I think the climate will be a problem. I know next to nothing about tropical or even semi-tropical plants, but from what I'm reading, her best chance for growing something similar to azaleas in other than mountainous regions would be vireya rhododendron and not the type azaleas you are growing in NE Florida. Even the south part of your state doesn't support many azaleas where winter temperatures may not provide adequate chilling, resulting in sporadic flowering and poor overall performance.

Although parts of Venezuela are tropical, most is temperate and some parts are snow fields. Its climate is very elevation dependent.

There are several species of azalea native to Florida: R. alabamense, R. austrinum, R. canescens, and R. viscosum. However, they are deciduous azaleas, not evergreen florist azaleas. It certainly wouldn't hurt to experiment with a couple florist azaleas and a couple deciduous azaleas.

Don Hyatt has a good website that covers both evergreen and deciduous azaleas. It is:

http://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/rhodocuttings.html

Here is a link that might be useful: How to grow azaleas and their problems.