The secret to abundant dragon fruit harvests. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.
The secret to abundant dragon fruit harvests
✍️The secret to abundant dragon fruit harvests
🔴 Dragon fruit (Pitaya) thrives when it's fed regularly. For the best results, use Sunshine C-Cibus, a complete liquid fertilizer made for fruit trees. It is gentle enough to apply with every watering, all year long, and it gives your plants the steady nutrition they need to set more flowers and produce bigger harvests.
Night jasmine that disappears with sunrise: Parijat. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.
Night jasmine that disappears with sunrise: Parijat
Nyctanthes arbor-tristis - Parijat, Night Jasmine, Sad Tree, Tree of Sorrow
💔 Night jasmine that disappears with sunrise: Parijat
💔Nyctanthes arbor-tristis, Parijat, Night Jasmine, Sad Tree or Tree of Sorrow... What secret is hidden in this flower?
💔 Parijat is a small tree or shrub from South Asia known for its intensely perfumed white flowers with bright orange centers that open at dusk and fall by dawn.
Mostly for its scent and stories - but locals also use it in traditional remedies. The flowers are beloved in temple garlands and perfumery. Leaves, flowers, bark, and seeds are used in Ayurveda for treating fevers, sciatica, arthritis, and more. Extracts also show anti-inflammatory and liver-protective effects in modern studies.
It’s both fragrant and spiritual. Parijat is sacred in Hindu myth - some say Krishna brought it from heaven, others that it sprang from a grieving princess’s ashes. People plant it near temples or in small gardens not just for the scent, but for its cultural symbolism and graceful beauty.
Yes - if your climate cooperates. Parijat grows up to 10 feet tall, handles full sun or light shade, and thrives in well-drained soil with regular, moderate watering. It blooms best with monthly fertilizer and tolerates light cold (into the 30s F). In cooler areas, grow it in a container. Regular pruning helps it stay compact and flower more.
Four best low-growing perennials that bloom all summer. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.
Four best low-growing perennials that bloom all summer
Crossandra, Heliconia Lady Di, Plumbago, and Spathoglottis ground orchids.
🌷 Four best low-growing perennials that bloom all summer
🌼 1. Crossandra
Crossandra is one of those plants that never really takes a break. Its ruffled orange blooms pop almost nonstop in warm weather, making it a reliable color source for borders, pots, or even as a filler around taller shrubs. Unlike many flowering plants that fade in midsummer, Crossandra keeps going through heat and humidity, thriving where others give up. It's compact, easy to trim, and works beautifully in small gardens or patios.
🌼 2. Heliconia psittacorum Lady Di
Heliconia Lady Di adds a tropical accent with its upright, torch-like blooms in fiery orange and yellow. What makes this variety practical is its manageable size compared to giant heliconias - it fits well in small gardens and large pots. Its flowers last long, both on the plant and as cut flowers, making it popular for summer arrangements. Once established, it keeps sending up flower stalks all season, giving a steady display of color and drama.
🌼 3. Plumbago
Plumbago is a gardener's friend in hot climates because it covers a lot of ground and throws out flower clusters all summer (sky-blue, white or red). It's versatile - train it as a shrub, hedge, or let it spill over walls and trellises. The flowers attract butterflies, and the plant is low-maintenance, tolerating pruning, sandy soil, and neglect. If you need a reliable plant to soften fences or add a cool color contrast to reds and oranges in the garden, plumbago is a winner.
🌼 4. Spathoglottis ground orchids
Ground orchids like Spathoglottis are practical because they give you the exotic look of orchids without the fuss. These hardy, clumping perennials send up spikes of purple, pink, or yellow blooms that last for weeks, repeating through summer in warm climates. They’re perfect for edging walkways or filling beds where you want constant color with minimal care. Unlike potted orchids that bloom once and rest, Spathoglottis keeps producing flowers right in the ground, almost year-round in frost-free areas.
Visitors to our Fall Plant Market can enjoy a special walk-in discounts
and deals at the nursery. But we want our online friends to celebrate too!
Shop from home and take 20% off everything when you spend $125 or
more (excluding S/H, can't be combined with any other offer. Valid for
online purchase only). Just use code at checkout. Hurry — offer ends
Sunday, 09-07-2025.
Fall is just around the corner, but Florida is still full of sunshine and
growing energy!
It’s one of the best times to plant - cooler days are coming, but
there are still months of warmth ahead for your garden to thrive. Our
nursery is bursting with big, healthy plants that grew all summer long -
loaded with blooms, fruit, and lush foliage, ready to shine in your
yard.
Come stroll the gardens with our PeopleCats,
enjoy the most beautiful season for planting, and let us help you find the
perfect picks for your space. Bring your friends and family for a weekend of
fun, color, and fresh ideas - this is your moment to plant, grow, and
enjoy!
30% OFF online prices
FREE plant with any purchase (including Guava)
Gift bags for first 25 customers with $50+ order
Special deals on select plants
Exciting raffle prizes
Green Magic fertilizer FREE samples
The LAST PERFORMANCE of the Famous Hand Pan Lady! (She is moving from
Florida)
See her previous performance at Top Tropicals - here
and here.
Ballistic buttons shooting from the mattress like popcorn! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.
Ballistic buttons shooting from the mattress like popcorn!
Dorstenia bahiensis - Mattress Button Plant
🚀 Ballistic buttons shooting from the mattress like popcorn!
🔘Dorstenia bahiensis - Mattress Button Plant is a shade-loving oddball. Its glossy green leaves are topped with flat, wavy discs that really do look like old-fashioned upholstery buttons scattered across the garden floor. But these button heads aren't just for show - on their surface are tiny clusters of male and female blooms, all crammed together like a mini city of flowers.
🔘The real fun begins when those button heads ripen. Instead of quietly dropping seeds like most plants, Dorstenia goes full popcorn mode. With a little "pop!" the seeds are catapulted yards away, just like squeezing a watermelon seed between your fingers. One moment it's calm, the next it's launching its offspring across the yard!
🔘At only 6-12 inches tall, this little understory dweller doesn't take up much space, but it makes up for it with personality. Content in the shade, thriving in any soil, and ready to surprise you with its seed-shooting tricks. Grow it in a pot, use it as quirky groundcover, or just keep it around as a party fun.
👅 What's inside the Devils Tongue that smells like trouble?
👹 Amorphophallus plants - the Voodoo Lilies - are also known as Devil's tongue, Snake Palm, or Elephant Foot Yam, Corpse flower. This plant has a reputation as wicked as its name!
👹 Amorphophallus is the largest flower in the world and one of the most exotic bizarre flowers. Amorphophallus titanum is known for its massive size, its flower can reach heights of over 10 feet and blooms only once every few years.
👹 Why Corpse flower? Because of the smell that the flower omits, but for only a few hours - just long enough to summon its pollinators, the flies 🐱
After that, the air clears, leaving only the memory of the spectacle.
👹 The titan of the group, Amorphophallus titanum, can soar over 10 feet tall. But its cousin in this video, Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, is just as fascinating. It rises from a giant underground corm (which is actually edible in Asia), then sends up either one surreal flower or one umbrella-like leaf as big as a small tree.
👹 Season after season, it alternates between leaf and bloom, keeping its mysterious cycle alive. Hardy enough to rest through winter dormancy, it can even be grown in a pot at home.