Our PeopleCats love roaming in the gardens. They often guide customers in
our Garden Center, and their favorite isle is fruit trees! At this time of the
year,
Pineapples are ripening, and these fruit are always fun for both people and
PeopleCats.
Photo above: You've met before Georgie and Philemon but you probably
didn't know they were brothers. Not twins, because they were from litters
following each other, so Georgie is the older brother. But they both are very
smart, maybe their mother taught them the same tricks.
Photo below: Wesley and Marco are actually real twins... but they are so
different! Fat and skinny, lazy and crazy, quiet and loud, velvet and fluffy.
But they are both very sweet and loving!
Gemini Cats and their Zodiac
5/21-6/20
By Alex Butova, the Witch of Herbs and Cats
Today's story is about Gemini cats.
They are known for their exceptional communication skills. They are
undoubtedly quite the chatty felines! With a diverse repertoire of meows, and it's
up to us humans to decipher their messages. These cats possess remarkable
intelligence, capable of uttering words like 'hello' and posing 'why?' questions,
even when they are just kittens. If you happen to leave paint around, be
prepared for Gemini cats to step in it and leave paw print messages around the
house. It's their way of communicating in a feline code that may elude our
comprehension. CONTINUE READING >>
In the photo: Mango Princess reincarnated. Mango is a Lab dog that got pregnant and lost her home... But she found her new life at Top Tropicals PeopleCats community. And she brought us a basket of happy
puppies!
According to Hindu folklore, there was once a Sun Princess who was
cruelly burned to death by a wicked sorceress... However, from the ashes of the
princess, a mango tree sprung up, and the Emperor was immediately enchanted by the beauty of its blooms. The fruit that followed
was equally as captivating and when the ripe mangoes fell from the tree, the Sun Princess was
reincarnated.
Starting that moment on, the mango became a symbol of love and affection in India, and
offering someone a basket of mangoes was seen as a gesture of friendship.
Today, mangoes are widely regarded as the most consumed fruit in the
world, with approximately half of all tropical fruits produced globally being
mangoes.
Customer message:Happy new year! My family is Chinese and we
celebrate the lunar new year this weekend… the year of the rabbit. Wasn't
sure if this email was sent in error (maybe your founder is Vietnamese? I
think they celebrate the year of the cat...
Answer: You are right, it is a Year of the Rabbit in Chinese
calendar, and it is also a Year of the Cat in Vietnamese, both starting from January 22nd, 2023.
While in Chinese culture it is called a Year of the Rabbit, the Cat was seen
as more relevant to the daily lives of Vietnamese farmers, who valued the
cat's ability to protect their crops from rats, squirrels... Here at Top
Tropicals we have a multi-national team, and although we don't have a Vietnamese
person yet, but we have lots of cats - all kinds!
Happy New Year of the two furry friends:
RABBIT and CAT!
Flowers in the photo above: Clerodendrum philippinum - Cashmere Bouquet, Scent Malli. Very fragrant
off-white flowers, carnation-like, coming in big clusters. Shade tolerant
shrub, great for shade gardens as well as indoor culture to enjoy tropical
fragrance year around.
A letter from a gardener:
"We just want our paradise back!"
"...My name is Ian, and I am a 21 y/o Natural Resource Management
student at South Dakota State University. In 2006, my family found a small
barrier island lush with foliage and virtually untouched by the modern world, and
we fell in love. Little Gasparilla Island became a piece of our family and
now after 16 years, we still spend months out of each year enjoying the
island's natural beauty.
Enter Hurricane Ian.
With the eye of the hurricane traveling directly over the island, many
homes and materialistic items were destroyed, but more importantly, the once
beautiful "jungle" is now more comparable to a barren desert.
This is where I was hoping to get some help... to restore the beauty of
Little Gasparilla. After almost 3 weeks, neither the county nor FEMA has made it
out to survey our island. And it is almost as if we feel forgotten. After
fending for ourselves for clean-up, I am ready to get to work on landscaping.
Plants are my passion and it pains me each day to wake up and see that 90% of
our Australian and Norfolk Island Pines are completely gone, along with most
foliage and palms.
We just want our paradise back, and many of us will work for it by any
means necessary..."
We replied to Ian who suffered from Ian... We are willing to help his
beautiful island, as well as everyone who is looking for help restoring our
Florida beauty. Check out our deals and re-leaf discounts we send in our Newsletters. Remember to attend our Garden Festival on Nov 19, with some big discounts as well as free
plants for after-Ian re-leaf!
We will make Florida beautiful again.
We will call it Project Ian!
Due to hurricane Ian aftermath in SW Florida, many gardeners aren't able
to attend our Garden Event that was originally scheduled for this coming
Saturday Oct 8. So we decided to reschedule it for November 19, 2022 so everyone
can come. Please update your calendars!
We have spent weeks planning this special event and the show will go on,
as soon as everybody gets back on their feet. Stay strong and come back, we
will help you to restore your gardens!
NEW: Festival RE-LEAF
special
FREE plant for every guest - no purchase necessary!
Throughout years of living in Florida with its sometimes harsh weather -
hurricanes, flood, freeze, drought - we have lost plants too, and we feel
your pain now! To help everyone to restore their gardens after hurricane Ian,
we are offering a FREE plant program. Yes, it's absolutely free, and no
purchase required. This promotion will be run during our Fall Festival and every guest will receive a free gift plant!
PeopleCats Botanical Garden Grand Opening
Guided tour with Mark Hooten
Top Tropicals Garden Center is pleased to invite you to visit our new PeopleCats Botanical Garden on the grounds of Top Tropicals in Ft
Myers. It is named in honor of the relationship with our beloved Cats, who we treat like People. You'll see our Garden PeopleCats roaming the property. As a matter of fact, they rule
the garden!
The Garden has many mature trees and plants so you can see what they look like before your purchase them in our Garden Center. And of course, our
PeopleCats will be guiding you in the Gardens!
"...Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water
it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing. You are just talking..." - Wangari Maathai -
This is the story of the little mango tree that could. From the
beginning, it has been a fighter and has come through its latest battle with a few
scars, but it is still going...
...On January 30, the unthinkable happened. Cold weather was coming. We had
a low of under 25F on that Sunday morning...
...Then, on April 4, 2022 we had a very bad hail storm... Hail stones up to
3" fell for 20 minutes... Learn more about what happened and see this mango tree today... What
helped it to survive and also what will help it to grow back into a beautiful
tree?
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!
In this video we talk about a rare hybrid of Annona - Golden Sugar
Apple. This rare Annona is a species originally brought to us from Costa Rica. We
believe it to be a natural hybrid between A. muricata and A. glabra...
Fast growing, it forms a nice bushy specimen. It has a large, up to 1 lb
fruit, green when unripe, turning dark yellow to orange on ripening. The pulp
is golden to orange when ripe, with a strong Pineapple scent, and resembling
Jackfruit in texture. Flavor is like the custard apple but with pineapple,
papaya, apricot and melon overtones. Note that some people dislike the taste,
others find it good...
The tree tolerates flooding. It is also cold hardy! The plant would be very
interesting for rare fruit collectors as it offers a large, exotic fruit of
unusual color and taste, and appears to be much more hardy and water tolerant
than similar looking but sensitive A. muricata, A. montana and Rollinia.
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!
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!
