☂️ What to plant in a shady spot? Unusual variegated flowers of Lavender Ice!

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  💜 Thunbergia erecta Lavender Ice, or Lavender Lace, is a unique, rare variety of King's Mantle with stunning lavender-off-white variegated flowers.
• 
  💜 Unlike many variegated plants, this one is vigorous and easy to grow. It can be used as a showy garden specimen or a low-growing hedge, and it responds well to pruning, which encourages more blooms.
• 
  💜 This plant thrives in filtered light and will grow larger, darker leaves in shade. It reaches a height of 5-7 feet and has a dense habit, making it perfect for creating a hedge.
• 
  💜 Lavender Ice attracts butterflies and hummingbirds with its profusion of flowers
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  💜 For healthy growth, keep the soil consistently moist, but not soggy, and mulch around the base to retain moisture. If growing in a pot, frequent watering is key.
• 
  💜 It's hardy enough to withstand temperatures as low as 30F for short periods. Ideal for USDA Zones 9-11, this plant can also be grown in pots in colder climates.

🛒Bring home rare Lavender Ice!

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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☀️ Why all Floridians want Coffee Senna in their landscape and what it has to do with Coffee

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  🌼 Beauty without the hassle! Cassia occidentalis, commonly known as Coffee Senna, Fedegoso, or Privet Cassia, offers striking beauty and practical benefits, making it an excellent choice for low-maintenance landscapes and herbal medicinal garden.
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  🌼 From spring to fall, this medium-sized shrub showcases clusters of orange-yellow flowers that look like little yellow hummingbirds from the distance and attract butterflies and bees.​ The large, red-veined leaves add ornamental value even when not in bloom.​
• 
  🌼 Coffee Senna thrives in full sun to partial shade and is drought- and cold-tolerant once established. ​Requires minimal care, making it ideal for gardeners seeking beauty without the hassle.​ Its spreading habit can provide a natural hedge or privacy screen.​
• 
  🌼 Coffee Senna gets its common name from the resemblance of its seeds to coffee beans. The seeds are dark and oval-shaped, much like coffee beans. Despite the name, the seeds are not related to the actual coffee plant (Coffea arabica). The "Senna" part of its name refers to its botanical Senna genus, which includes various species traditionally used for medicinal purposes.
• 
  🌼 Health Benefits of Coffee Senna

Beyond its ornamental appeal, Coffee Senna has a history in traditional medicine:​

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  ✔️Digestive Aid: The seeds have mild laxative properties, aiding in constipation relief.​
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  ✔️Respiratory Support: Infusions of the root and dried flowers are used to treat gastrointestinal issues, colds, and flu .​
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  ✔️Skin Health: Poultices made from the roots and flowers are applied to treat skin disorders such as eczema .​
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  ✔️Nutritional Value: The seeds are rich in iron and other minerals, contributing to overall health .

🛒 Plant your own Coffee Senna

#Food_Forest #Butterfly_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits #Remedies #Discover

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💐 How to get a large, lush and fragrant bush in no time

• 
  💐 Looking for a fragrant, fast-growing shrub that adds beauty and privacy to your garden? Clerodendrum bungei - Glory Bower, Cashmere bouquet - is an excellent choice.​


Key Benefits:
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  💐 Fragrant Blooms: Enjoy clusters of sweetly scented, pink flowers that attract butterflies and other pollinators. They open in terminal panicles up to six inches across.
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  💐 Versatile Growth: Dark green leaves often tinged purple are up to 8 inches long. This plant can be grown as a compact shrub or allowed to spread. This plant is incredibly vigorous and fast-growing, spreading quickly through root suckers. If you don’t want it to take over your yard in just one season, make sure to plant it in a contained corner or a container.
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  💐 Hardy and Resilient: Cashmere Bouquet is hardy to USDA Zones 8-10 and can tolerate light freezes, rejuvenating each spring. ​
• 💐 Low Maintenance: It thrives in full sun to part shade and is drought-tolerant once established. ​Keep the soil moist during the growing season. ​Regular pruning helps maintain its shape and encourages more blooms. ​

🛒 Buy Clerodendrum bungei – Cashmere Bouquet

📚 More about Clerodendrums in previous posts:

• 💋 Clerodendrum schmitii and Clerodendrum wallichii
• 💋 Clerodendrum minahasse - Fountain Clerodendrum
• 💋What is the most spectacular Clerodendrum
• 💋How to grow Clerodendrums
• 💋Fireworks of Winter
• 💋Fragrant Cashmere Bouquet
• 💋Fountain Clerodendrum
• 💋What is better - Blue or Pink
• 💋Why is it called Blue Butterfly
• 💋Clerodendrum paniculatum
• 💋Seaside Clerodendrum
• 💋Pink Bleeding Heart
• 💋Why is it called Musical Notes
• 💋Bleeding Heart Vine
• 💋Cashmere Bouquet

#Hedges_with_benefits #Perfume_Plants #Container_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

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🕊 Top irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven. Part 2.

