Thanks Herman, I already had that on my list of must haves must have 1 - farm land - need agricultural tax exempt status, no residential stuff (10-20 acres) 2 - elevation, no chance of flooding 3 - cleared land, or at least 50 pct cleared, don't want to be removing trees for the rest of life. 4 - Power pole and deep well 5 - small-medium mobile home, livable condition 6 - paved road access 7 - cost.. Not asking too much..am I? The rest I can manage, plant a row of trees (likely, dunstan chestnuts) to block west and north side winds. Soil quality is pretty much a moot point, Florida has no soil, mostly just dirty sand and coral rock. I will have to enrich area where tees will be planted... Herman, you can be the first guest of honor...LOL I am expending my fig tree collection in south florida and growing the trees at max rate while I search and plan, inventory time this weekend...

I have no idea what kind of bananas I have, but it's one that has tall plants. Not a dwarf, that's for sure. It's almost up to the roof now. It's going to be a good 10 feet tall, I believe. I'm hoping it's an ice cream banana. I love those, and they are pretty common around here. I had a Praying Hands in SW FL, but it never got big enough to have fruit. I ended up selling it when I moved. I also had a thousand fingers that died during a particularly wet period.

The Atlas of Florida Plants only has it being found in 9 counties, Levy being the southernmost of them. Like I said, 9a, not 9b. http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Plant.aspx?id=974

That's so awesome to hear!! Born & raised in St.pete, I lived there my entire life. I Moved to brooksville 2 yrs ago- I'm in a cold pocket considered 9a-9b but didn't do any research b4 moving :( apparently, Fla gets 30% more rain than the US & brooksville gets 30% more rain than fla ?? last rainy season killed many of my plants :( they rotted. The thought of this rainy season scares me to death! Last year it rained weeks at a time. only a few min here or there of sunlight. I dread the rain now :( I potted up a bunch of dahlia tubers from Walmart. All growing well but still small -I'd like to start a dahlia garden for the heat tolerant varieties I just purchased from swanIsland but there are no trees on the 3 acres we live, so it's brutally hot, all direct sun! I compare brooksvilles temps to St Pete often. Even tho we're farther north, it gets hotter here than in st Pete. Maybe bc st petes a peninsula & brooksville's inland? I bought a chaste tree & rose of Sharon to plant for shade but they're still small :( I'm half tempted to c if i can find two 10-15' trees to have planted in the yard for shade- the heat here is brutal!! Even now in spring- yesterday was 95• don't know the humidity but it had to be somewhat high bc it felt much hotter than 95 outside especially without shade :( thankyou joey ! Anyone else is welcome to post their experience with dahlias in Florida - I would greatly appreciate it !! Thanks :)