Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Plant for birds: feast for wildlife and people from a tiny vine!

• Passiflora suberosa - Corkystem Passion Flower: did you know this Florida native passion vine is more than just a butterfly host? Birds love it too - they’ll happily snack on the little fruits and sing you thank-you songs all day long!
• And yes, the fruit is edible for people as well! The berries are small, but they make a fun and exotic treat.
• The plants has a tiny flower and a tiny fruit – both only about half an inch – but together they create a mighty native habitat.
• It's a triple win: butterflies, birds, and people can all enjoy something from this charming little plant. Plus, it’s the larval host for Gulf Fritillary, Zebra Longwing, and Julia butterflies, and its tiny greenish flowers provide nectar all year long. Fast-growing, easy, and full of life – a real gem for any Florida garden.
• This vine is delicate and compact, perfect for a medium trellis or climbing a small tree. Unlike the big, aggressive passion vines that can cover a whole fence, this one stays manageable.
• This Passion vine is not just charming and wildlife-friendly, it’s also tough as nails. Cold hardy and easy to grow, this native vine takes whatever Florida throws at it – heavy rains, long droughts and heat, poor sandy soils, even total neglect – and still thrives. A perfect choice if you want beauty, wildlife, and resilience all in one little plant.

🛒 Plant this small and tough vine with food and wildlife benefits

📚 Learn more:

• ✦ What is the sweetest Passionfruit?
• ✦ How big is Giant Granadilla?
• ✦ Does Red Passion flower produce edible fruit?
• ✦ The truth about Passion flower and Passion fruit
• ✦ Top 20 plants for a Butterfly Haven
• ✦ Top Eight irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven

#Food_Forest #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants #How_to

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🔍 Hiding in plain sight

"All the secrets of the world worth knowing are hiding in plain sight." - Robin Sloan

🐈📸 Cat Google (partial view) at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden.

#Quotes #PeopleCats

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🍌 Blue Ice Cream banana you’ll never find in stores!

• 🔵 The Blue Java Banana, also known as the Ice Cream Banana, is the banana everyone wants - and for good reason.
• 🔵 First of all… it's blue. Yes, really. When the fruit is unripe, it has a frosty blue-green tint - especially striking in the sun. These short, chunky bananas are only about 4 inches long and grow in beautiful bunches under mauve-colored flowers. The whole plant is a tropical showstopper.
• 🔵But the real magic happens when the fruit ripens. The blue fades to yellow… and inside? Oh my God - it’s heaven! The texture is soft, smooth, and creamy. And the flavor? Like vanilla ice cream.
• 🔵That’s how it got the name Ice Cream Banana. And this isn’t just a gimmick - it’s a cold-tolerant, vigorous variety that grows fast, reaches 10-15 feet tall, and produces heavy bunches (up to 60 pounds!) of sweet fruit that you can eat raw or cook with.
• 🔵 Your store-bought bananas can’t compete with this. Add it to your edible landscape, food forest, or patio garden - this one is a must-have! Grab it while it’s in stock. Or if it’s sold out - hit that wishlist button.

🛒 Explore Banana Varieties

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️ Is Blue Java Banana really blue? Great question!
• ▫️Why every garden needs a banana tree (or three!)
• ▫️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
• ▫️More about #Bananas

#Food_Forest #Bananas

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🍴 Peanut butter fruit smoothie: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

• 🔴Peanut butter fruit (Bunchosia argentia) makes delicious shake!
• 🔴Blend ripe peanut butter fruits with milk and honey.
• 🔴A creamy shake that tastes like dessert straight from the tree!

Peanut Butter Fruit Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 cup ripe peanut butter fruit (Bunchosia argentea), seeded
• 1 cup cold milk
• 1–2 tablespoons honey
• Ice cubes (optional)

Instructions

1. Remove seeds from ripe peanut butter fruits.
2. Blend fruits with milk and honey until smooth.
3. Add ice cubes if desired for a chilled version.
4. Serve immediately and enjoy a creamy shake that tastes like dessert straight from the tree!

🛒 Harvest Peanut Butter Fruit - the tree is fast fruiting!

#Food_Forest #Recipes

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🍿 Coconuts owns the kitchen

"A man may call himself the owner of a cat, but the cat calls him nothing at all - and still gets supper." - Mark Twain

🐈📸 Cat James Coconuts owns the kitchen at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden.

#Quotes #PeopleCats

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🌷 Ten shrubs you need to have for winter colors

Many snowbirds ask what to plant when they’re here just for the season. The answer is simple: go for trees and shrubs that bloom in winter. Fall is the perfect time to get them in the ground so your garden will be bursting with flowers once the cool season arrives. In our earlier video, we shared 8 best flowering trees that will bloom for you in Winter. Now, here are the shrubs that will complete your colorful winter garden.

