Off T(r)opic

     Hi everyone,
     
     I am doing some fun experiments, and would love to hear any feedback.
     
     I have my own New England perennial garden, but I grew up in the 
     Virgin Islands and worked with my mother on her garden there. She has 
     always focused on local tropical plants.
     
     However, on a visit home earlier this year, I stirred up some trouble 
     by bringing some cosmos seeds and planting them in a half rum barrel, 
     and they have done great. She added some to a church altar bouquet, 
     and everyone wanted to know what on earth they were!
     
     It's funny that next to the bananas, gingers, palms, gardenias, limes 
     and angel trumpets (brugmansia), bougainvillea, poinsettia shrubs, 
     etc, already growing in the yard, the cosmos look "exotic"!
     
     So we are looking for fun flowers that we can experiment with that 
     will like the conditions: the daily high is 85-90 and the daily low is 
     75-80. That is year round. No end of sun, but plenty of rain water 
     available. So what is that? Zone 11, 12?!
     
     I have been checking out Florida gardening books, but they still talk 
     about a frost, which will never happen in the islands, and Texas 
     gardening books seem to focus on things that will tolerate extreme 
     drought and sweltering heat waves, also not the case. I am not looking 
     for a tropicals book -- we've got plenty already.
     
     Would very Southern California be better? Any clues? What happens to 
     perennials when there is no winter, no seasons? We would love to try 
     traditional American house garden flowers stuff, just for kicks.  
     
     Thanks in advance for any ideas! Sorry so off topic. The last of my 
     own garden finally crashed last nite with a very hard frost, so I am 
     entertaining myself by dreaming up things for my mother to do. 
     
     Laurie
     Medford, MA
     Zone 6

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