ummm, well......
In your zone, anything you plant is going to be more like a "die back perennial tropical" or a " dig me up and overwinter me inside tropical".

I have a very tropical yard for here, mainly lots of bananas, brugmansias, bromeliads in protected places, colocasias, xanthosomas, alocasias and gingers...but anything REALLY tropical can't be planted out (like heliconia, plumeria, big big philodendrons other than selloum, orchids, etc.)

I compromise by having a planted tropical greenhouse.

Because I posted on the Tropicalesque forum I assumed that everyone would know what I meant.

Sorry for the confusion - I meant Tropicalesque type plants and style of gardening.

I would love to see photos and get ideas from others who have tropicalesque gardens.

Some things that I have found that look tropical but withstand the 20's (we never get snow here and the ground doesn't freeze) are Castor Beans (I have Impala, which is burgundy, and Carmencita which is red...the trees can get to 20 feet in one season from SEED and if they freeze to the ground, they usually come back from the root, if they don't come back, just plant more seeds), manihot grahmii (hardy tapioca),weeping Callistemon (bottle brush), fatsia japonica (I have regular green ones and also 2 types of variegated ones) Variegated Cast Iron plants (the striped ones and the spotted ones called Milky Way), variegated Agapanthus, big variegated crinums and crinum procerum (red leaved crinum), Tetrapanax (rice paper plants), Egyptian papyrus (the big one, 10-12 ft tall) and its shorter cousin Umbrella Palm. For palms, we have needle palms, lady palms, pygmy dates and Med Fan palms that are hardy here. Korean Rock Ferns get big and stay green here. Philodendron selloum is a mainstay. Bananas stay up here year round, sometimes they lose the leaves to frost but the trunks stay and just leaf back out.

Things that do well here over the growing season (March-Nov/Dec) and go dormant usually with first frost: brugmansia, elephant ears of almost all types, hedychium ginger, costus ginger (green amazonicus, spicatus and curvibracteatus), zingiber gingers, Alpinia zerumbet green and variegated (shell ginger), Alpinia formosana (pinstripe ginger), Kaempheria gingers (peacocks), and Strelitzia (orange and white).

I am able to plant ground orchids like Nun's Cap in the ground in protected places under canopy, ditto Monstera deliciosa, and bromeliads (especially Aechmeas, Nidularium, and some Neoregelia.) Variegated ananas (pineapple) is very hardy here.

check out Boca Joe's pics of his beautiful garden up in Maryland. I've certainly gained a few ideas from him.

He has other albums from previous years, too. Just do a search for "Boca Joe".

Here is a link that might be useful: Boca Cay 2006

I wouldn't take out the trees, unless you were going to do it anyway. Most tropicalesque/tropical stuff likes it at least partly shady.

I'm having some trouble because my yard is too sunny. My brugs wilt every day. They perk up at night, but I imagine that roller-coaster effect is pretty stressful.

I'd intersperse the palms with the oak at the very least, and keep the pecan too if it were me. Nice contrasts, I think it'll look kewl.

Your pics are nice, you've got a good start going. I like your datura. Mine died in Katrina -sniff-

sea ya
tami

Thanks so much for the ideas and plant names. The ones I don't have I am definitely going to research.

As for the trees they needed to come down but I have been fighting it. There are four trees on the front of my property line. I don't want a 'bare' spot there but the one pecan is very old and deseased. The pin oak is a bit crowded in that spot but a palm would fit perfectly and both would get a bit of shade.

I just planted four palm seedlings today - they were scavenged from a larger palm at work - they keep wacking them down with a weed eater. They may not make it but I figured it would be worth a try - they're free.

Think long and hard about removing mature trees. They can provide much-needed shade, make a garden look mature, and if the canopy is high enough, don't really detract from the tropical look.

In zone 7/8 you should be able to grow many things that are only marginally hardy for me, or that I can only grow as annuals or tender perennials. Among these are various hardy palms, gingers (esp. Hedychium species and hybrids), cannas, bananas (Musa basjoo but probably some other species as well), Brugmansia, Tetrapanax papyrifer, Fatsia japonica, callas (Zantedeschia), elephant ears (Alocasia, Colocasia, Xanthosoma), etc. Palms, bananas and elephant ears are especially effective at conveying a "tropical" look. Some of the larger grasses, e.g. Miscanthus, are perfectly hardy but complement these tropicals very effectively.

Bear in mind that many tropical-looking plants, even if hardy, will die back in the winter, which can make your garden look rather bare in winter--this has been a problem with my own garden. Make sure to include a few broadleafed evergreens, or deciduous woody shrubs & small trees, that will give it some year-round structure (another reason to keep a mature tree).

I'm including a link to my online photo album, which has some photos of local tropical-style gardens in addition to my own.

Here is a link that might be useful: DCTropics photo album

I am very fortunate to live in my zone, I am on the cusp (it seems) of the minimum lows for various tropicals, this in addition to a green house allows me to slowly change the landscape of my yard. I have flowering Elephant ear philidendron, lions tail, and other tropical lookers. Not only is it crossing over to a more tropical look but it is slowly converting to an edible landscape as well. I am still picking grapes, and tons of veg from the garden, next year though, my dragon fruit, natal plum, pinapple, papaya, and passion vines will hopefully offer up there bounty. In addition I hope to add jaboticaba, pitomba, randia formosa, and cherry of the rio grande. I am in the process of finding a quality source for seed or plants, the more research I do the more plants I want, maybe need a bigger greenhouse next. Glad I'm not the only one enjoying plants from out of my zone.
-cheers