Elaine, I'm in 9A just north of Houston proper. Unfortunately we get just a teensy bit colder than down in the city where all of the pavement is. I think there are a couple of avocado varieties we can attempt here in this zone but most of the more tropical stuff really has to be down in the city and south. About a year and a half ago, it was January, we were visiting a friend near downtown. When we left their house it wasn't terrible to walk out without a jacket, but by the time we arrived at our house an hour north having a jacket on was very much needed. There wasn't a front that had blown through or anything, just that the temperature difference between here and there was completely different. Our friend even still had tomatoes growing in her garden whereas I couldn't have even thought about having a plant growing in January. It's pretty insane how much the pavement of the city will heat things up.