Full list of Hummingbird favorite vines for the previous post ⤴️

Antigonon leptopus - Mexican Coral Vine 📸
Aristolochia - Dutchman's Pipe
Bignonia capreolata - Crossvine 📸
Camptosema - Dwarf Red Jade Vine
Chonemorpha fragrans - Frangipani Vine
Clerodendrums - Bleeding Heart and others
Clitoria ternatea - Butterfly Pea
Combretum aubletii - Monkey Brush Vine
Dipladenia (Mandevilla)
Faradaya splendida - Glory Vine
Gmelina philippensis - Parrot's Beak
Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower
Ipomoea - Prince Kuhio Vine 📸
Lonicera - Honeysuckle 📸
Mansoa alliacea - Garlic Vine
Pandorea jasminoides - Pandora Vine
Passiflora - Passion Flower 📸
Petrea volubilis - Queen's Wreath
Pyrostegia venusta - Flame Vine 📸
Quisqualis indica - Rangoon Creeper
Senecio confusus - Mexican Flame Vine
Solandra - Butter Cup
Stephanotis floribunda - Bridal Bouquet
Tecomanthe dendrophylla - New Guinea Creeper vine
Tecomaria capensis - Cape Honeysuckle 📸
Thunbergia - Sky Vine, Clock Vine 📸

🛒Turn Your Garden Into a Hummingbird Paradise!

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants #How_to

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🕊 Top Eight irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven. Part 1.

Below is the Hummingbird Haven Plan designed for continuous blooms, vertical interest, and year-round hummingbird attraction.

Centerpiece (Tall Structure / Arbor)

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  🦋 Thunbergia, especially Thunbergia mysorensis (Clock Vine). Provide strong overhead support for its hanging blooms. Let this showstopper trail over a sturdy pergola or arbor. Its long, red-and-yellow flowers will be your garden’s main hummingbird magnet.


Side Support (Trellis or Fence)
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  🦋 Bignonia capreolata (Crossvine) - A hardy, fast-growing native that clings to supports. Train it on a trellis for early-spring blooms that attract the season’s first hummingbirds.
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  🦋 Tecomaria (Cape Honeysuckle) - A vigorous, evergreen bloomer that loves full sun. Its bright red-orange tubular flowers draw hummingbirds throughout the year and are perfect for training along fences or trellises.


Mid-layer (Fence, Arch, or Large Pot Trellis)
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  🦋 Passiflora (especially vitifolia or coccinea). Needs full sun, rich soil, and regular water; prune to manage size and boost flowering. Let it twine near seating areas for bold red blooms and close-up hummingbird visits.


Ground-Level Accents
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  🦋 Ipomoea (including Prince Kuhio Vine) - Thrives in warm, frost-free zones with sun and moisture. Plant at the base of structures or in containers to sprawl or climb with vivid purple-pink blooms.
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  🦋 Lonicera (including L. sempervirens - Coral Honeysuckle) - Plant at the base of a trellis or fence, near the arbor. This cold-hardy native has red-orange or yellow tubular blooms from spring to fall and adds a delicate contrast to tropical textures.


Wild Touch / Quick Filler
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  🦋 Antigonon leptopus - Mexican Coral Vine - Loves sun and drains well; drought-tolerant but frost-sensitive. Great for fences and open trellises as a fast-growing, summer-to-fall bloomer buzzing with activity.
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  🦋 Pyrostegia venusta (Flame Vine) - Bursting in fiery orange, perfect for fences or pergolas. Plant along a back fence or side trellis where it can sprawl wide and fill empty space. Thrives in full sun, blooms in winter-spring, and complements vertical stars like Thunbergia and Passionflower.

📝 These vines feature tubular, nectar-rich blooms that hummingbirds adore.
Add a shallow birdbath or feeder nearby, and you'll have a full-service nectar station!

See full list of Hummingbird favorite vines in next post ⤵️

🛒Turn Your Garden Into a Hummingbird Paradise!

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants #How_to

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🎶 How to add Music to your garden

• ♪ Clerodendrum incisum, also known as Musical Note or Morning Kiss, is a compact, low-maintenance plant with unusual, showy flowers that resemble musical notes, giving it its name.
• ♪ It thrives in both full sun and shade, tolerates some drought, and attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, making it perfect for wildlife-friendly gardens. With blooms bursting everywhere, this plant creates a beautiful carpet of musical-note-shaped flowers around its base, offering a true symphony for your garden.

ℹ️ The unopened flowers resemble musical notes, giving the plant its name.

