Welcome to the forum. I recommend you start reading the past post the is a crazy amount of info here.

Welcome to the forum! I'm sure that Bea and Love_the_yard (Carol) in Jacksonville will have suggestions for you soon.

I would say first that you want to make sure that the plants you pick are hardy for your zone if you're buying perennials. For example, Lowe's and Home Depot regularly sell plants such as hibiscus and others that are zone 10 plants in zone 8 and 9 stores. If you don't know what zone you're in, check out this USDA Interactive Hardiness Zone Map

Sometimes, you may be able to get zone 9b plants to survive in 9a with extra mulch or if you have them protected from frost under trees or overhangs. But take it from someone who moved from Ohio to zone 9a (used to be 8b before the zones were adjusted in 2012) and tried every tropical she could find and lost tons of money....take your time and research.

Dave's Garden is a good resource for plant identification and has reviews and photos from gardeners for each plant. Floridata has great searchable databases. And, UF has lots of landscaping tools. Lastly, drive around your neighborhood and see what plants look healthy and happy and appeal to you. Then, go knock on the door and ask the owner about the plant. You's be surprised how happy most people are to share their plant knowledge and maybe even seeds and cutting :)

Have fun,

Rhonda

Look what is in your neighbor's yard that is thriving and you will find the plants that do well in your zone then just look up if the plant you like need low light or bright light and plant accordingly.

Wow thanks for the responses you all!!!

i have a lot of reading to do and look forward to following the advice I've received. Ronda thanks for the links and tips, I've been looking at recommended plants in our zone and have created a little list.

Carol thanks as well for the response, the both of you exceeded my expectations from this forum I'm quite pleased.

i have a lot to look through and learn, I happen to live in one of these houses where the builder planted a magnolia tree a few feet from the corner of my house... house is just over two years old... would you recommend me get rid of it? Is it the roots that will be causing issue?

I am attempting my first plant (chopped the top off a pineapple and have it currently sitting in a mason jar of water after following some direction online). my plans are to put it in a pot and just move it inside the garage or inside whenever a freeze is expected, and with the past winters being so mild maybe that will help me!

i think I will take your advice on not trying to do everything at once... I will learn better and have more success with trial and error.

I have a lot to look at through the links the both of you have provided, I've been busy with work and have been waiting until the weekend to checkup on a few things including this post. Again I appreciate the time you all took to help a complete stranger out. I'm excited to start working on a few projects and finishing up reading the links you all have provided.

Also, Carol I may take you up on that offer one day, I'll def wait until I'm a bit more knowledgeable so I can know what I'm looking at and pick your brain with good questions.

thanks again!!

You're very welcome Chase. You'll find this forum is full of great people who love to share their knowledge. You won't be a stranger for long :)

Rhonda

Chase one more thing you should look up permacultar on you tube. Enjoy your gardening

Well, Carol pretty much said it all. This is my fourth gardening year and I think I'm finally getting it…most of my beautiful perrenials from home would die here. But there are so many other options available. I'm glad you are taking your time making choices. This way what you pick will work better for you.

In the meantime visit a local garden center, actual nursery not big box store, and talk to them. They are full of good advice. And of course come back here with whatever questions you have. I will take experienced gardeners' tried and true advice any day.

When I was planning to move here I spent a lot of time checking which of my plants would do well down here zone-wise and only brought with me those that were supposed to do well here…and even with all my research most didn't survive the first year. I think partly the reason for this was that even though I was giving them the soil/water/exposure they needed I didnt account for the sun's intensity.

Full sun down here is not the same as full sun in the north. My current gardens are 800 miles south of my old ones, so much closer to the sun. It makes a difference. Many of my plants couldn't adapt to that. For example, plants that up north needed all day sun to thrive do so here with about 5 hours and some even less. The dappled sun areas light is much brighter than the same up north.

I tested all this with my light meter - what a difference!

Anyway, welcome to Florida and the forum. Keep us posted!

Just thought of a couple of other things. Unlike up north where growing season is spring and summer and part of the fall, in our area growing season is fall, some of the winter and spring. True tropicals will do well in the summer because that is their provenance, but most of what we are used to growing up north may have a tough time during the summer months. That is especially true of veggies.

The second thing is the climate here being sub-tropical we have afternoon storms daily during the summer. But if we don't and pretty much the rest of the growing season we water daily because the soil is so sandy.