Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

❔ Another definition of Happiness

"Happiness consists of getting enough sleep." - Robert A. Heinlein

🐈📸 Cat James Coconuts is a happy Purrrson at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden. He sleeps 23 hours a day.

#PeopleCats #Quotes

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🍴 Sugar apple spoon mash: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

• 🟢Scoop out ripe Sugar Apple flesh and mash lightly with a fork, removing seeds as you go.
• 🟢Stir in a splash of chilled coconut milk.
• 🟢Serve it half-frozen like a tropical slush, eaten straight from the bowl.

Sugar Apple Spoon Mash

Ingredients

• 1 ripe Sugar Apple (Annona squamosa)
• 2 to 3 tbsp chilled coconut milk

Instructions

1. Scoop out the ripe Sugar Apple flesh and remove all seeds.
2. Mash the pulp lightly with a fork.
3. Stir in the chilled coconut milk.
4. Serve immediately or half-freeze for a tropical slush.

🛒 Grow Sugar Apples - in containers or in the ground

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️ Why everyone wants the Sugar Apple?
• ▫️ Annona squamosa - Sugar Apple - in Plant Encyclopedia
• ▫️ Top 10 fast-fruiting trees: Annona - Sugar Apple, Custard Apple
• ▫️ What does Sugar Apple look like and how does it taste?
• ▫️ This is why Atemoya is better than any other Annonas
• ▫️ What's inside this bumpy Annona fruit? Delicious Health benefits

#Food_Forest #Recipes

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🚽 The throne is mine

"The throne is mine." - Game of Thrones
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." - Lord Acton

🐈📸 Cat Niki a.k.a. the Security Gard, who created her own salon, now took over the bathroom at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden

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⭐️ What will bloom for you in November: Gardenia nitida - Shooting Star

• ⭐️ It's end of November and let's see what's in bloom today.

Gardenia nitida - the Shooting Star Gardenia - is looking absolutely perfect right now. This is one of the most unusual gardenias you’ll ever run into. Native to tropical Africa, slow-growing, elegant, and honestly… it doesn’t even look like the regular gardenias people are used to.
• ⭐️ The leaves are the first giveaway. Instead of the thick, waxy look of common gardenias, this one has big, soft, diamond-shaped leaves that give the whole plant a delicate, almost tropical-orchid vibe. The shrubs grow into neat, rounded shapes, so they do great in containers or smaller garden spaces.
• ⭐️ And the blooms… they’re happening right now! Long, skinny white tubes that flare open into bright little starbursts. They show up in clusters, and when the sun hits them, they really do look like tiny shooting stars across the plant. The fragrance is sweet, rich, and drifting all over the walkway even before you get close.
• ⭐️ It blooms several times a year, but this moment - right now, heading into winter - is one of its best. If you like rare fragrant plants, this is one of those collector pieces you don’t see every day, especially looking this full and this fresh.

🛒 Get the Shooting Star to light up your garden in Winter

📚 Learn more:
More about Gardenia nitida from Plant Encyclopedia

📱 Watch YouTube short videos:

• ✦ You thought you knew Gardenias, until you saw this one
• ✦ Shooting Star Gardenia: a rare scent from Africa

#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits

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😘 Stop and smell the sweetness

"A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms - and invites you to stop and smell its sweetness." - Zen Shin

🐈📸 Meet Onika's cats: this is iTembie - read her touching story from PeopleCats.Garden

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🔴 What is the best Red Dragon fruit and what does it taste like?

• 🍉 Red dragon fruit might look similar on the outside, but the flavors are all over the place once you start trying different varieties. Halley's Comet is one of the reds that actually tastes rich - sweet, juicy, and full of that deep berry-like flavor people hope for in dragon fruit. It ripens fast, so you have to catch it at the right moment or it turns soft overnight.
• 🍉 Red-fleshed types are also loaded with antioxidants, which is why the juice stains everything it touches. If you like bold flavor, check out other good reds below. These are some of the top varieties growers recommend for sweeter, stronger taste:

• 🔴🔴 Red skin, red flesh(Hylocereus costaricensis) - Sweeter, juicier, and more intense in flavor. The deep red juice can stain, but it’s loaded with antioxidants.

Varieties: American Beauty, Bloody Mary, Eureka Red, Costa Rican Sunset, Mac Edwin, Halley's Comet, Makisupa, Mega Red, Physical Graffiti, Sweet Red
• 🔴🟣 Red flesh, purple/magenta flesh(Hylocereus x costaricensis) - Hybrids, usually between red and white varieties.

Varieties: Cosmic Charlie, Edgar's Baby, Natural Mystic, Physical Graffiti, Purple Haze, Tricia, Voodoo Child, Zamorano

🛒 Bring a red dragon to your garden

📚 Learn more:

• · More about Dragon fruit plant from Plant Encyclopedia
• · When do I get the fruit from my Dragon Fruit?
• · Pitaya vs Dragon fruit - what is the difference and how to grow it. Varieties.
• · Do red, white and yellow Dragon fruit taste differently?

📱 How to grow Dragon Fruit
📱 How to get your own Dragon Fruit plantation

#Food_Forest #How_to #Dragon_Fruit

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🍴 Betel leaf bites: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

• 🟢Spread coconut, peanuts, lime bits, and palm sugar on a Piper betle leaf.
• 🟢Fold and chew for a refreshing, spicy-sweet treat.

Betel Leaf Bites (Quick and Fun Exotic Snack)

Ingredients

• 6 fresh betel leaves (Piper betle)
• 2 tbsp shredded coconut
• 2 tbsp roasted peanuts
• 2 tbsp palm sugar sauce or thick palm syrup
• 1 tbsp finely diced lime (with rind)
• 1 tbsp finely minced ginger (optional)
• 1 small chili, sliced (optional)

Instructions

1. Rinse the betel leaves and pat dry. Keep whole leaves for folding.
2. Place each leaf shiny side down. Add a pinch of shredded coconut, roasted peanuts, diced lime, and a small dollop of palm sugar sauce.
3. Add ginger or chili if you want extra heat.
4. Fold the leaf into a small triangular packet.
5. Serve freshly folded and enjoy the refreshing sweet-spicy-lime flavor.

🛒 Plant your own Betel Leaf

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️Piper betle in Plant Encyclopedia
• ▫️How to grow your own Pepper plants. Five most valuable Pipers
• ▫️Plant Smarter: Grow Your Own Brain Boosters
• ▫️10-minute recipe Bo La Lot with a leaf you’ve never cooked before

#Food_Forest #Recipes

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🍴 Give thanks for a little

"Give thanks for a little, and you will find a lot." - African (Hausa) proverb

🍗 Happy Thanksgiving!

🐈📸 Cats Jacques, Sushi and Bob are looking for sushi in TopTropicals refrigerator at PeopleCats.Garden.

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🔥 It opens overnight, wakes up just for Thanksgiving!

• 🔥 Gloxinia sylvatica - Bolivian Sunset, is one of those plants that waits for the perfect cool morning and then explodes in red.
• 🔥 The blooms really do show up overnight - bright fire-red, glowing even in deep shade. and blooms all through fall and winter. In Summer it sleeps, then flowers come back in Fall.
• 🔥 It's an easy, water-loving, shade-loving plant that makes a showy holiday ground cover. It stays low, spreads from rhizomes. And if you like sharing plants, this one gives you plenty of starts to pass around during the holidays. Perfect timing, perfect color, perfect seasonal surprise!

🛒 Plant Bolivian Sunset - the Winter Wonder that turns on like a light switch!

📚 Learn more:
Low growing show stopper blooms like a winter fire

#Butterfly_Plants #Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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