Even if they did thrive in FL, I wouldn't be able to have them here, the slugs and the deer wouldn't allow it, but I think they are nice looking shade plants.

You should bring him up a pot full of Ferns. I just finished trying to pull them out of the pool planter. People up north love them.

Well, while he's been at work and I've been 'idling' around the house, I dug up all the rhizomes for him. He's much happier with his backyard now. Though, he has a nasty infestation of ground-covering violets and those will be much harder to get rid of as their rhizomes snap at the slightest provocation.

I would LOVE to have an "infestation" of violets.
Maybe I can dig some up and start one...

I didn't read up on those violets, but from what I saw in his yard, I wouldn't want them. They were supposedly planted by a prior owner of the house and they did nothing to contain the plants and they are EVERYWHERE. I tried pulling some up for him, but as stated above, the running rhizomes broke so easily, I may have only doubled their numbers in that area. I regretfully had to advise him that his best bet might be regular glysophosphate treatments until the rhizomes are dead.