Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

❣️ It blooms in shade: Red Feather for your Shade Garden

• What colorful flowers can you plant in shade?

A true gem for tropical plant enthusiasts, Sanchezia stenomacra - Blood Red Feather - is a rare Peruvian beauty that brings unusual look and and color to your tropical garden.
• Its feathery, deep red flower plumes rise like flames above glossy green foliage, blooming non-stop and attracting hummingbirds with their vivid orange-red tubes.
• Perfect for humid spots with filtered light, it thrives in greenhouses, shaded patios, or even indoors.
• Upright and fast-growing, it bounces back beautifully from hard pruning and keeps blooming year-round.
• A true collector's treasure with bold style and easy care.

🛒 Bring home the Blood Red Feather

📚 Learn more:
Why is it called Blood Feather

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

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💖 Three things you will love about the tiniest Powderpuff - for the Tidiest Garden

• 💖 Calliandra emarginata Nana, Dwarf Powderpuff - this cheerful little shrub stays compact and blooms non-stop with fluffy pink powderpuff flowers that bees and butterflies can't resist.
• 💖 The name Calliandra means "beautiful stamens" - and it delivers! You'll see round, silky flowerheads popping out along the branches almost all year.
• 💖 It's easy to grow, easy to shape into a tidy bush or a mini tree, and easy to love!

🛒 Shop Calliandras - Powderpuffs

📚 More about Calliandras:

• · Powderpuff and a Bee
• · The best fast growing flowering bush for a privacy screen
• · Baby-pink fluffy flower for butterflies - Lilian
• · Flowering bush that everyone loves
• · Tree Calliandra
• · How to get a big flowering bush quickly? Calliandra - Powderpuff for blocking the unwanted view

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♨️ Turn up the color in your garden with the bold everblooming Brazilian plume

• ❣️Looking to add nonstop color, tropical flair for shade or sun, and pollinator appeal to your garden?

Megaskepasma erythrochlamys - Brazilian plume or Red Cloak, is the ultimate show-stopper shrub that takes both sun or shade.
• ❣️ With its big, bold leaves and eye-catching crimson-to-mauve flower spikes, this plant brings exotic beauty - without the need for a steamy jungle.
• ❣️The best part? It's surprisingly cold hardy. This lush-looking tropical can handle brief dips into the 30s (F), making it a top pick for USDA zones 9-11. Plant it in full sun or partial shade, and with regular watering, it rewards you with a steady burst of blooms that butterflies and hummingbirds can't resist.
• ❣️Reaching 5-7 ft tall in the ground, it fills out beautifully to anchor beds or soften fences. In colder regions, it can still thrive in large pots - just give it a sheltered spot, bring it indoors when temperatures drop, and enjoy its vivid flower show all winter long.
• ❣️If you want a garden that doesn’t fade with the season, the Brazilian plume delivers color, volume, and wildlife appeal - all year round.

🛒 Make your garden pop with color of Brazilian plume

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💃 Get the Red Jade look without the fuss: cold-hardy Dwarf Red Jade Vine

• 🔥 Love the stunning, fiery blooms of the famous Red Jade Vine (Mucuna benettii) but live outside the tropics?

Its cousin - Dwarf Red Jade Vine - is tougher, easier to grow, and just as jaw-dropping, and delivers the same dazzling display of blazing red flower chains - without the high-maintenance, ultra-tropical demands.
• 🔥 Camptosema grandiflora - Dwarf Red Jade Vine, Cuitelo, or Rooster's Crest - this Brazilian superstar brings cascading chains of bright red blooms that look like flames frozen in mid-air.
• 🔥 Unlike the ultra-tropical and finicky Mucuna benettii, this cousin is tougher, easier to grow, and just as jaw-dropping. It thrives in full to partial sun, forgives a little drought, and even shrugs off light frost. Blooming in fall and winter, it gives your garden a fiery finale when everything else starts to fade.
• 🔥 Got a pergola or arbor? Perfect. The hanging flower clusters will light up the space like a botanical chandelier. Just prune it hard in spring and feed it well, and it will thank you with a blooming spectacle year after year.
• 🔥 If you've been dreaming of the iconic Red Jade Vine but thought it was out of reach - this is your sign.

🛒 Get all the wow of Red Jade Vine - without the worry

📚 Learn more:
Camptosema grandiflora, Dwarf Red Jade Vine - my favorite plant

#Nature_Wonders #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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💐 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:

• 💋How to get a large, lush and fragrant bush in no time
• 💋Cashmere Bouquet

#Hedges_with_benefits #Perfume_Plants #Container_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

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💞 Bleeding Heart Vine surprised everyone this year!

