My back yard is slowly turning into my tropical oasis. I have elephant ears, bannan trees, tons of cannas, hibiscus, caladiums, crinum, lady finger ferns, asparagus ferns, yarrow, crocosmia, carolina jasmin, and bird house gourds. This is only my second summer and it has done great.

I have noticed that in this heat and drought the only things that are really doing well are the tropical type plants. I to am switching over.
I have bananas, canna, ginger, rootbeer plant, asparagus fern, bougainvilla, crinum, Elephant ears, Datura and Brugmansia to name a few.
I am much happier with this type of gardening.

Gurley,I have noticed that to.I plan to make a switch myself.I'm going to offer a lot of my plants for trade if you come to get them.Debbie

I fell in love with the tropical look (large lush foliage and bright colors all thrown together) while vacationing in the keys a few years back. Here's what has done well for me in Zone 8b: bleeding heart vine (clerodendrum thompsonaie), Ti plant, Chinese fan palm, tropical hibiscus, brugmansia, trumpet vine, gingers, oleander, crinum, canna (I love Endeavor), aloe, Black Magic elephant ear, Illustris taro, firespike, sago palm, caladiums, callas, the huge cutleaf philodendrum. Since many of these die back in the winter and don't come back and start filling out until May, I interspersed daylilies, Japanese iris, tall bearded iris, and Louisiana iris amongst them. These spiky bluegreen plants make a nice textural contrast to the large dark leaves of the tropicals and provide early seasonal color. In the summer I mix in easy care drought tolerant annuals such as melampodium and periwinkle in hot colors. My Ti plant is paired with a red knockout rose which echo each other's colors. Almost everyone that sees it comments on the combination.