow on these forums (like Plumeria for example). I have to keep the Alba out of too much sun in the summer, but that's true for a lot of other plants. It's also possible I got lucky and did something that the plant liked, and they are genuinely tough to grow around climates like this.

Thanks, everyone, for all the wonderful advice. I have crossed the border from Nevada to California and was never stopped and asked questions about what I had in my truck. I had no idea they were that strict about bringing in plants. I also did read that during the summer months geraniums in PS need to be placed in an eastern exposure with only morning sun. But during winters in the desert they can be moved to areas with more sun during the day. I just wondered if other people had personal experience with them. I've been in Palm Springs in August when it was 120 degrees. I know what it's like personally. But at the time I wasn't paying attention to the plants. I was in Palm Springs this past March and saw properties with flowers like snapdragons and alyssum in the landscape. I asked about that and was told they are their "winter" flowers that don't survive the summers in that area. I thought that was kinda funny since I'me from the Midwest and have been used to the opposite my whole life. :-)