Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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The sunny show-off hummingbirds love. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Caesalpinia mexicana - Mexican Bird of Paradise

🌞 The sunny show-off hummingbirds love
  • 🌞 Caesalpinia mexicana - Mexican Bird of Paradise - the sunny show-off you didn't know you needed. Many gardeners have popular and more common common Bird of Paradise Caesalpinia pulcherrima, with red flowers, but this one is rare in gardens.
  • 🌞 While most Bird of Paradise plants rely on looks alone, this one ups the game with fragrant blooms. From spring through summer, it's covered in butter-yellow flowers that stand out against soft, feathery foliage. Hummingbirds love it, and when the blooms fade, it makes woody seed pods that snap open like nature's fireworks.
  • 🌞 It's native to northern Mexico, which means it handles heat, sun, and dry conditions without a fuss. You can grow it as a compact shrub or let it stretch into a small tree. Either way, it’s easygoing, low-maintenance, and beautiful all season.


🛒 Attract hummingbirds to your garden

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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Blue lips smell like violets - Mazabuka, Sclerochiton harveyanus. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Sclerochiton harveyanus - Mazabuka, Blue Lips

👄 Blue lips smell like violets
  • 💙 Sclerochiton harveyanus - Mazabuka, or Blue Lips blooms with quirky blue-to-purple flowers that really do look like lips. And in the tropical plant world, blue flowers are rare. And they are lightly violet-lavender-fragrant!
  • 💙 Even better? It's a total shade lover. No need for blazing sun - this beauty is happy to bloom in the cool, leafy spots of your garden.
  • 💙 Loved by bees and birds, and just the right mix of weird and wonderful.


🛒 Add Blue Lips to your shade garden

📚 Learn more:

#Perfume_Plants #Shade_Garden #Butterfly_Plants
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The morning glory that sleeps in? Alamo Vine - the noon-blooming mystery. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Ipomoea sinuata - Alamo Vine

🌞 The morning glory that sleeps in? Alamo Vine - the noon-blooming mystery
  • 💮 Ipomoea sinuata - Alamo Vine or Woodrose isn't your average morning glory.
  • 💮It's a fast-growing, very fine vine with feathery, soft-textured leaves that look like they belong in a fairytale.
  • 💮 And its white pretty blooms? They're a little rebellious! Opening around noon instead of morning, then closing again before sunset.
  • 💮 Perfect for trellises, fences, or even a container if you want a vine with personality. Attracts butterflies and bees.
  • 💮 It's fast, it's different, and it's ready to cover a small fence or trellis.


🛒 Add this noontime bloomer to your garden

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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Health benefits of a simple plant: Coral bean. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Health benefits of a simple plant: Coral bean
🍒 Health benefits of a simple plant: Coral bean

  • Don't let the tough, thorny branches fool you - this native plant has a long history of traditional use. While the seeds are poisonous, the young leaves and flowers have been safely cooked and eaten in small amounts by various cultures.

  • Traditionally, Erythrina herbacea - Coral Bean has been used in folk remedies for calming the nerves, easing muscle pain, and even promoting better sleep.

  • Modern science hasn’t fully explored these uses yet, but the plant contains alkaloids that may have sedative and muscle-relaxing properties. It's a reminder that even rugged native plants can carry powerful natural potential.

  • As a bonus, Erythrina herbacea is also beautiful and beneficial in the garden, drawing in hummingbirds and butterflies with its vibrant pink flowers - hummingbirds can't resist this wild bloomer! It grows well in poor soil and dry conditions - low effort, high reward!


🛒 Plant once, enjoy for years

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Butterfly_plants #Discover

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National treasure of Thailand: Golden Shower Tree. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Cassia fistula - Golden Shower Tree

🌞 National treasure of Thailand: Golden Shower Tree
  • ☀️ Cassia fistula - Golden Shower Tree is known as the national flower of Thailand. It is one of the most spectacular flowering trees for tropical and subtropical gardens.
  • ☀️ From late spring through summer, it puts on a breathtaking display of golden-yellow flower clusters that hang in long, pendulous chains, often over a foot long. When in full bloom, the entire tree appears drenched in gold.
  • ☀️ This deciduous tree drops its leaves in the dry season, allowing the brilliant flowers to take center stage. The leaves re-emerge after flowering, followed by long, dark brown seed pods that can reach up to two feet.
  • ☀️ Cassia fistula is fast-growing, typically reaching 20-30 feet tall, and thrives in full sun with well-drained soil. It prefers a dry season to initiate heavy blooming and is tolerant of drought once established.
  • ☀️ Aside from its beauty, the tree has cultural and medicinal significance in Asia in Ayurvedic medicine.
  • ☀️ Fun facts:

▫️In Thailand, it’s called Ratchaphruek and symbolizes royal identity.
  • ▫️Its golden flowers are often used in local festivals and ceremonies.
  • ▫️It attracts bees and butterflies and provides seasonal shade.


🛒 Shop showy Cassia trees

📚 Learn more:
▫️Compact and showy flowering trees: Rainbow Cassias.

#Butterfly_Plants #Trees

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Do you see Musical Notes in this flower? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Clerodendrum incisum - Musical Note, Morning Kiss Clerodendrum

🎶 Do you see Musical Notes in this flower?
  • 🎶 Our garden’s putting on a concert - Clerodendrum incisum is in full bloom, and these quirky little musical notes are ready to jazz up your space!
  • 🎶 Musical Note, or Morning Kiss Clerodendrum blooms at Top Tropicals garden most of the year, several times - during the warm period, from Spring to late Fall.


ℹ️ The unopened flowers resemble musical notes, giving the plant its name.

🛒 Bring home the bloom that sings

📚 Learn more about Music Notes:

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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It blooms in shade: Red Feather for your Shade Garden. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Sanchezia stenomacra - Red Feather

❣️ 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. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Calliandra emarginata Nana, Dwarf Powderpuff

💖 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:

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants
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Turn up the color in your garden with the bold everblooming Brazilian plume. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Megaskepasma erythrochlamys - Brazilian plume or Red Cloak

Megaskepasma erythrochlamys - Brazilian plume or Red Cloak

Megaskepasma erythrochlamys flowers

Megaskepasma erythrochlamys flowers

♨️ 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

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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Get the Red Jade look without the fuss: cold-hardy Dwarf Red Jade Vine. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

💃 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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