was retrieving and posting some evidence that i once was-- and still is-- a tropical animal. And just as sicilians say you can take them away from sicily but you can never take away the sicily from them, it is the same for tropical denizens
as of this writing, our good forum caters mainly to folks in temperate regions, but figured would be nice to invite more people from totally different usda zones, or even outside that of usda categories, since the usda probably doesn’t even have an accurate picture of equatorial tropics
we can resume talking about hedychiums here @Luisport 
photo below–there’s a house in there somewhere. Incidentally, verbena is one heck of a cosmopolitan species, reigning supreme in hot and humid as it does in hot and dry, and will survive 17F winters. Was amazed to see it here in vegas
night-blooming nymphaeas and papyrus 
carabao grass, anahaw palm, caimito, mango, sugarcane,star fruit, plumerias and various aroids
my favorite elephant ears and ferns, and mutts 
miss my heliconia psittacorum variety sassy. The only tropical inflorescence that has both pink and orange in one package 
plumeria tree
heliconia rostrata 
below, gardenias and tropical-hardy rose(two more cosmopolitan species that can grow outdoors in both manila and las vegas, although gardenias in vegas have to be grown on the north side of one’s house and close to the house 
creeping ferns and tropical canines 
variegated cannas amidst yam vines and ferns 
also miss my fragrant blue nymphaeas(day-blooming)
