"Cereus-validus" wrote in message
m...
You are saying New Jersey has the same climate as southern California?

Are you on crack?

You surely could not have visited both places because their climates are
extremely different.

Neither is even close to the tropical climate of Guatemala, which is
nothing
like that of zone 10 in the US and certainly not even remotely close to
the
Mediterranean climate of southern California.

The plant seeds you suggest are not even those native to the US anyway.
None
of them grow naturally in Guatemala either. Most wouldn't survive very
long
in the tropical climate of Guatemala. Most of the plants that grow in
Guatemala would need to be grown in a botanical garden in the US and that
should give you some idea what would be better suited for growing there.

Without resorting to any similar ad hominid attacks, it is quite apparent
you need to do a bit more homework. Guatemala has a range of climatic
conditions ranging from tropical rainforests to subtropical areas in which
the climate is virtually unchangeable year round except for rainy and dry
seasons, as well as higher altitude pine and grassland savanahs in which the
climate resembles large parts of our own southern midwest. As to Guatemalan
plants needing to be grown in a botancial garden here in the US, lets look
at a few of these Guatemalan natives:

Selected species of:
mimosas and acacias
maidenhair ferns
fuchsias
heliotrope
bidens
cuphea (aka Mexican Heather, bat plant)
cleome
dahlias
Ipomoea - morning glories
capiscum - peppers
solanums
oaks and pines
bald cypress
various ornamental grasses
ageratum
scutellaeria
selaginella
lisianthus
gaultheria
passionflower

I find a fair amount of these sold as annuals or veggies at my local nursery
and some of course are extremely hardy (and relatively common) in many parts
of our country.

Not to mention that Guatemala is a huge exporter of melons, avocodo,
broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, snap peas and a whole host of common
flowers for the florist trade. Sounds a bit like the ag biz of Southern
California, doesn't it? A good portion of the produce you find in your
supermarket during the winter months was grown in central America. So to
make a statement that plants grown here can't or won't grow in in Guatemala
or vice versa is just plain silly and very uninformed.

And I didn't notice where the OP specified that the plants she intended to
provide had to be natives - she merely requested ones that would provide a
long season of color and that would grow easily from seed in a container .

pam - gardengal