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Index > Garden Blog

Date:

Grow Your Own Food:
Costa Rican Guava - Guava for Drinking!

Cas Guava - Psidium friedrichsthalianum, Fruit

by Alex Butova, the Witch of Herbs and Cats

...Looking for a handsome, unusual fruit tree for container culture with healthy and flavorful fruit? Or simply want an easy fruit tree that is hardy and undemanding? Psidium friedrichsthalianum (family Myrtaceae), the Costa Rican Guava or Cas Guava, is a perfect small guava tree that can be very rewarding. In Nicaragua it is called "Guava for Drinking" or "Fresco de Guava". Despite the tartness, the flavor is excellent with passionfruit and pineapple tones and is much more pronounced than the subtle flavor of the common Guava. These fruits are very much a part of the culture and cuisine of Costa Rica. Also it has been successfully grown in California now and can be grown in many subtropical regions or as a container plant - "condo" fruit tree...

Cas Guava - Psidium friedrichsthalianum, Tree

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New Video:
How to grow your own Macadamia Nuts

Macadamia tree youtube video

In this video we talk about growing your own Macadamia tree and enjoy the most delicious and the most expensive nuts right from your backyard!

Macadamia tree nuts

Macadamia tree

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Stay updated with TopTropicals Videos by subscribing to our channel at YouTube.com/TopTropicals and get our latest video news of what is fruiting and blooming!

Date:

Macadamia: Hard Sweet Nut and Hardy Tree

Macadamia nuts

by Alex Butova, the Witch of Herbs and Cats

...Do you know what is the most hard-shelled nut in the world? And the most useful? Most rich in nutrients? May aid weight loss? They are Macadamia nuts!...
...Macadamia nuts garner premium prices as the demand surpasses current production... ...Are you searching for a nut that you can grow in cooler subtropics like Central Florida? This is the one. It looks hopeful as a new alternative crop for Florida growers. Macadamia nuts are most delicious and popular sweet nuts that are so expensive... They can be produced and enjoyed in your garden! Macadamia is cold hardy, fast growing, tolerates all soils and very productive. It likes lots of water, will live through some flooding, as well as some drought once established. Older trees can survive cold winters with a little die back, but young trees will need to be protected from cold temperatures below 25-26F...

Macadamia nut tree, Macadamia 
integrifolia

Date:

Join our Sunday Garden Party Today!

Saving on your favorite plants is Easy.
Easy like Sunday Morning...


It's time for our favorite day and another Easy stroll through Top Tropicals Garden with savings of

up to 50% and MORE!

Spring into Spring Garden Party
Local or Virtual

Spring has arrived! Spring signals new beginnings and nature's renewal and offers a ray of hope in a world that could really use some right now.
Today is our Spring into Spring Garden Party at our TopTropicals Garden Center in Fort Myers, Florida. Cool vendors, Live Music, Plant Clinic and 15% off all plants. If you can't join us live, come to this virtual party and you can Save 15% too! And more...

Check our event page for the latest pictures and take advantage of our savings available to you! 15% off all orders of $100 or more. Simply use the code GARDENPARTY at checkout and save!

For 15% off use code:
GARDENPARTY

Min order $100 excluding S/H, exp. 3-21-22.

Exclusive offer for online guests only:
50% OFF 4 rare Kalanchoe species

As a special offer for online shoppers, we offer a flash deal of easy to grow, yet rare Kalanchoe varieties, with at instant 50% OFF for one day only! On top of that, use your GARDENPARTY 15% off coupon at checkout and make it a STEAL!

Kalanchoe synsepala Magnificent - Walking Cup Kalanchoe
Kalanchoe thyrsiflora (tetraphylla ) - Flapjacks
Kalanchoe pinnata - Hawaiian Air Plant, Bahamas Breath Plant
Kalanchoe daigremontiana - Mother of Thousands

Remember, this Easy Sunday Deal expires on Monday, 3-21-22.

Date:

March 17 - Double Holiday!
St Patricks and St Gertrudes Day

The picture above was sent to us from our customer Arnette

For 15% Spring Gardening Discount, use code:

STPATRICKS22

Exp. 3-18-22, Min order $150.

Did you know that March 17 is not only the day of St Patrick, but also of another Saint? Saint Gertrude of Nivelles!
Cat lovers revere Gertrude of Nivelles most of all. After all, gentle Gertrude is the Patron Saint of Cats and Cat lovers. The idea seems to have started in the 1980s, more than 1300 years after she lived. Some sources say the first publication to link Gertrude and cats was a 1981 catalog, Metropolitan Cats, put out by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Since then, the idea that Gertrude is the patron of cats - and cat owners - has spread. She is the Patron of Cats, Gardeners, Travelers... and Those with a Morbid Fear of Mice and Rats.
Most of us can find themselves in this list! St Gertrude's feast day of March 17 is observed by gardeners, who regard fine weather on that day as a sign to begin spring planting!

