I think you have more than one kindred spirit here Leon! I loved your article even though most of the trees you mentioned won't grow here in Florida.
I have been on a quest since moving to my little half-acre lot in the late 80's! My goal is to make my yard look more like 'the woods' up north (I'm originally from New York) than the yucky 'woods' down here. The only trees on my property when I bought it were two oaks, a very sad looking maple, and a dead 60 foot tall eucalyptus!
Since then I have planted 4 Live Oaks (one if which was split into 3 sections in the no-name storm we had just after 9/11 and had to be taken down), another maple, 2 podocarpus (which are taller than my house), 3 pond cypress, 3 red cedar, 2 redbud trees, a jacaranda, 4 dwarf poinciana (one of which is at least 15 feet tall!), a tamarind tree, some sort of non-fruiting mulberry tree, 2 stands of bamboo, LOTS of jatropha's (which get as tall as the house), LOTS of Plumeria's (which also get as tall as the house), a coral tree, and in spring I bought a tiny (4 inch pot) Ylang Ylang tree that is now waist-high and will go in the ground next spring...and I'm NOT done yet!!!!
