Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

🌱 Variegated Chaya - beauty meets nutrition

• 🌿 Variegated Chaya - Variegated Maya Spinach Tree or Cnidoscolus aconitifolius variegatus - is a showstopper in the edible garden. Its heavily cut, creamy-white variegated leaves look like they belong in a tropical ornamental bed, but this beauty is also a powerhouse leafy green.
• 🌿 Native to the Yucatan Peninsula, Chaya has been a traditional food for centuries. Younger leaves (and a little stem) are cooked like spinach, simmered for at least 5-15 minutes to neutralize toxins, then served with butter, oil, or in soups. Once cooked, they’re loaded with protein, calcium, iron, and vitamins A and C - a true garden superfood.
• 🌿 Fast-growing and low-maintenance, Chaya can reach 6-8 feet and thrives in full sun or partial shade. It's drought-tolerant, attracts butterflies and hummingbirds with its white flowers, and grows easily from cuttings. Perfect for food forests, permaculture gardens, or anyone wanting beauty and function in one plant.

🛒 Plant it, cook it, love it

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️Bright, bold, and edible: Variegated Chaya
• ▫️Chaya's health benefits: a must-have tropical leafy vegetable for sustainable gardening

#Food_Forest #Remedies

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⭐️ Climbing 10 feet… for Vanilla Beans!

• ⚡️ One of our Vanilla Bean Orchids at TopTropicals has big ambitions - it's already climbed 10 feet up a pine tree! We’re waiting (impatiently!) for those elegant yellow-green flowers, which will hopefully turn into vanilla beans.
• ⚡️ Vanilla Bean Orchid (Vanilla planifolia) is the plant behind that sweet, comforting vanilla flavor we all love. It starts off like any potted orchid, but soon sends out aerial roots and becomes a climber, wrapping itself around trees or trellises. In its natural habitat, it grows high into forest canopies, but in the garden it will happily scale any sturdy support you give it.
• ⚡️ Once established, it flowers and sets the long green pods we call vanilla beans. Growing your own is a lesson in patience - from flower to dried bean can take month - but nothing beats harvesting your own vanilla for the kitchen.

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️How to properly plant Vanilla Orchid
• ▫️How to grow your own vanilla orchid at home
• ▫️The Secret of how to Make Vanilla Orchid bloom
• ▫️The biggest in the world Vanilla dilloniana

📱How to produce your own vanilla: secrets of hand-pollination.

🛒 Climb toward your own beans

#Shade_Garden #Container_garden #Food_Forest

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☕️ Homegrown coffee - the journey begins!

Coffee trees (Coffea arabica) that you saw blooming at Top Tropicals in May with fragrant, gardenia-like flowers, now in August - they are loaded with fruit! We will update on them once they turn red and ripe...

🛒 Start your own coffee harvest

📚 Learn more:

• • How to make your own coffee from homegrown beans
• • Coffee trees in bloom
• • Brew Your Future: Grow Your Own Coffee
• • What is coffee made of?
• • Why Coffee tree is the best gift plant
• • Top 10 fruit you'll ever need for your health benefits: #2. Coffee Tree
• • What is the most popular and the easiest tropical fruit tree grown as a house plant?
• • Video: growing a Coffee tree

#Food_Forest #Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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🍉 Six guava varieties that will keep you picking year-round

• 🍉 Everyone loves guava! Sweet, fragrant, and packed with flavor. At TopTropicals, we have a whole guava forest, with varieties for every space and taste: Tropical Guava - Psidium guajava.
• 🍉 Why we love Guava?

💋Fast-growing and sun-loving

• 💋Thrives with plenty of water but handle short droughts
• 💋Starts producing right away - no years of waiting
• 💋Abundant fruit harvests
• 💋Perfect for containers or small gardens

• 🍉 What are the best Guava varieties? Our favorites are:

💋Dwarf Guava - stays under 6 feet but produces full-sized fruit.

• 💋Honeymoon Variegated - leaves and fruit have variegated patterns, turning golden when ripe.
• 💋Barbie Pink - pear-shaped yellow fruit with thick pink flesh, low in pectin, perfect for fresh eating or juice. Larger than Ruby Supreme and cold-hardy for a tropical fruit.
• 💋Hong Kong (Hawaiian) - large, round fruit with smooth pink skin, sweet flavor, and few seeds. Very productive, with a spreading growth habit.
• 💋Kilo White - huge fruit (up to 1 kilo = 2 lbs) with soft white flesh and few seeds. Great container plant, fruits even when small.
• 💋Tikal - compact tree with yellow-skinned, pink-fleshed fruit. Fruits year-round and starts young. Great for beginners.

• 🍉 Health boost in every bite:

Guava is one of the richest sources of vitamin C – even more than oranges. It’s loaded with antioxidants, fiber, potassium, and lycopene, which support immunity, heart health, and digestion.
• 🍉 Whether you’ve got space for a tree in the yard or just a container on the patio, a guava will reward you with beauty, fragrance, and sweet fruit in no time.

🛒 Pick your guava variety

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️How to grow a Guava Tree: Practical Guide to Growing Guava
• ▫️More about #Guava

#Food_Forest #Guava #Discover

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🍌 Why every garden needs a banana tree (or three!)

• 🍌 Peel this: Banana secrets revealed.