And yet one more holiday close enough... Today, March 16 is a birthday of our columnist Alex Butova - the Witch of Herbs and Cats and supporter of PeopleCats. Alex was born on a purrrfect day! Happy Birthday, Alex!

The picture above was sent to us from Alex

Date:

This Sunday Event Special:
Ukrainian Sunflower Collection

Local pick up

Sunflower Collection - in support of our Ukrainian Team. Profits will be sent to Ukraine.

  1. gal community pot includes 6 varieties:

Sunflower var. Horizon grows 4-6 foot (yellow)
Sunflower var. Sunfill Purple grows 4-6 foot (purple)
Sunflower var. King 8-15 foot (yellow)
Sunflower var. Terracotta grows 4-6 foot (orange/red)
Sunflower var. Black Beauty 4-6 foot (dark red)
Sunflower var. Lemon Eclair grows 4-6 foot (yellow)

Date:

A Really Fig Deal for You...

Saving on your favorite plants is Easy.
Easy like Sunday Morning...


It's time for our favorite day and another Easy stroll through Top Tropicals Garden with savings of

up to 50% and MORE!

Fig tree fruits and cat

Easy Sunday Fig Deal
50% OFF

Figs are a superfood that have been associated with health and prosperity since ancient times. Linked to Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture and fertility, figs are not your typical fruit. In fact, figs are technically a collection of inverted flowers!

Figs satisfy your sweet cravings and offer a variety of health benefits including:
- reduce high blood pressure
- improve digestion
- increase bone density
- they are naturally fat-free and cholesterol-free food that is an excellent source of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, potassium and magnesium (Source: webmd.com).

Figs trees are easy to grow and are cold hardy subtropical fruit trees that can tolerate some hard freeze once established. They have very low water demands and require minimal care. These trees will fruit for you right away!

Beers Black
Celeste
Ischia
Lattarula Italian Honey
LSU Purple
Violette de Bordeaux Negronne
Yellow Longneck Honey

The trees are in 1 gal pots, ready to step up. They have well-developed root system, and are ready to fruit this year!

Actual plants for sale

Fig tree, Ficus carica

Seven Fig Deal:
6 plants at 50% off + 1 plant FREE!

Regularly $230.65
Easy Sunday Collection price $98.85
(half price plus one plant FREE)
This is savings of $131.80 per set!
Told you, that's a really Fig Deal!

Remember, this Easy Sunday Deal expires on Tuesday, 3-15-22.

Fig tree fruits

Date:

Grow Your Own Food

How to garden in South Central Florida

by Ed Jones, the Booster guy

Plant horoscope: Pisces

...We are very excited about the garden season this year and feel like we have the best chance yet of producing some nice veggies since we have been here. I sure hope so as there is nothing better than fresh food from your own garden. If you are not growing your own fruits and vegetables, I would recommend that you give it a try...
...When we lived in Indiana, we had a nice little garden in front of our house and we also had about a half acre planted with tomatoes, potatoes, squashes of all kinds, corn, popcorn, pumpkins, and many other veggies...
...Since my wife and I moved to Florida in 2019, we have continued growing our own vegetable garden. Now, I must say that it has been quite the experience trying to learn when to plant things here in south central Florida. It seems that the summer sun can be so hot that even plants like tomatoes, that love the heat, can't survive?...
Based on our experience, here are some secrets how to do it right...

CONTINUE READING >>

Top Tropicals: Learn more about this subject

Tomatoes

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The brightest lives of Sunflowers

Ukrainian 
Sunflowers

"...Despite knowing they won't be here for long, they still choose to live their brightest lives - sunflowers..."
- Rupi Kaur -


Photo above: Ukrainian Sunflowers. This photo was sent to us today from Ukraine by Alex & Lena, and Oksana (daughter of our Catalog Editor Marina Rybka). Our thoughts and prayers are with them and their country.

Date:

What are your Lucky Zodiac plants? Plant Horoscope - Pisces

by Alex Butova, the Witch of Herbs and Cats

Plant horoscope: Pisces

...As the endless diversity of fish in Earth's reservoirs, the characters of those born under this sign of the Zodiac, are also incomprehensible. That is why compiling a horoscope for this sign is especially difficult. The main feature of Pisces is movement and unpredictability, which depends even not on themselves, but rather on external influences. Unlike other water signs, Pisces do not live on the surface, their world is there, in the water space...

CONTINUE READING >>

Top Tropicals: Learn more about this 
subject

Magnolia virginiana (Vanilla Magnolia) plant horoscope Pisces sign