Plants in clay grown in Florida or warmer temps

My house is built up on clay to protect against flooding - even my flower beds in front are clay. Being from Florida, I do not know much about what will grown in clay. I love tropical plants but I think that they prefer sandier soil. Does anyone have any ideas - tropicals or otherwise? Thanks...

Can your flower beds be done as raised beds? That way they will be up high and you can amend the soil to be more hospitable to the plants you want to grow.

Thanks for the idea. Because I have a walkway up to my door, I am hesitant to raise the flower bed in case someone should accidentally trip over it. You do raise a good point that I did not mention. I have mixed in potting mixes but eventually the clay dominates. This is why I was wondering about plants that can handle clay and the warmer temperatures of Florida. I only know about clay from vacationing in Georgia and baseball. Now it is popular in Florida for home building to protect against flooding caused by hurricanes and other Florida summer downpours!

Hi Riles, the problems you will have with the clay in your flower borders is that it will retain a lot of moisture, wont release any neutrients and air that all plants need around their roots and in your heat, it will have a hard crust formed on the top, so when you water, all the water will be shed off the surface and none will get to the roots, so if you cant do raised beds, the only salution will be to add as much manure/compost, sand or grit, as pos or a mix of all these to the flower beds and as you add this, it will help to break up the clay particals and give you a much softer more pliable soil for you to grow a far wider selection of plants and shrubs, the animal manure/compost will help with the drainage but at the same time, allow air and neutrients to be taken up by the roots of any plants, will help stop the crust from forming and will give the plants a good start, each year, you can top dress with this mixture so you will eventually get a good soil condition to grow just about anything suitable for your dry, hot conditions that Florida has, but it takes time if you dont have the funds to get it added all at the one time, after you plant into this mix, you can add a top dressing of mulch to help retain even more moisture. Good luck. WeeNel.

Hi Riles I moved out to my current home 16 years ago....and the clay is very heavy red clay- you could make bricks! lol
So one section at a time I made lasagne beds....and in other areas used heavy railway sleepers as edges and put a layer of lucurne hay on the base then a mix of washed river sand and bulk cow manure (aged and milled) and potting mix.I did that in the winter and come spring...I planted like mad....lost nothing and in fact everything grows like mad.The worms will do all the work.If you are itching to have pretty things around you put everything in pots and enjoy now.Then plant it all out when the beds are ready.Not that many things like the untreated clay it tends to bonsai things .With a bit of work- clay can be wonderful....for example roses love living "on "clay ....in a nice worked up bed.Good luck with everything...just remember sand and compost...old leaves etc :)