Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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Mango chili salt bites: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Mango chili salt bites: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes

Mango chili salt bites

Mango chili salt bites

🍴 Mango chili salt bites: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes
  • 🟡Slice ripe mango into wedges.
  • 🟡Sprinkle lightly with chili powder, salt, and a squeeze of lime.
  • 🟡Sweet, spicy, salty, tangy - all in one bite!


🛒 Explore Mango varieties

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Mango

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One bite, your whole day of vitamin C: Barbados Cherry that outdoes oranges! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

One bite, your whole day of vitamin C: Barbados Cherry that outdoes oranges!

Malpighia glabra - Barbados Cherry, Acerola

🍒 One bite, your whole day of vitamin C: Barbados Cherry that outdoes oranges!
  • 🍒 Malpighia glabra - Barbados Cherry, or Acerola has 65 times more vitamin C than an orange! Just a single berry-sized fruit can provide your entire daily vitamin C needs, along with vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, carotenoids, and bioflavonoids. In short, this little cherry is one of the most powerful antioxidant fruits in the world.
  • 🍒 But it isn’t just about nutrition. Barbados Cherry is a compact, fast-growing shrub or small tree that starts fruiting young, often within its first year. It produces crops several times a year, and the bright red cherries are as beautiful as they are useful. The fruit is tangy-sweet and makes excellent juices, smoothies, jams, and jellies. It also freezes well without losing its vitamin content.
  • 🍒 Gardeners love this plant not only for its fruit but also for how easy it is to grow. Unlike many tropicals, it tolerates alkaline soils, is drought-resistant once established, and can handle light freezes. That makes it a surprisingly tough choice for a tropical fruit tree. Birds enjoy the fruit too, so planting one is also a gift to your local wildlife.
  • 🍒 It's also a beauty in the garden, covered in pretty pink flowers and bright red fruit, often both at the same time.
  • 🍒 If you are short on space, the dwarf variety Nana is a perfect choice. With tiny leaves, compact growth, and smaller fruit, it works well in containers, borders, or even as a bonsai. It's both ornamental and productive.
  • 🍒 Whether you want a reliable vitamin boost, a wildlife-friendly garden addition, or just a cheerful little tree with bright red fruit, Barbados Cherry has you covered.


📚 Learn more from previous posts:

🛒 Add this vitamin C tree to your garden

#Food_Forest #Discover #Remedies

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Avocado cacao mousse: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Avocado cacao mousse: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes

Avocado cacao mousse

Avocado cacao mousse

🍴 Avocado cacao mousse: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes
  • 🟢Blend ripe avocado with cocoa powder, honey, and a splash of vanilla.
  • 🟢Chill and serve like chocolate pudding.
  • 🟢Nobody will guess the secret ingredient!
  • 🟢Healthy and tasty!


🛒 For all-home-grown ingredients you will need:
Avocado tree fruit
Chocolate tree fruit
Vanilla Orchid Beans

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Avocado

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You won't believe what was hiding inside this Siamese twin Valencia Pride mango! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

You wont believe what was hiding inside this Siamese twin Valencia Pride mango!

Valencia Pride mango

You won't believe what was hiding inside this Siamese twin Valencia Pride mango!
Mango Rainbow🌈

From our Valencia Pride tree that you saw in earlier video came this giant double mango - two fruits fused into one! On the outside it looked bizarre, but the real surprise came when we cut it open. Want to see what a twin mango looks like inside? Watch the video and find out!

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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Variegated Chaya - beauty meets nutrition. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Variegated Chaya - beauty meets nutrition

Cnidoscolus aconitifolius variegatus - Variegated Chaya, Maya Spinach Tree

🌱 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:

#Food_Forest #Remedies

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Climbing 10 feet for Vanilla Beans! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Climbing 10 feet for Vanilla Beans!

Vanilla Bean Orchid - Vanilla planifolia

⭐️ 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 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. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Homegrown coffee - the journey begins

Coffee tree - Coffea arabica

☕️ 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:

#Food_Forest #Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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Six guava varieties that will keep you picking year-round. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Six guava varieties that will keep you picking year-round

Tropical Guava - Psidium guajava

🍉 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:

#Food_Forest #Guava #Discover

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Why every garden needs a banana tree (or three!) A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

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

Bananas

🍌 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:

📱Red Leaves, Red Fruit, Real Wow Banana

#Food_Forest #Bananas

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Why your gut is begging for papaya. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Why your gut is begging for papaya

Papaya fruit and trees (Carica papaya)

🍊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:

🛒 Your gut will thank you - plant Papaya

#Food_Forest #Papaya
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