• Ficus. Beautiful trees, dense canopy, but most of them around town, including the gigantic one next door to me, are now a mass of brown leaves that will all fall off. Smaller ones will die. Don't plant ficus. Instead, plant an olive tree, or a mesquite. I have two olive trees here at The Tropical Paradise and they don't show a trace of frost damage. Nowadays you can get them as fruitless, which is the best way to go. And if I could go back twenty years, I would have planted a mesquite. Beautiful, soft, feathery leaves, the kind of dappled shade that plants do so well under, and, of course, no damage from frost.
• Bougainvillea. I had one of these in the front courtyard for years. But when the temperature cooled off, it was a mess. And I shed a lot of blood trimming it. Finally I had enough and chopped it to the ground. There are so many other flowers that are available that I won't even try to list them here.
So, if you're considering getting rid of these plants, do so now. There is no reason to get frustrated and pour a bunch of concrete, get a bunch of colored gravel, or plant some ugly, spiny cactus. There are many other choices available to you.
