Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

⬆️ Ricki and Bob - always on top

"When you get to the top of the mountain, you can see the whole world." - Hodja Nasreddin

🐈📸 Ricki and Bob are on top of computer work at TopTropicals

#PeopleCats #Quotes

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🌱 Bright, bold, and edible: Variegated Chaya

• 🌿 Cnidoscolus aconitifolius variegatus, known as Chaya "Jatropha" or Variegated Maya Spinach Tree, is a rare gem for gardeners who crave both beauty and function. On top of health benefits of regular Chaya we mentioned earlier, this one is also a rare spectacular ornamental!
• 🌿 With its striking, creamy-splashed fan-shaped leaves and sculptural form, this plant brings dramatic texture to sunny landscapes or large containers. And as a bonus, it sends up charming clusters of white flowers!
• 🌿 More than just a looker, it's a productive perennial too - its leaves, once cooked, are a nutritious green similar to spinach. Just don't eat them raw.
• 🌿 This drought-tolerant shrub thrives in sun, asks for little more than space to grow, and rewards you with year-round color and character. Whether you grow it for food, flair, or both, the Variegated Chaya is an unforgettable addition to your garden.

🛒 Add rare beauty and purpose to your garden

📚 Learn more:
Chaya's health benefits: a must-have tropical leafy vegetable for sustainable gardening

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Discover

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💃 Get the Red Jade look without the fuss: cold-hardy Dwarf Red Jade Vine

• 🔥 Love the stunning, fiery blooms of the famous Red Jade Vine (Mucuna benettii) but live outside the tropics?

Its cousin - Dwarf Red Jade Vine - is tougher, easier to grow, and just as jaw-dropping, and delivers the same dazzling display of blazing red flower chains - without the high-maintenance, ultra-tropical demands.
• 🔥 Camptosema grandiflora - Dwarf Red Jade Vine, Cuitelo, or Rooster's Crest - this Brazilian superstar brings cascading chains of bright red blooms that look like flames frozen in mid-air.
• 🔥 Unlike the ultra-tropical and finicky Mucuna benettii, this cousin is tougher, easier to grow, and just as jaw-dropping. It thrives in full to partial sun, forgives a little drought, and even shrugs off light frost. Blooming in fall and winter, it gives your garden a fiery finale when everything else starts to fade.
• 🔥 Got a pergola or arbor? Perfect. The hanging flower clusters will light up the space like a botanical chandelier. Just prune it hard in spring and feed it well, and it will thank you with a blooming spectacle year after year.
• 🔥 If you've been dreaming of the iconic Red Jade Vine but thought it was out of reach - this is your sign.

🛒 Get all the wow of Red Jade Vine - without the worry

📚 Learn more:
Camptosema grandiflora, Dwarf Red Jade Vine - my favorite plant

#Nature_Wonders #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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😰 Bob is keeping the balance

"Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." - Albert Einstein

🐈📸 Bob is always prepared! Even in his sleep at PeopleCats.Garden 

#PeopleCats #Quotes

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🍈 This is what we discovered inside Jackedak - the biggest fruit on earth!

• 🍐Meet Jackedak - the superstar of the jackfruit world!
• 🍐Originally grown from a seedling of Cheena (Jackfruit x Chempedak, Artocarpus x integer), this TopTropicals hybrid fruited in just 3 years and blew us away with its flavor.
• 🍐Each massive fruit (20-25 inches!) is super sweet, crunchy, and rich, with hardly any latex - making it easy to prep and impossible to resist.
• 🍐 Jackedak is also a garden hero: it fruits low on the trunk, so you can keep it short and tidy, and it's survived both light frost and 48 hours under 3 feet of floodwater during hurricane Irma in 2017, without breaking a sweat.
• 🍐 If you want the best-tasting jackfruit hybrid we've ever tried, Jackedak is the one!

📚 Learn more from previous posts:

• 🟡about #Jackfruit
• 🟡Ten best fruit trees to grow in Florida and Southern landscapes. Jackfruit Tree.
• 🟡How good is Cheena Jackedack - a cross between Jackfruit and Chempedak
• 🟡How to grow the biggest fruit on Earth
• 🟡How to Grow Jackfruit: Practical Guide

🛒 Buy Jackedak Cheena Tree - Delivered to Your Door

#Food_Forest #Jackfruit

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🌷Have you seen a rare Golden Tulip Tree?

📸 More photos of Spathodea campanulata - African Tulip Tree - for the previous post.

🛒 Grow your tulips on a tree

#Nature_Wonders #Trees

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🌷Tulips growing on a tree!

🌷 Spathodea campanulata - African Tulip Tree - is in bloom at Top Tropicals Garden several times a year. We have both red and yellow varieties. Yellow is very rare! See more photos of Yellow Tulip Tree on our website and in the next post.

📚 Learn more:
Why everyone loves these tulips growing on a tree

🛒 Grow your tulips on a tree

Spathodea campanulata - African Tulip Tree, yellow flower #Nature_Wonders #Trees

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⬆️ It's not where you live, it's who you live with!

"Love at can make even the darkest places bearable." - Hedy Lamarr

🐈📸 Bob and Cash hanging out in a cage, out of all places at PeopleCats.Garden!

#PeopleCats #Quotes

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Wise Mango - a smart choice for flavor lovers: sweet, juicy, and Florida-tough.
Mango Rainbow🌈

Mango Wise is a forgotten gem from the golden age of mango breeding in South Florida. Originating in Miami during the post-1930s boom of cultivar development, it was once part of a wave of exciting new introductions. Over time, many of these excellent varieties faded from commercial propagation, despite having outstanding eating qualities. Wise stands out with its nearly round fruit, minimal to no fiber, and rich, juicy sweetness. It's a smart, flavorful choice that deserves a comeback in Florida gardens.

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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🌸 Heavenly Lotus in bloom - Bua Sawan Adenium

🌸 Adenium (Desert Rose) Bua Sawan features vibrant double blooms with crisp red edges on soft pink petals, creating a striking and elegant contrast. The name Bua Sawan translates from Thai as "Heavenly Lotus," perfectly capturing the flower's bright, uplifting presence and graceful beauty.

🛒 Add a touch of paradise to your garden with Adenium Bua Sawan

📚 More adeniums

#Nature_Wonders #Container_Garden #Fun_Facts #Adenium

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