What's that fragrance in the dark? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.
Whats that fragrance in the dark?
Brunfelsia - Lady of the Night
🌠 What's that fragrance in the dark?
💐 Brunfelsia? People often ask: what can you plant in a shady spot that blooms year-round and smells amazing? The answer is Brunfelsia, known as Lady of the Night.
💐 This Brazilian beauty is a compact, shade-loving shrub that thrives in low light and rewards you with creamy white flowers. As the sun sets, the blooms release a sweet, unforgettable perfume that lingers through the night. It’s like nature’s way of setting the mood for evening strolls.
💐 Brunfelsia is more than just fragrance. Its flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds, turning shaded corners into lively little stages. Low-maintenance, pollinator-friendly, and elegant, it’s the answer to your prayers: shade, flowers, and fragrance all in one plant.
💐 The most fragrant Brunfelsias are the creamy-white varieties, often called Lady of the Night.
Popular species include: B. americana, B. isola, B. nitida, B. lactea, B. manaca, B. densifolia, B. gigantea.
Do you already grow Brunfelsia? What kind do you have in your garden?
Plant for birds: feast for wildlife and people from a tiny vine! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.
Plant for birds: feast for wildlife and people from a tiny vine!
Passiflora suberosa - Corkystem Passion Vine
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.
Ten shrubs you need to have for winter colors. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.
Ten shrubs you need to have for winter colors
Garlic Vine, Dombeya - Tropical Hydrangea, Brunfelsia Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow, Fountain Clerodendrum, Tibouchina grandifolia - Glory bush, Chinese hat, Barleria - Philippine violet, Thunbergia - Kings Mantle, Eranthemum - Blue Sage or Lead Flower, Petrea vine - Queens wreath
🌷 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
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
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
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
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
10-minute recipe Bo La Lot with a leaf youve never cooked before! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.
10-minute recipe Bo La Lot with a leaf youve never cooked before!
Bo La Lot recipe with Vietnamese pepper Lalot (Piper sarmentosum)
🍴 10-minute recipe Bo La Lot with a leaf you’ve never cooked before!
🌮 Forget boring tacos - this wrap will blow your mind! In Vietnam they call it Bo La Lot - beef wrapped in peppery Lalot leaves.
🌮 It started as grape leaf wraps in the Middle East, but in tropical Asia grapes don’t grow, so people swapped to Lalot. Way more flavor than grape leaves!
🌮 Grilled beef, garlic, onion, lemongrass - all can be tucked into these shiny green leaves. Smoky, juicy, and so good you’ll wonder why you didn't try it sooner! It's better than grape leaf wraps, because it has so much flavor!
🌮 Most large leaf pepper plants will work for this recipe - Vietnamese pepper Lalot (Piper sarmentosum), Betel Leaf (Piper betle), or even large leaves of the traditional Black Pepper plant (Piper nigrum).
🌯 BO LA LOT RECIPE
✔️ Ingredients
· 1 pound ground beef or turkey
· 2 tablespoons chopped lemongrass (optional)
· 1 tbsp spice powder
· 1 tbsp curry powder
· 1 tbsp finely minced garlic
· 1 tbsp oyster sauce or fish sauce (optional)
· 1 tsp ground black pepper
· 1 tbsp finely minced shallots
· 1 tbsp soy sauce
· 2 tsp sugar or honey
· 1/2 tbsp olive oil
· 1/2 tbsp salt
· 10-15 fresh Lalot leaves
👉 Directions
· Preheat the grill.
· Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well.
· Wrap about 2 tablespoons of the mixture into each betel leaf.
· Spear 3 to 4 betel leaf wraps onto a skewer and grill until the meat is thoroughly cooked.
