Hi all,

I seem to have the only storm damage in Miami-Dade. Our beloved 40-foot sapodilla came down. It was polite enough to not fall in our pool, or block the neighbor's street behind us. It damaged the fence, but even managed to do that in a polite way, not taking any of the fence posts with it.

We're very sad to see it go. We loved the fruit and we loved the shade. But it was old, larger than it should have been, and we realize now, diseased and filled with termites. We suspected it was in trouble when it started dropping limbs last year.

So... moving on. We're wondering what to plant. This is a tree that will be less than ten feet from our pool and less than ten feet from the street behind us. It's south of the pool, so it needs to provide shade in the summer. (Oh, all the poor shade loving plants that are going to be unpleasantly surprised when the sun comes out tomorrow!)

I'd love to go native, figuring that will be hardier in a storm and less likely to have drought or pest problems. I'd also love fruit.

So I'm wondering about, in no particular order:

wild tamarind

mahogany

avocado

Jamaican dogwood

Gumbo Limbo

We have a small gumbo limbo in the front yard, preparing to replace the two mahagonies that are going to have to come down within the next five years (they're under power lines and are weakened every year or so when FPL comes and cuts a cone out of their centers.) I love avocados, the description of tamarind seems innocuous enough and Jamaican dogwood looks pretty.

Any thoughts or advice? Any other ideas? Because we're going to need shade pretty quickly, I'd love fast growing, but not fast enough to make it dangerous in a storm, like many of the fast-growing exotics are.