Tropical suggestions needed

The next turtle arrival at our house will be turtles that are native to Belize and Guatamala. We are building an outdoor pen that will be converted to a mini-greenhouse in the winter. It will measure 16 foot by 8 foot and about half of this area will be a pond. It will have to be heated in the winter (pond and pen) so we will need to go with tropicals, but I've never grown tropicals. Where do I start? Any suggestions? I have a current height limitation of 3 feet on plants, but if that's not reasonable, we can adjust the height (though that means more expense for heating in the winter.)

AnnMarie

Do turtles eat vegetation? If they do, be careful, a lot of tropicals are toxic.

Yes, they do eat vegetation - there will be no brugs in the turtle pen. The turtles are also found in Nicaragua, Panama and Honduras, but I've had a hard time finding information on the internet about native plants.

AnnMarie

You can put water hyacinth in the ponds... they tend to keep the pond water cleaner, and they're edible. There's also a great tropicals website, based out of your state, in fact, called Raingardens.com You should check it out.

Thanks BotanyBob - went to the site, fell in love with the dwarf bananas, decided we would build the greenhouse tall enough and sent hubby out for a plant. He came back with TWO! Um, what kind of spacing do banana plants need? I don't think we have room for two of them...

AnnMarie