The truth about bananas is - Bananas are everyone's favorite snack. Sweet, nutritious, and loaded with potassium. They're great for muscle cramps, post-workout recovery, and quick energy. But did you know you can grow your own bananas, even in a small backyard or container?
• 🍌Banana Trees (Musa x acuminata) are:

• 🟡Super easy to grow
• 🟡Fast-growing and low maintenance
• 🟡Clumping and self-reproducing
• 🟡Beautiful and tropical-looking with their big, tropical leaves and showy, exotic flowers

• 🍌Dwarf varieties fit in tight spaces, and rare types like Red Bananas or the creamy Banana Ice Cream bring flavors you’ll never find at the grocery store. Plus, your own bananas are organic, fresh, and way tastier.
• 🍌 Start your banana patch today - and enjoy your own homegrown fruit all year long!

🛒 Explore Banana Varieties

📚 Learn more about Banana varieties:

• ▫️The best varieties of edible Banana to plant
• ▫️What banana fits anywhere - Banana Truly Tiny
• ▫️How to double your banana crop without extra space - Banana Double Mahoi
• ▫️Which Banana has red fruit and leaves - Banana Bordelon
• ▫️Why everyone wants Banana Lakatan - Banana Lakatan
• ▫️Is Blue Java Banana really blue? - Banana Blue Java Banana (Ice Cream)
• ▫️More about #Bananas

📱Red Leaves, Red Fruit, Real Wow Banana

#Food_Forest #Bananas

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🍊Why your gut is begging for papaya

• 🌴Papaya (Carica papaya) is more than just a tasty tropical fruit - it's a natural remedy for your gut. Thanks to an enzyme called papain, it helps with digestion, bloating, and even supports immune health with high levels of vitamin C and A.
• 🌴But here's what makes papaya a must-have in every garden: it's fast, space-saving, and super productive. Many trees start fruiting within a year!
• 🌴Dwarf varieties only reach 6-8 feet but still give you full-sized fruit that's easy to harvest.
• 🌴Grow it in the ground or in a container - it thrives in sun, handles light freezes, and even stands strong in high winds.
• 🌴Low effort, high reward. Sweet fruit, strong plant. What more do you need?

📚 Learn more from previous posts:

• 🟡more about #Papaya
• 🟡 How to grow tons of fruit in limited space - it's incredible!
• 🟡 How to have fresh Papaya fruit year around
• 🟡 Top 3 most wanted Papaya varieties
• 🟡 Carefree Garden: practical Guide to Growing Papaya.

🛒 Your gut will thank you - plant Papaya

#Food_Forest #Papaya

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Late season mango Kent: Florida's delight.
Mango Rainbow🌈

• 🟡Kent is Florida's late-season superstar that never disappoints!
• 🟡These big, oval mangoes turn yellow-green with a ruby-red blush and emit the most tropical, peachy aroma. Slice inside and you’ll find dense, fiberless orange flesh that melts in your mouth with a sweet-tangy burst and warm spice notes. It's juicy, succulent, and perfect fresh or in smoothies - and they keep coming from July through early fall.
• 🟡This tree is a heavy bearer, disease resistant, and a must-have in any mango collection!

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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Giant mango Keitt never quits!
Mango Rainbow🌈

• 🟡This is Keitt a late-season monster. It is the largest mango we've ever seen - no kidding! Some of these weigh up to five pounds!
• 🟡And the best part? They just keep coming from July all the way through fall.
• 🟡The flavor is sweet, smooth, super juicy, and barely any fiber. You can eat it ripe, slice it green, or make an awesome mango pickle.
• 🟡This tree's a total champ - crazy productive and super reliable.

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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🍈 We Cut Open a 37 lb Jackfruit - You Won't Believe What's Inside!

📱

• 
  🍈 Cutting into a 37-pound Jackedak Jackfruit with Chiane and Ashley!
• 
  🍈 Join us at Top Tropicals as we explore one of the largest fruits on Earth - the mighty Jackfruit. From sweet, tropical fruit to edible seeds and even a meat substitute known as the "rag" - this fruit does it all!

• ✔️Learn how to cut and clean a jackfruit
• ✔️See which parts are edible (you might be surprised!)
• ✔️Discover why it's a favorite for vegan pulled pork
• ✔️Hear our taste-test reactions: bubblegum, custard, pineapple?

• 🍈 Whether you're into exotic fruits, cooking, or growing your own tropical trees, this is one tasty experience you don’t want to miss.
• 
  🍈 Want to grow your own Jackfruit? We’ve got you covered

📚 Learn more:
🟡about #Jackfruit

🛒 Buy Jackedak Cheena Tree - Delivered to Your Door

#Food_Forest #Jackfruit

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Why tipping mango trees makes them fruiting machines (DIY Garden Tip)

📱

🌳 Want more mangoes from your backyard tree?
In this step-by-step guide, Ed from Top Tropicals in Fort Myers, Florida, shows how to tip mango trees to boost branching, improve structure, and increase fruit production. Whether you're growing Valencia Pride, Orange Sherbet, or Glen mangoes - this method works!

✔️ You'll learn:

• 
  ▫️When and how to tip branches
• ▫️ What tools to use (and how to clean them)
• ▫️Real before-and-after results from trees in our Florida garden
• ▫️Tips for shaping young trees for long-term success

🛒 Get your own mango trees

🌱 More garden tips and tropical fruit care

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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