Another thing that looks amazingly tropical and is actually annual here would be a papaya. You can start them from supermarket seed in the winter then plant out a seedling which will get to 6-10' by the end of the summer! Wonderful foliage, and not too wide- single trunk. At the farmer's market i saw someone putting them in the middle of color baskets. Didn't get a chance to stop & ask if they had them separate- probably not. But it's nice to see them being incorporated. Castor bean could be used similarly, and in act looks similar, but more branchy- and very very poisonous if you have little kids. Both those would love sun. I don't think the chinese fiber banana gets anywhere near as tall as regular bananas, fyi- and they have a more fan like profile. Very cool. Also, you could plant the caladiums & such in the shade cast by a small tree. Another small tree/ bush that looks very tropical is hardy tapioca. It will come back each year. EE's can handle the sun if they're kept moist enough. Nothing looks more tropical to me. If you end up with a trellis, rather than doing roses, you could do more tropical looking vines on it. Mina lobata, the big blue thunbergia, passionflower and mandevilla all pop out at me as good options.

Thanks Orchiddude! That palm is a solitaire palm. It's a great palm indoors and out! Tropicalbreezent got it right! Thanks Jim! Thanks jacklord. Im in SI, not as urban as most see NYC, but still not as much room as I would like to have! Thanks Bradleyo! Yeah, it gets to be a lot indoors, but luckily my family doesnt mind too much (well they mind, but they know how much it means to me!) and my dog is pretty good with not eating any plants (but she does love to get into the garbage). I will definitely post some indoor pics when the time comes! Thanks Island! Yup! I live in NYC! Some plants are in pots, some are in the ground. A few, like the palms in the ground, survive the winter with some protection (I just put some christmas lights and a garbage bin over them). Others like the elephant ears and bananas are easy to bring in and store for the winter. Some of the plants cant be dug up (like the coconut palm and tropical palms) so those are in pots and get put by a sunny window! The plumerias go dormant so they are pretty easy to keep indoors, but the large one might not fit indoors this year! The Passionvine, cannas, and ginger are hardy. The purple plants under the Elephant ears are called Purple Heart. They will be evergreen in your climate which is a huge plus! They look good up until temperatures get into the upper 20s, then they die back. They are hardy to zone 8 and up, but they come back for me since they are in a good microclimate. They are a little invasive, but easy to control and I think they are worth growing for sure! Thanks for looking everyone! -Alex

I hate nocking people and while I like the look of the non traditional pool there is a reason people choose low dropping leaves or larger leaves. Your list is horrible, nearly everything on there sheds so your looking for low maintance, good luck with that. LG magnolia is a pretty good choice, loropetalum look great but drop their small blooms and shed depending on variety, Knock out roses are nice but self deadhead, wouldn't put them close to the pool or a breeze would have your pool littered, I am totally with fairview. Its not only about taste its about how much work your going to be doing down the road. If you like the look of traditional check out japanese pools and some of the Japanese maples that drop all their leaves at the same time of the year "making cleanup easier". Jolie, just look around at what is working in the area and talk to a good garden center. Palms seem to do well in many parts of AZ, near phoenix and personally I would go with a purple bougainvillaea or three.

Thanks for the input! Ohhh, I forgot about Pink Muhly...that's definitely going on the "plant want" list. I was at one of the big box stores a few days ago and asked when they might put the zebra grass on sale and the manager offered to sell me them for 1/2 price!!! Yippee! I got four of them. Now I just need it to cool off a bit so I can start planting. Haha, my patio is almost full of markdown plants I have been getting to start my new beds.