You know, I just got one of these. Our climate here where I live in FL is on almost exactly the same lat and long as Houston. I am actually from Texas and had a grandma and lots of cousins in Houston so I have spent a lot of time there in the past and lived on Galveston Island for a number of years as well. Our climates are very similar.
The thing about these popular 'houseplants of the moment' (I know I will get flack from someone for that but that's okay, that is what these are) is that this is a tropical evergreen tree. In nature, it comes from heat zones 10-12 in tropical West Africa. Its a fringe rainforest plant. It gets to be about 100 feet tall with a crown spread of up to 60 feet. It really is not supposed to be a houseplant. All that said, as long as it doesn't freeze, I personally would not worry. I wouldn't leave it out in temps between, say, 35-45, but I keep my tropical greenhouse heated to only about 55 in winter, so I don;t think the current temps will hurt it myself. But if you feel uncomfortable, keep it indoors. But it is a TROPICAL TREE. That means warmth, humidity, bright light, and being from the edge of the rainforest, water. Winter will not bring out its best traits either indoors or out.
I have read that the browning spots and leaf drop on this plant are actually natural a lot of the time....it drops its lower leaves as it grows taller.
I only bought one because it seems like everyone on this forum has one and is dealing with problems with it. I wanted to see what the fuss was all about. So I am going to grow mine like I do most of my larger tropicals that are not actually planted in the ground in the greenhouse...in the greenhouse when its really cold, out in the yard when its not. I don't actually keep houseplants. Unless you count a 1700+ square foot greenhouse as a house (its really kinda like the same thing) and I have 3 cloud forest bromeliads that cannot take the heat of Florida summers. That's it for houseplants for me. This is an experiment for me. Of course I want it to do well or I wouldn't have spent $17 on it. But anywhere other than its natural habitat, its probably going to have some issues of some kind.
