I feel a list coming on (they are all in the ground):

Citrus:
Blood Orange - from seed to 2ft in three years, no complaints
Meyer Lemon - one gallon gift has yielded lemons all three years, thriving

Palms:
Canary Island Date Palm - from three gallon to monster, if you have the room this is your palm
Silver Date Palm - Seedling is adjusting but putting out new fronds, so far so good
Bismarkia nobilis - Seedling is sulking, I hope that it is establishing its roots and puts out some growth this summer or I think that winter will kill it
Chinese Fan Palm - Establishing itself, so far so good
Foxtail Palm - Seedling in sun scorched to death, seedling in shade putting out new growth, three gallon in semi-sun recovering nicely from a nursery- induced spider mite infestation
Pygmy Date Palm - growing as fast as these little guys do
Mexican Fan Palm - Until Tropical Storm Cindy this was a big success, now it is looking really stressed, I think the roots were disturbed by the wind
Queen Palms - Coming along a little more slowly than I expected, next year will tell
Sabal Palm - This was a gift of a bird to the yard and is probably ten years old, it is finally developing some trunk

Gingers: five species all thriving (except for the ones that the yard guy weed eats)

Cassias: alata and one other whose name escapes me, too successful, want some?

Cannas: at least five cultivars, Wyoming looks the best, all have leaf roller issues

Alocasia: thriving in shade and sun

Colocasia: sulking, too much shade, not enough water

Bananas: ornata, rojo, and one that I rustled from a construction site are all thriving, they are a maintenance chore, but when kept in check nothing beats them

Firespike: perfect for deep shade

Tree Fern: I would not trade my Australian Tree Ferns for anything, one has more than three feet of trunk, this is the first year for the Tasmanian Tree Fern, they are all planted under trees to protect from radiational cooling

Rice Paper Plant: thriving, which is both good (they resemble gunnera which we can't grow here) and bad (they pop up everywhere)

Root Beer Plant: piper auretum (or something like that), it is thriving, Cindy's winds made me cut it way back, it runs like bamboo, sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it, to do over I would have put it in an area that I could control better, it has a great leaf shape if you are into that sort of thing

Cuphias: I have five species of these "cigar" plants, beetles have really chewed them up this year and I have tried unsuccessfully to control them, it is an off year

Castor Bean: I grow it, but not with much enthusiasm, they grow tall quickly and flop over just as quickly

Clerendum uganese: An off year, I suspect some root rot

Bottle brush: If you don't have one you should, great screening plant that attracts hummers, blooms heavily in spring and sporatically during the rest of the year (like now), from ten inch plant to small tree in six years

Nigh blooming jasmine: you either love it or hate it

Brugmansia: I don't know what cultivar it is, it was sold to me as a "white" one, but it is more of a "salmon/peach", I grow it in part sun rather than full sun, I think you get a better canopy of leaves this way, this is the best smelling flower that I have ever encountered, it can freeze to the ground and become a small tree in one season

Lantana: I grow an orange and a white one, they come from an era when I wanted bulletproof plants, overrated as butterfly plants

Justicas: I grow shrimp (red bracts), flamingo (pink) and hummingbird (orange) plants, these are somewhat too successful

Morning Glory Tree: I don't know what to do with this because of it unusual form, it blooms when nothing else does, however, it is an awkward plant (to 20ft high)

I know that I am forgetting a few like the monkey face and a few tender salvias, but it is a start.

thanks for the reply iam always interested in what other people can grow

Hey Django,

can we trade some golden, and I promise it's double white, brug cuttings for some castor bean?

thanks
tami

Absolutely.

Left off the list: N.B. hamelia patens needs full sun

and a Youngman White Sapote.
Anybody wanting a seedling to grow come on by-if the fruit is nasty, you can try and graft a bit of my Youngman.
I have some Cherimoya growing in the back yard (no fruit. Nice big velvety leaves though-it is a member of the Magnolia family so it is pretty.
I also have lots of Malabar Spinach popping up everywhere. Anyone want some seedlings of that?
I have some Muscadine grapes, which I will have to move to the back. I have a few seedlings of those too.
I've been aiming at a fruit garden, but since I have everything in pots I am not getting much. I have some Cherry of the Rio Grande, and some Cedar Bay Cherry; only the Cedar Bay Cherry has fruited. It tastes like barbaque sauce! Australians tell me they never taste the same twice.

look to your email

sea ya
tami

I thought at first you were asking primarily about fruit. Not really my interest, tho' I guess we still have a couple dozen of my husband's bunch grapes and left one muscadine which has completely covered the tool shed. Makes it much nicer to go in there in the heat! My interests are primarily ornamental; I grow Louisiana irises, and five brugs, less alocasias and colocasias than I started the season with due to dry weather and watering restrictions--not sure how many I've lost yet but it looks like at least a half dozen. (bitter sob! those things cost!) Just got about a half-dozen hardy gesneriads, mostly sinningia species. Really pleased about those! I plant for the butterflies and the hummingbirds, and most those things are doing well--just got Anisacanthus quadrifidus with the gesneriads, and one Hamelia is in full bloom while another species (or is it a variety? can't remember) that's in a little shade hasn't started yet. Love salvias, tho' I guess I'm down a bit. Gotta recommend S. guaranitica and it's var. 'Argentine Skies'--the hummers really love 'em and they bloom all summer. Have a variegated shrimp plant that's trying to take over and I suppose I've gotta yank back, but it's another the hummers love, and it blooms all year in a mild winter and ten or eleven months the rest of the time. Ditto Abutilon. A hummingbird expert said the tall ones act like a flag to wave at passing hummers and invite them in. I have a really pretty ratty looking passion vine the butterfly larvae love to chomp on, and a buttonbush--Cephalanthus--they love to nectar in. Too dry this year for as much bloom as usual. I water and water and just can't get everything soaked. Next week it's supposed to rain. We did get two or three pretty decent showers a couple weeks ago. Oh, and then there's gingers. I don't even know how many I have. Have you seen the new Zingiber 'Midnight'? It is gorgeous!

There is a difference between:
"fruit, citrus, tropical" and
"fruit: citrus, tropical"

I hope that I guessed right.

over here in Baton Rouge i've got a couple of gingers going nuts, a few banana plants, six good size hibiscus in pots that are blooming like crazy and 7 plumeria, of which 2 are blooming this year. that's it for tropicals, and everything else is suffering right now in the heat.