🛒 Get Musical Notes for your garden

📚 Learn more about Music Notes:

• · Why it is called Musical Notes
• · Musical Note hits its peak

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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🪚 How to enhance your garden with hardy tropical: Fast Growing White Orchid Tree

• 💮 Bauhinia alba (candida) - White Orchid Tree - is the most cold hardy of all bauhinias. It is a medium-sized, fast-growing tree with short trunk and spreading branches that provide excellent shade.
• 💮 Abundant, fragrant white flowers adorned with subtle lemon-green markings, blooming from winter through spring and intermittently in summer.
• 💮 Cold Hardy: Among the most frost-tolerant Bauhinias, thriving in temperatures as low as 26F. ​
• 💮 Rapid Growth: Grows quickly, reaching heights of 15 to 30 feet, ideal for creating a lush, shaded area. ​
• 💮 Attracts Pollinators: The large, showy flowers attract hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies, enhancing your garden's ecosystem.​
• 💮 Low Maintenance: Drought-tolerant once established and thrives in well-drained soil with full sun exposure. ​

📚 Orchid trees from previous posts:

• 💋White Orchid Tree
• 💋Pure white and elegant
• 💋The most beautiful of all orchid trees - Hong Kong
• 💋Orchid tree with stunning red-and-yellow flowers
• 💋How to grow Orchid Trees in pots
• 💋Pride of De Kaap or Nasturtium Bauhinia
• 💋What is the best shade tree that is fast growing and beautiful?
• 💋Why Bauhinias are called Orchid Trees: orchid flowers with butterfly wings

🛒 Enhance your garden with White Orchid Tree

#Hedges_with_benefits #Trees #Butterfly_Plants

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🦋 How to choose the right Butterfly plants?
Watch Top Tropicals on TV 📺

• 
  🦋 Want to bring more butterflies to your garden? It's simple - plant butterfly-friendly plants!
• 
  🦋 Not sure which plants to choose? Top Tropicals has a wide selection of butterfly attractors ready for you! Visit our nursery or shop online today.
• 
  🦋 Top Tropicals plant expert Kristi will help you to select the best butterfly plants for your yard!

📱 Watch ABC7 Fort Myers News: Butterfly plants with Kristi at Top Tropicals
Shop Now for Butterfly Plants!

#Butterfly_Plants

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👑 Want a Fence Covered in Royal Blooms?

• 😈 Petrea volubilis, also known as Queen's Wreath or Sandpaper vine, started blooming in our garden again in April. This tropical wisteria that steals the show is a twining vine with large, rough leaves - just like a sandpaper!
• 😈 Petrea is the ultimate tropical climber - fast-growing, bold, and breathtaking. Its rough, sandpaper-like leaves are just the beginning... the real magic is in the massive cascading clusters of royal purple flowers that can stretch over a foot long!
• 😈 There's also a rare white variety - Petrea glandulosa Alba - White Queen's Wreath. It features the same cascading form as the purple type, but with elegant snow-white, pinwheel-like flowers that create a soft, striking contrast in the garden.
• 😈 Often called Tropical Wisteria, Petrea thrives in warm, humid climates and puts on a non-stop floral display. Each bloom lasts a few days, but the blue calyxes remain, giving the illusion of continuous flowering.
• 😈 These flowers draw in butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds, turning your garden into a buzzing paradise.
• 😈 Let it climb a trellis, fence, or arbor and watch it become the centerpiece of your yard - fast!

🛒 Add the Queen's Wreath to your garden and grow your own royal display! 👑

📚 Learn more:
The Royal Snow White that everyone loves
Purple Sandpaper Vine

#Butterfly_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits

🏵 TopTropicals

🔥 The Orchid Tree that NEVER Stops Blooming

• 🌺 Yes, you read that right - stunning red flowers year-round. The Bauhinia madagascariensis, or Red Butterfly Orchid Tree, is one of the most spectacular and rare Bauhinias in cultivation today.
• 🌺 Flowers that look like scarlet butterflies - with bold yellow flames at the base of each petal.
• 🌺 Grows into a compact tree or tall bush/standard - perfect for small gardens or containers.
• 🌺 Constant color + butterfly magnet = living fireworks in your yard!
• 🌺 Loves full sun and rewards you with nonstop blooms.

• 👉 Ready to grow your own rare, flowering masterpiece? Get yours before it's gone!

🛒 Bring home the tree that blooms 365 days a year

📚 More about Bauhinias:

• · Orchid tree with stunning red and yellow flowers year around
• · How to grow Orchid Trees in pots
• · Why Bauhinias are called Orchid Trees: orchid flowers with butterfly wings...
• · What is the best shade tree that is fast growing and beautiful?
• · Why red flowers are so attractive? Bauhinia galpinii - Pride of De Kaap

#Trees #Butterfly_Plants

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