Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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What is the rarest Tacca? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Tacca leontopetaloides - Green Bat Flower, Devil Flower

What is the rarest Tacca?
  • 💚 Tacca leontopetaloides - Green Bat Flower, Devil Flower - is the rarest Tacca of them all!
  • 💚 Move over Black and White - this is the green bat flower, and it's in a class of its own!
  • 💚 Tacca leontopetaloides is a collector's dream and is rare in cultivation. With eerie greenish-purple flower clusters perched on tall stalks and long, trailing whisker-like bracts, this plant looks like something out of a botanical fairytale.
  • 💚 Unlike its fussy cousins, the Green Bat Flower is surprisingly easy to grow. It thrives in shady or semi-shaded spots, comes back reliably each spring, and doesn’t mind a bit of neglect. Its glossy, deeply divided leaves die back in fall and return with vigor as the weather warms up. A well-draining pot, occasional feeding, and moderate watering are all it asks for.
  • 💚 Native to Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, it's more than just a pretty face - this plant has traditional medicinal uses too. But let's be honest: most collectors grow it for the jaw-dropping display.
  • 💚 Very few collectors have this variety - don't miss your chance to be one of them!


📚 Learn more about Taccas:

🛒 Get the rare Green Bat Flower - easy to grow and unlike anything else in your garden

#Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden #Container_Garden

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Cashmere bouquet - smells like royal bouquet and grows like a weed. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Clerodendrum bungei - Glory Bower, Cashmere bouquet

💐 The shrub that smells like a royal bouquet and grows like a weed?

💐 Clerodendrum bungei - Glory Bower, Cashmere bouquet, fills the air with sweet perfume and bursts of pink blooms that butterflies love. Its dark leaves add contrast, and it grows fast - maybe too fast - so plant it in a pot or tucked-away spot unless you want a fragrant takeover!

🛒 Add Clerodendrum bungei to your garden today - before it grows away!

📚 Learn more:

#Hedges_with_benefits #Perfume_Plants #Container_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

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Is it real or porcelain? Discover the flower that fools the eye! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Clusia lanceolata - Porcelain Flower

Is it real... or porcelain? Discover the tree that fools the eye!

🔮 Clusia lanceolata - Porcelain Flower has pink blooms so perfect they look fake! This easygoing tree thrives in both sun or shade and even feeds birds with its apple-like fruit. Great undemanding yet unusual flowering plant for container in a shady spot.

🛒Add a touch of porcelain magic to your garden

📚 Learn more:
A flower that looks plastic ceramic

#Container_Garden #Nature_Wonders #Container_Garden #Fun_Facts
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From berry to beast: how Black Dragons are born. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Anthurium Black Dragon seedlings from berry to beast: how Black Dragons are born

From berry to beast: how Black Dragons are born
  • 🐉 Baby dragons have hatched! Anthurium Black Dragon from our earlier video has been busy... and now we have baby dragons!
  • 🐉 Each bright red berry holds a single seed, and the seeds sprout easily - usually in just 2 to 3 weeks. The seedlings start off slow, but here's the exciting part: some come out variegated, with white, purple, or even pink coloring!
  • 🐉 No two are alike, and that's what makes Black Dragons some of the most unique houseplants out there. Everyone needs at least one in their jungle!


🛒 Get your own Black Dragon

📚 Learn more:

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Nature_Wonders
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Botanical oddball - an alien ribbon plant with a sense of humor. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Homalocladium platycladum - Centipede Fern, Tapeworm Ribbonbush

🐸 Botanical oddball - an alien ribbon plant with a sense of humor
  • 🐍 Homalocladium platycladum - Centipede Fern, Tapeworm Ribbonbush that we mentioned earlier - this leafless wonder grows long, flat, jointed stems that look like green ribbons or, yes, tapeworms. But here's the twist: it also produces charming little flowers that surprise anyone expecting nothing but weird stems!
  • 🐍 Low-maintenance and high-impact, it thrives indoors or out, in bright shade to partial sun.
  • 🐍 The flowers are real! Tiny, greenish-white to pink blooms appear along the joints - subtle but fascinating.
  • 🐍 Conversation piece? 100%. Whether in a pot or in the ground, people will ask what it is - and you’ll love telling them.
  • 🐍 If you like your plants with a sense of humor and mystery, this one is for you.


🛒 Shop Tapeworm Plant now - get ready for double takes!

#Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden #Container_Garden

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Watercolor-pink Crystal Desert Rose. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Adenium Ploysai

Adenium Ploysai

Adenium Ploysai

Adenium Ploysai

Adenium Ploysai

Adenium Ploysai

🌸 Watercolor-pink Crystal Desert Rose

📸 Photo of Adenium Ploysai for the previous post 👆

🛒 Shop adeniums

#Nature_Wonders #Container_Garden #Adenium

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Gemstone of the Desert Roses. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Adenium Ploysai

Adenium Ploysai

🌸 Gemstone of the Desert Roses
  • 🌸 Adenium Ploysai - is named after the Thai phrase for "clear gemstone". Its soft white petals with watercolor-pink edges bloom like a crystal rose at dawn!
  • 🌸 Ploysai features lovely creamy pink petals with soft yellow tones blending around the edges. The flower's layers create a full and elegant appearance, with a gentle gradient effect that adds to its charm. A graceful and vibrant bloom, perfect for brightening up your garden!
  • 🌸 See photos of the actual Adenium Ploysai in next post 👇


🛒 Get your own Adenium Ploysai

📚 More adeniums

#Nature_Wonders #Container_Garden #Fun_Facts #Adenium

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How to make bonsai with Shaving Brush Tree. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Shaving Brush Tree bonsai - Pseudobombax ellipticum

Shaving Brush Tree bonsai - Pseudobombax ellipticum

Shaving Brush Tree bonsai - Pseudobombax ellipticum

Shaving Brush Tree bonsai - Pseudobombax ellipticum

Shaving Brush Tree bonsai - Pseudobombax ellipticum

Shaving Brush Tree bonsai - Pseudobombax ellipticum

How to make bonsai with Shaving Brush Tree

Creating a bonsai from a Shaving Brush Tree Pseudobombax ellipticum is a fun and rewarding project. This unusual plant, with its fat trunk and wild, pom-pom-like flowers, makes one of the most eye-catching bonsai you can grow. It's not your typical bonsai tree - it's a conversation piece that looks like something from a fantasy world! With a little patience, it becomes a living sculpture that blooms with flair.
  • Start with young plant with a fat trunk (caudex) and interesting shape.
  • Use shallow pot with fast-draining cactus mix.
  • Prune branches to create structure and shape.
  • Trim roots gently when repotting every 2-3 years.
  • Water well during growing season, keep almost dry in winter.
  • Give full sun to keep compact and encourage blooms.
  • Fertilize lightly: with slow release plant food in spring-summer or year around with liquid fertilizer like Sunshine Boosters.
  • Be patient - bonsai is a slow grower but worth it for the amazing flowers.


🛒 Start your own Shaving Brush Bonsai

📚 Learn more:
Why is it called Shaving Brush?

#How_to #Container_Garden #Trees

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Why every collector wants the Gothic Black Dragon Anthurium. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Black Dragon Anthurium

🐉 Why every collector wants the Gothic Black Dragon Anthurium
  • 🌑 A living shadow

  • Anthurium Black Dragon is one of the most prized centerpieces of the Top Tropicals plant collection. This rare and exotic hybrid is celebrated for its deep, dark foliage that looks as if it were painted with charcoal or ink. It belongs to the coveted "dark foliage" group of anthuriums - a favorite among collectors for its dramatic, gothic elegance.
  • 🌑 It changes color with light

  • This plant changes color like magic! What sets Black Dragon apart is its ability to transform. In bright filtered light, the leaves darken dramatically - almost jet black. But in lower light, they fade to a mysterious greenish-maroon. It's like having two plants in one, depending on how you position it.
  • 🌑 Its spadix and spathe are weapons of style

  • Unlike many anthuriums that flaunt bright reds or whites, Black Dragon keeps it sleek and sinister with a brown spadix and dark-brown spathe - adding a sense of surreal drama when it flowers. But wait to see the real show when is sets fruit - cascades of bright red berries!
  • 🌑 Tropical but tough

  • Though exotic-looking, it's surprisingly resilient. With the right humidity and warmth (typical of most anthuriums), it's a slow but steady grower - ideal for collectors who want something dramatic yet manageable indoors.
  • 🌑 A collector's hybrid, not found in the wild

Black Dragon is likely a man-made hybrid created by crossbreeding dark-leaved species like Anthurium watermaliense or Anthurium forgetii. It doesn’t grow in the wild, which makes it even more of a sought-after trophy in aroids circles.

🛒 Get your own Black Dragon

📚 Learn more:
The most unique plant in your collection

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Nature_Wonders
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Adenium with classic elegance of an Amaryllis. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Adenium Black Amaryllis

Adenium Black Amaryllis

🌹Adenium with classic elegance of an Amaryllis

📸 Photo of Adenium Black Amaryllis opening flower for the previous post 👆

The petals darken with age, with the outer border turning almost black within a few days.

🛒 Shop adeniums

#Nature_Wonders #Container_Garden #Adenium

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