Outdoor tropical plants for direct sunlight recs

You better really like banana plants because you will never get rid of them once they are established

As a kid, we had a massive hibiscus bush. It did well with the Mobile weather, but we had to tarp it every few winters

Hibiscus

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Wait til you get one freeze and everything dies. You’ll regret that tropical planting instantaneously

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This is a good point so make sure you think it through. For example I planted dwarf bananas and Canna lilies around our pool for that tropical look. Looked great 6 months out of the year, and crap the other 6 months (late fall, winter, and part of the spring while they re-grow). Dug them up up, replaced with gingers (still that tropical look) and they looked great for 8 months, and crap for 4 months (late winter and early spring while they re-grow). Dug the gingers up and replaced with Conservation Piece Azaleas and a few ornamental grasses. No longer have the tropical look but now the landscape around the pool looks great 12 months out of the year.

In Mobile maybe it can work for you, but cold hardy tropicals look bad in winter (they die back) and early spring while they re-grow. I personally would not prominently feature them in a front yard based on my experience described above. Still have the gingers and some cannas because I like them just not in prominently featured areas of the yard.