• 🌷 1. Mansoa alliacea - Garlic Vine

Known for its garlicky scent, it also puts on clusters of lavender to purple flowers in cool weather. Reliable and eye-catching, often trained on fences or trellises. 👉plant it
• 🌷 2. Dombeya wallichii - Tropical Hydrangea

Large pink pompom clusters hang like lanterns from the branches. Sweetly fragrant and showy, it creates a hydrangea effect right in winter. 👉plant it
• 🌷 3. Brunfelsia pauciflora Compacta - Dwarf Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow

Small and manageable, it opens purple flowers that fade to lavender and then white, giving the look of three colors at once. A cheerful winter bloomer for pots or borders. 👉plant it
• 🌷 4. Clerodendrum minahassae - Fountain Clerodendrum

This shrub lives up to its name with cascades of long white flower sprays, blooming heavily in the cooler months and brightening shaded corners. 👉plant it
• 🌷 5. Tibouchina multiflora (grandifolia) - Glory bush, Quaresmeira

Covered in clusters of soft, fuzzy purple blooms, this shrub adds tropical flair during the cooler months. Its velvety leaves are ornamental year-round. 👉plant it
• 🌷 6. Holmskioldia sanguinea - Red Chinese hat

Cup-shaped bracts form red “hats” around small flowers. This shrub stands out with unique form and long-lasting blooms. 👉plant it
• 🌷 7. Barleria cristata - Philippine violet

A hardy shrub with masses of purple-violet blooms in the cool season. It flowers when many plants are quiet, adding dependable winter color. 👉plant it
• 🌷 8. Thunbergia erecta - King’s Mantle

A compact shrub with velvety purple blooms and bright yellow throats. It’s neat, easy to manage, and flowers generously in winter. 👉plant it
• 🌷 9. Eranthemum pulchellum - Blue Sage, Lead Flower

Few shrubs can match its electric-blue spikes of flowers in winter. Compact and low-care, it brings a rare color to the cool season garden. 👉plant it
• 🌷 10. Petrea volubilis (racemosa) - Queen’s wreath

A woody vine-shrub that bursts into cascading sprays of lavender stars. It flowers heavily in winter, resembling wisteria in the tropics. 👉plant it
🛒 Explore Winter bloomers

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️8 best flowering trees that will bloom for you in Winter
• ▫️9 best tropical shrubs that bloom all summer long or year around
• ▫️4 best low-growing perennials that bloom all summer

#Hedges_with_benefits #Discover

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🍑 Guess what's missing? Lost and found: two cats, zero tails

“Why do Manx cats make bad storytellers? …Because they always skip the tail!”

🐈📸 Matilda and Timo are Manx tailless siblings. Learn why they are tailless from this touching story: Timo and Matilda - Manx cats

#PeopleCats

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Can you name all the fruits on this tray? One of them will stump you!

• This morning I walked the garden and came back with a tray of fruits! That’s the joy of living in Florida with your own tropical garden: something new is always in season.
• On today’s tray: Papaya, Avocado, Egyptian guava and Cas guava, Barbados cherry… And this little red one? Peanut butter fruit!
• At Top Tropicals, you’ll find every tropical fruit tree you can imagine. What fruits are you harvesting from your garden right now?

🛒 Explore rare tropical fruit

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️10 best fruit trees to grow in Florida and Southern landscapes
• ▫️Five best fruit trees to plant in Summer
• ▫️Top 10 fast-fruiting trees

#Food_Forest #Discover

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🍴 Loquat salsa: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

• 
  🔴Dice Loquat fruit with tomato, onion, and jalapeno.
• 🔴Great spooned over grilled fish or eaten with chips.

Loquat Salsa Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh loquats, peeled, pitted, and diced
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
• 1 jalapeno, finely diced
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• Juice of 1 lime
• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Peel and pit the loquats, then dice them into small cubes.
2. Dice tomatoes and onion, finely chop the jalapeno.
3. In a bowl, combine loquats, tomato, onion, jalapeno, and cilantro.
4. Add lime juice and salt to taste, stir gently to mix.
5. Chill for 15 minutes before serving.

Serving Suggestions

• Serve with tortilla chips.
• Spoon over grilled fish, chicken, or shrimp.
• Use as a topping for tacos or salads.

🛒Plant your Loquat tree

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Loquat

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😰Are you for real?

"There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t yet met." - William Butler Yeats

🐈📸 Cats Cash and Bob greeting a new comer at Top Tropicals PeopleCats.Garden

#Quotes #PeopleCats

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