• ❣️ Bleeding Heart Vine (Clerodendrum thomsoniae) is not just a winter bloomer! Despite the common belief that it blooms only in winter, this beauty actually flowers year-round in warm climates, putting on a continuous display of red and white "hearts". It bloomed in winter, then in spring, and now - it's a summertime - it is still full of flowers!
• ❣️ The "bleeding heart" look comes from the striking contrast between the white calyx and the deep red flower inside - like a heart bursting with color.
• ❣️ It's a vigorous vine, perfect for trellises, arbors, or containers. It can even be trained as a shrub!
• ❣️ Grows best in bright filtered light or partial sun, and appreciates regular watering - but it's not fussy.
• ❣️ Pollinator magnet! The blooms attract hummingbirds and butterflies, adding motion and life to your garden.
• ❣️ Tough and tropical - i'’s hardy, low maintenance, and stays evergreen in frost-free areas.
• ❣️ It's not shy, not seasonal, and definitely not boring!

📚 Learn more from previous posts:

• 💋When is the season for the Bleeding Hearts
• 💋Bleeding Heart Vine

🛒Get your own Bleeding Heart

#Butterfly_Plants #Shade_Garden #Fun_Facts #Hedges_with_benefits #Container_Garden

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💜 This is what we plant for a compact colorful hedge solution

• 💜 Thunbergia erecta - Kings Mantle - is currently in full bloom in our garden, showcasing its vibrant flowers that last almost year-round.
• 💜 One of our favorite flowering shrubs, it's compact, easy-going, and perfect for adding a splash of color.
• 💜 Available in blue, white, and even variegated lavender flowers, King's Mantle thrives in both sun and filtered light, with its dense, manageable habit making it ideal for low-growing hedges or garden specimens.
• 💜 It attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, and with simple pruning, it stays under 4 feet while producing a profusion of blooms.
• 💜 Hardy to 30°F and suitable for USDA Zones 9-11, it's also great for container gardening in colder regions.

🛒 Shop Thunbergias - colorful flowers for sun and shade

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️ Variegated flowers of Lavender Ice
• ▫️ Why is it called King's Mantle
• ▫️ Perfect everblooming hedge for shade

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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Top 20 plants for a Butterfly Haven

🏆 The most spectacular butterfly plants for the previous post 👆

*️⃣Acacia farnesiana, Sweet Mimosa
*️⃣ Antigonon leptopus - Mexican Coral Vine
*️⃣ Aristolochia - Pelican Flower, Dutchmans Pipe
*️⃣ Caesalpinia - Dwarf Poinciana, Bird of Paradise
*️⃣ Calliandra - Powderpuff
*️⃣ Cassia (Senna) - especially yellow-flowered varieties
*️⃣ Clerodendrums - all varieties
*️⃣ Clitoria ternatea - Butterfly Pea
*️⃣ Dombeya - Tropical Hydrangea
*️⃣ Jatropha - Coral Plant
*️⃣ Justicia - Brazilian Plume
*️⃣ Lonchocarpus violaceus - Lilac Tree
*️⃣ Lonicera - Honeysuckle
*️⃣ Mansoa alliacea - Garlic Vine
*️⃣ Passiflora - Passion Vine
*️⃣ Petrea - Queens Wreath
*️⃣ Pyrostegia venusta - Flame Vine
*️⃣ Quisqualis Indica - single flower
*️⃣ Senecio confusus - Mexican flame vine
*️⃣ Tecoma and Tecomaria

🛒 Transform your yard into a Butterfly Haven with exotic plants

📚 Learn more:
#Butterfly_Plants
Five best butterfly attractors for a Southern garden

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Butterfly Haven or a Heaven on Earth?

❓Q: What should I plant in my yard to create a butterfly haven? I love butterflies and want to create a unique butterfly paradise, but I'm looking for something exotic and unusual - nothing like the typical Milkweed or Pentas that everyone recommends. What can you suggest to make my yard stand out from the usual native landscape while still attracting butterflies? I have plenty of space and want something diverse and showy!

‼️ A: In previous posts we introduced many #Butterfly_Plants including Five best butterfly attractors.
In next post you will see the most spectacular tropical and subtropical plants perfect for Southern gardens so you can create a dynamic and colorful butterfly haven. These options are unique, eclectic, and exotic - your flowers will not only be butterfly magnets but will also turn heads with their striking beauty! 👇

🛒 Transform your yard into a Butterfly Haven with exotic plants

#Butterfly_Plants

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🔥 A perfect Summer plant: red bells are hot without bringing heat

• 🔥 Meet the Fireball Abutilon, a fiery beauty that doesn't burn! This charming hybrid (A. darwinii x striatum), also known as Biltmore Ballgown, shows off glowing red bell flowers with elegant curled petals and bold red veins.
• 🔥 Its maple-like leaves add even more style.
• 🔥 It can grow up to 8-10 ft tall but stays neat with pruning. Loves summer pampering - water, fertilizer, and sunshine. Not a fan of cold snaps, so give it a cozy spot.
• 🔥 It's the perfect plant for turning up the color without turning up the heat!

🛒 Shop Flowering Shrubs for Hot Summer

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_plants

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