Texas Gardening: Zone 8 and colder plants with a tropical flavor , 1 by podster

podster wrote:
A request by LouC for more threads of interest in this great state of Texas combined with a request by Charlenesplants on adapting to the colder zones of Texas made me decide to start this thread.
This is the thread that got me started thinking about this... http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/769970/#new

Do you like and grow tropical plants?
Do you grow plants that share the tropical flavor without the trouble?
What types of plants would you recommend?
What care do they require?
How do you over winter them?