My brugmansia came back after the summer heat. Here it is right now and it's getting quite big. It does very well in the shade and it's been giving me quite a lot of flowers lately. Yes, elephant ears work here. I'd suggest getting some from the alocasia family, not colocasias. I've tried colocasias, they grow well in the spring and fall but they just cannot take the heat at all in the summer, in my experience. Here's one of my Borneo Giants in full shade They will die back when it hit below freezing for more than a couple hours, but if that happens, don't water them again for the rest of the winter or else the bulb will rot. Just wait for them to pop back up in spring. Same thing with Cannas. If you're going for tropical, get some Cannas, since they LOVE being in full sun here. another one I'd recommend is the Chinese Parasol Tree. Big foliage and can take some sun. I have mine in morning sun/full shade in the afternoon. The plant loses its leave in the winter and goes dormant. Here's mine now after a week from coming back from dormancy. It's already grown about 6+ inches! Birds of paradise are great as well here in Phoenix. They're frost hardy down to 25-26f I believe. Split-leaf Philodendron are great as well. Just plant them in the shade. Plus you can find these easily at HD or Lowes. I wouldn't risk planting a castor bean though since you have pets. They drop a lot of those red spiny bean pods all over, and from what I've read are very poisonous. I'm not sure about the brug's toxicity though. Their flowers might be poisonous?

I had a friend, she passed, but she had a edible pear tree in her yard. I wanted to have some one graf it to one or to small limbs on my eating pear. However the boys sold the place. You may want to ask around. Re Mangos, suggest you talk to the university in your area you may possibly put it in a extra large pot when you can put it in a shed for the winter. God Bless

Lycheeluva, what made you decide to go with the Fairchild variety? I went back and forth myself between that and Cogshall but decided on Cogshall since a lot has been written about it. The Fairchild sounds good with its disease resistance and being from hot and humid Panama which might make it a better choice in a greenhouse. I've got that one on my list as my next choice if I can squeeze another one in.

Waterfowler, Thanks so much for the very interesting information of the propane heater. Sorry that I did not respond to it in a timely fashion--my apologies here. I have in fact acquired a propane heater and have intended to use it. This Winter, we wanted to set it up, but wasn't able to get the propane to be installed properly for use here ... It's good that we're now warming up, so I don't have to think of how to set it up again .. at least for now. But, it's good to know that some people out there are using this as an idea for warming up their plants. You've mentioned your intention to place them in between your cherimoya trees in the open. My question here is will they give the heat sufficient for warming the plants in the open? But, I'm also thinking ... any heat is better than nothing. So, maybe it's an idea here to consider for myself as well as I do have quite a few tropical trees growing out there in the open space. Thanks once again for your post. I do appreciate the information you posted here. I hope all your plants will go well for you where you're enjoying your gardening :) By the way, what's your planting zone there, may I ask?