Low maintenance

Sweet Mimosa. One of the most useful tropical plants that is very cold tolerant, blooms all winter through spring with honey-fragrant flowers - canary yellow powder puffs, attracting bees and butterflies. This is a large size, multi-stem thorny shrub 15x15 ft that requires some space. It is very fast growing, can be used as a good screen plant. It will bring you joy with pretty flowers and sweet fragrance even during freeze snaps when other trees lose leaves and suffer. This one will continue blooming and stays evergreen - a real survivor! Tolerates poor soils and drought too. Provide regular water to establish quicker.

Akee - rare fruit tree, hard to find National fruit of Jamaica. Delicious when fried! This showy fruit is a close relative of Lychee, Longan, and Rambutan. The tree is easy in cultivation, fast growing and can be maintained compact. It is not bugsy or picky about soil/water conditions, and is relatively cold tolerant for being a tropical tree. You can find delicious akee meals only in Jamaican restaurants. But no need to search for it - grow your own tree, it can't be easier. It will start fruiting for you the next season, you don't have to wait long. Sometimes it fruits twice a year! However remember, the fruit is used as a vegetable, and is not eaten raw. It must be picked AT THE RIGHT TIME after the fruit has opened naturally so the flesh is fully exposed to light, otherwise it is poisonous. When the fruit has "yawned", discard the seeds (or better plant them to grow more trees - to share with your friends!). The arils, while still fresh and firm, are best parboiled in salted water or milk and then lightly fried in butter. Then they are really delicious. Just add Bacon to complete your meal! Somewhat cold-hardy once established.
See Articles about Akee:
What is Akee?
Akee Tree.
Watch the video: How to cook perfect Akee?

This rare Annona is a species originally brought to us from Costa Rica. We believe it to be a natural hybrid between A. muricata and A. glabra. It is a very ornamental, evergreen, small to medium size tree with waxy, large 4-6 inch leaves, similar to A. muricata, A. montana or Rollinia. Fast growing, forms nice bushy specimen. Flowers are very similar to A. muricata.
It has a large, up to 1 lb fruit, green when unripe, sometimes with gray to brown spots, turning dark yellow to orange on ripening. The pulp is golden to orange when ripe, with strong Pineapple scent, and resembling Jackfruit in texture. Flavor is like the custard apple but with pineapple, papaya, apricot and melon overtones. Note that some people dislike the taste, others find it good.

Bamboo ground orchid produces pinkish flowers at the top of tall cane-like pseudobulbs. It's the only species in the genus. The plants are quite tall; they'll reach at least hip level, possibly over your head, and their vegetative resemblance to bamboo can be uncanny. The long pseudobulbs have leaves alternating along their length, similar to Epidendrum orchids. The flower stems, which emerge from the top of the canes, produce several flowers sequentially, so that there will be one at a time over an extended period. The flowers are white with a purple-to-pink lip, and shaped similarly to a Cattleya orchid flower. They are 2-3 inches across, and can appear for much of the year, especially in summer.
See video about Ground Orchids.

Yellow Butterfly weed - great butterfly attractor! Drought tolerant, tough plant.
This plant is very attractive to butterflies. Long bloom period from late spring throughout the summer. Flowers are a nectar source for many butterflies and leaves are a food source for monarch butterfly larvae (caterpillars).

Variegated Purple Primrose, Chinese Violet. The brightly variegated leaves of yellow and dark green, make a great contrast with the flowers. It thrives in sun or partial shade and can tolerant dry conditions, heat, humidity, salty air, and poor nutrient soils. Give this easy growing plant good drainage and medium moisture for optimum growth.
Can be used as a mass planting under large trees and borders in full sun, semi-shade or full shade. It is also a good container plant. Leaves have been eaten as spinach in India.
This ground cover thrives in semi-shade and will also grow in sunny spots if it receives adequate moisture. It can be planted in any soil in the garden, but will do better if plenty of compost is added.

Aster Tree, Snow Bush, White Cloud Tree. This unique plant is the only tree in Asteraceae family. The persistent white pappus of the infructescences remains showy for months after the plants stop blooming. The plant looks like a white cloud or covered with snow. Winter bloomer. Unusual shape leaves 1-2" wide. Can be grown as a large bush, trained into a small standard tree, or kept in a pot. Very hardy plant, tolerates drought and poor soils, and some freeze.

Cocoplum. Easy care shrub that is used often as ornamental or a hedge; it produces edible fruit. The mature fruits are 1 to 2 inches in length and ovoid or globular. The thin skin of the fruit varies from pinkish white, to red, to purplish black. The white, cottony pulp adheres to the single large ridged seed and is somewhat insipid in taste. The cocoplum is generally stewed with sugar after the skins have been removed. It can also be used for jelly and jam, and the seeds can be roasted as nuts.
The plant is highly tolerant of salt, so it is often planted to stabilize beach edges and prevent erosion.