Thanks, Treefrog. It can and does get cold here...I've seen 8 winters here and the average low is has been 25....with a low of 19 one year (2003) and two years with nothing below 30....the 19 degree year dessicated all of my freshly planted citrus, but all survived. The "zone pushing" plants I do have, are planted on the south side of my house with tall oak canopy, which gives me another 3-5 degrees warmth. I used to have a couple of very mature passiflota edulis vines, producing hundreds and hundreds of dollars worth of commercial quality fruit, until some sort of fungal problems got them after the 2004 hurricane season. Dr. Wallace from Armstrong Atlantic came and took cuttings from the plant ( a purple possum and a black knight) because they, like lots of things, weren't supposed to grow this far north. Having less sunlight and heatting days in the winter, I am firmly convinced, increases most subtropical plants cold hardiness. Good luck and lets hope my next freezes aren't severe, and you have no more in your forecast.

Yea Chad-that WILL be an issue but thats why it is next to the porch,so I can add on and secure it to the house(-: The 2 varieties I like are the New Zealand purple and the Ricin "Zanzibar" -the latter is the big leaved one (-; Sometimes the leaves on the Purps do look like cooper but it is difficult to capture on "film" All the other Castors are normal sized,the 4 big boys jumped out quick and with the help of a week of 80s in March they broke out of the seedling stage fast-one of the nice things about having all the protection laying around from the palms is that I was able to use some of it on the Bananas and Castors. At one point my Abyssinian grew like 1' in a few days because it was hitting the 90s in the cover- Also-the 4 biggest Castors were planted (by at least)April 6 and I think that is a month earlier than "normal".

Very nice blooms! Panic in Detroit, El Desperado, and Via Dolorosa are my favorites. You have a lot of pretty companion plants as well! Lori

Wonderful to see this. Here is my contribution today.