I think the bay area has a lot prettier growth than we do here, although we are suppose to be the city of the trees we can't grow exotics at all here because it gets up to 110 and I think it gets colder here also.

I planted an apricot tree that is doing fairly well although this year I had a major aphid problem. I have a neighbor that has a bird of paradise on their porch in a huge pot and it seems to be doing well, I will take the dogs for a walk and check it out to see if their are flowers.