Bill,
your iPhone would work great. While my digital camera has a video mode (they all do), I use my phone (Evo) to take garden videos as I can upload to YouTube right from the phone without having to use the computer. Your iPhone will do that, too. My house WiFi reaches my palm garden, which speeds the upload and also doesn't use cell phone data package.
Barb,
actually, the main reason I put my tropical-themed garden where I did was that the swimming pool was already there in the backyard (west side) courtesy of the previous owners and I wanted to create a tropical feel around the pool. The beach I made is part of that design. When W and I go to Belize, we lay on the beach, swim, and ride horses. Now we can do all that from home. Just think of how much money this garden has saved us 😆
As a bonus, we can see the sunset. All year we sit on the "beach" and watch the sun go down over the forest 300 meters to the west.
Secondarily, when we moved in five years ago we divided up garden space. W wanted the front yard (East). Her design scheme is a very modest fruit and vegetable garden there. We have an old truck and firewood in front of the old double-wide we live in. Thus, the "curb appeal" is deliberately minimal (can you say, "poor rural Southern white ____ ") which makes the backyard all the more surprising to visitors. Coming around back they definitely do not expect an in-ground pool with palm trees and bananas!
😯
--Erik

Scotty, Barb:
I'll be the first to admit my education on Canadian geography is poor. My guess is you didn't learn the counties of Oklahoma in your school, either.
Here is a map of Oklahoma that shows Tulsa county (where I live) and McCurtain county (where Sabal minor lives). --Erik

<a href=" http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/7Wq1H2i0GXhTRECNKP9rSQ?feat=embedwebsit e"><img src=" " /></a>

Even though they seem far apart,there probably isn't much difference in extreme cold
as much as the duration being slightly longer-where you live.
If you put some seeds inside a bird(or other animal)and bring it north(say your area)
and plant them it counts-"naturalized"!:D 😯

Move the "natural" range north and be a star!

Now if you move that far north-from my house- in Iowa you get into an area
where snow can(has) stayed on the ground all winter,that's about the distance-
Tulsa Co. to Bixby(guessing) as from here to Waterloo Iowa.

I have seen it in the low 50s here and still well below freezing in Waterloo
as they still have 12"+ snow on the ground!

What a difference a 150 miles can make!

Jim,
over breakfast I searched the weather history for the Idabel Oklahoma airport on wunderground. I selected January 2010.
Here is the link:
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/K4O4/2010/1/26/MonthlyHistory.html
Idabel is the closest airport to the native Sabal minor in McCurtain county. It is just a few miles NW of the Oachita National forest where the dwarf palmettos are found.
In brief, it was better down there than up here, ~150 miles away. Their lowest was 10 oF (vs. my 3 oF); also, there was only one day in January where the high did not get above freezing (30 oF on January 8).
As for naturalizing, it might be possible. The Tulsa Zoo is just north of Tulsa and so out of the urban heat island. They have at least 20 large Sabal minor on the grounds that do great despite no winter protection. They flower and set seed each year, and at their base are numerous seedlings coming up despite no special care.
Reminds me: I need to ask their horticulturalist if I can have some....
--Erik

What about the dead bodies 😈