Stan, Don't believe everything you see on television, especially with regard to average winter temps in Capetown and the Cape of Good Hope. They can and do get some frost there occasionally, as they have varied microclimates due to elevation and topography. wind is also much more a factor there, and weather is very inconsistent on a day to day basis as they do get cold fronts off the Antarctic as well as the Atlantic. From my observations of what is growing well in Capetown, I would say the climate is most similar to San Diego in general, but with more winter rains, and 80F is not a typical long term average daily high in winter there. I visited over a 6 week period in the Western Cape in August/September, and the weather was very much like what we get here in the SF Bay Area in mid to late spring. You needed a jacket on many days, there was typically driving windy days alternating with warmer ones, and there was snow on the mountains in back of Capetown above 5000 foot elevation, although it didn't last for more than a week at a time. Even the subtropical parts of coastal eastern South Africa can also get the occasional frost, and has, so don't believe that it never gets down to freezing along the coast from perhaps Port Elizabeth west to Capetown. As you get to Durban and points east/north, it is distinctly subtropical with no frost, unless you get inland and up into the mountains. Not really safe to generalize about South Africa unless you live there or look up the climate records... And Capetown does get their local equivalent of Santa Ana winds which result from compressed, heated air descending from the interior mountainous plateau when they get offshore wind conditions. The hot drying winds or the cold onshore winds can be really hard on gardens in Capetown, and large leafed tropicals that need lots of water fair poorly there in such events, and water is costly to provide.

So many tropical do well in SF,it is more what does not do well. Cold winter rain will also kill some tropicals even without any frost, but most sturdy tropicals will do well. Jacaranda is a nice tropical tree that does well in SF, but look around, most of the street trees are tropicals. Flame eucalyptus, Victoria Box, Indian laurel (Ficus indica) and Acacias are tropical trees used as street trees in the city. Palms come in two basic types, fan and feather. Fan palms are hardier in general and you can grow many many types. (Chuson, Windmill, California, Mexican, Mediteranian, Palmeto, Chilian Wine, to name a few), Feather palms (like Coconut Palm)are more cold sensitive. Two basic types do well in SF. Date palms (5 or 6 species)and Queen palms. A few other feather types will grow in SF, but are rarer, blue palm and jelly palm come to mind. In really protected areas you can grow Raphis, Kentia and bamboo palms but they are all relatively small scale plants. The big palms on Dolores and up Market are Date Palms. Mexican Fan Palms are the most common fan types and are seen everywhere in CA. They are cheap and fast growing. Most other fan palms are slow growers Just about any type of banana will grow in SF, but won't produce fruit. My fave is the red or Abasynian banana. As well as bananas, also think about giant bird of paradise and giant taro or elephant's ear. The only problem with these plants is that wind will shred the leaves. When they get big enough giant philodendron and monstera have arial roots. I live in Sacramento and can grow 90% of what you can grow. I have mexican fan, queen, windmill and pigmy date palm, bananas and giant bird of paradise. I also have some philodenron with arial roots. The low humidity is the most limiting factor. Most of the tropical trees I mentioned don't grow here because of it, but oleander and gardinia do great here and we can grow plants like crepe myrtles without too much fear of mildew, which is a big problem in the Bay Area. I guess it is a trade off. Happy planning

You are not alone. I plant them 10 weeks ago and none of them have more than 3 true leaves. The weather has been on the cool side this spring/summer, as it rarely hit 80F till yesterday. It hit 92F yesterday and is hitting 100F today. I think I made a mistake by not moving them to the shade till 30 minutes ago. Some of them look really sick now. The sudden heat also killed almost all of my winter melon. I guess we really need to be careful what to wish for. After 2 months of cool temperature, I had wished for summer weather for these plants to grow. Now, just 24 hours into it, I lost almost half of my summer plants.

It's even worse here. At least in NC you have humidity in the air (which is not good for cherries in another way) but in S. CA it's even harder because of the dry air. The cherry leaves tend to get baked, scorched, and desiccated. Shade cloth can really be helpful for young cherry trees in hot climates. That being said, it's still possible. I've seen a cherry tree growing out in the desert. It didn't look good but it looked like it had been surviving there for several years. Planting it in a spot with just a little partial shade will really help in the first few years, especially if that shade is in the latter half of the day. Make sure the soil is kept moist. I think one reason cherries are not more popular in many regions is because people tried planting a young tree and it did not seem to do well and finally died a year or two later. In hot climates cherry trees can need a lot of care the first few years of their life, they need adequate watering to prevent drying out in the heat and sun. Later on it will become easier when the trees are more mature. First two years are the hardest. Something else I've noticed, and it's true for many tropical plants as well, is that in this climate certain plants seem to thrive better when in close proximity to lots of other plants. They provide mutual protection to each other from too much direct exposure to sun and hot/cold wind. Just like in nature where the forest canopy creates its own microclimate. I think it also helps increase localized humidity levels a little bit to help prevent the plants from drying out. (obviously this may not be such a good thing in other parts of the country where the humidity levels are already really high, since cherries are prone to disease there)