Hi, my name is Jen and I live in Merritt Island, Florida. It is technically Zone 9 here, I think, but since we are located on a narrow part of the island between the Indian River and the Ocean, the weather behaves more like Zone 10 here. I am collecting a lot of palms and tropicals such as Heliconias and gingers right now, as we are in the process of constructing a very natural looking swimming pool with a beach entry and a rock waterfall and want to plant low maintenance, non-messy plants that will complement the tropical atmosphere. So far we have Christmas palms, a Foxtail Palm, a Bottle Palm, Two Double Montgomery Palms (I think, see Plant ID post by me), a Solitaire Palm, a Cardboard Palm, two Dwarf Red Bananas (the kind with the "port wine stains" on the leaves), two pineapples, One huge Lobsterclaw Heliconia, two large Parrot Heliconias, several of the smaller Parakeet heliconias, a philodendron xanadu, and a small pink Plumeria. I plan to get some beehive ginger and some other types of gingers, and who knows what else. I would appreciate any advice on the care of these plants, although I have already put together a book with a lot of that type of info. I can always use more info.
Welcome to the forums FlyingJenny. Sounds like you are growing a great collection of tropicals down there in Fla. We look forward to hearing more about your garden.
