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Index > Garden Blog

Date:

NEW VIDEO:
How to properly cook Akee - quick recipe

Link to YouTube Video

Akee is a close relative of Lychee, Longan, and Rambutan. You can find delicious akee meals only in Jamaican restaurants! But no need to search for it - grow your own tree, it can't be easier. It will start fruiting for you the next season, you don't have to wait long. Sometimes it fruits twice a year! However, the fruit is used as a vegetable, and is not eaten raw. It must be picked after the fruit has opened naturally. After the fruit has "yawned", the arils are parboiled and lightly fried in butter. Then they are really delicious! Watch the QUICK RECIPE provided by our PeopleCats!

The Akee tree - scientific name Blighia sapida - is easy in cultivation, fast growing and can be maintained compact. It is not bugsy or picky about soil/water conditions, and is relatively cold tolerant for being a tropical tree. Now it's the perfect time to plant it!

Ackee, Akee fruit - Blighia sapida, and a cat

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Ackee, Akee 
fruit

Date:

Event Mementos (September 2)

Kristi's Birthday Bash and Plant Market at Top Tropicals

Thank you all for making this happen!

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for making our garden event in celebration of our manager Kristi's birthday such a resounding success!

To our wonderful guests, thank you for joining us on that beautiful Saturday and making the day special for Kristi and all of us at Top Tropicals. We hope you enjoyed reconnecting with nature and finding the perfect plants to adorn your gardens. Your presence and the efforts of our amazing Team combined to create a memorable day filled with tropical beauty and inspiration for all.

Top Tropicals nursery

A heartfelt shout-out goes to our exceptional Top Tropicals Team, the true heroes behind the scenes. Our dedicated People and PeopleCats , who generously shared their knowledge and passion, guided you through the nursery, and helped you select the perfect plants. They are the ones who work tirelessly to ensure every plant thrives, nurturing our garden with love and care. Their unwavering dedication was particularly evident in the incredible recovery of our garden after Hurricane Ian last year. Today, you witness its beauty once again, renewed and flourishing, thanks to their hard work and commitment.
These People are: Kristi, Jamie, Onika, Tony, Chiane, Mark H, Mark M, Ed, Beatriz, Aurelio, Mick... (see Our Team).
The PeopleCats are: King, Snitch, Sushi, Loki, Paisley, Josephine... (+10 more at Garden Center and 9 more at B-Farm! See all PeopleCats)

Here are a few pictures from the past event, and please visit Event Mementos page to see all of them!

Kristi's Birthday Bash and Plant Market at Top Tropicals

Kristi's Birthday Bash and Plant Market at Top Tropicals

Kristi's Birthday Bash and Plant Market at Top Tropicals

Kristi's Birthday Bash and Plant Market at Top Tropicals

The Robuster and a cat

Top Tropicals Garden Event

Date:

How cats eat pineapples

TikTok Reels from TopTropicals

Pineapple, Mango and Cats from Top Tropicals 
TikTok

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.

In this short video, Philemon and Scooby are discovering new tastes of Pineapple varieties.

More to see: Watch Philemon eating Avocado!

Discover more exotic plants and fun garden happenings from our TikTok updates!

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Date:

PeopleCats of the month:
Cat Brothers

Two brother cats for Gemini Zodiac

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 >>

Two gray brother cats for Gemini Zodiac

Date:

Mango: Fruit of Love and Friendship

Black lab dog with mango fruit

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.

Cats and dogs and puppies and mango fruit

Date:

1-22-2023: New Lunar Year

Happy New Lunar 2023 Year Cat Rabbit

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!

Cat, Rabbit and Flowers

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.

Date:

Project Ian

A letter from a gardener:
"We just want our paradise back!"

PeopleCats Botanical Garden

"...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!

PeopleCats Garden and pond

Date:

Fall Festival rescheduled:
now November 19th

Fall Festival Event

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!

Philemon Cat with Fall Festival on the Monitor

Outlook.com - Office 365 - Google

PeopleCats in the Garden

Date:

PeopleCats Botanical Garden Grand Opening
Guided tour with Mark Hooten

PeopleCats Botanical Garden at TopTropicals

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!

Peoplecats - cat Marco at Top Tropicals gate

PeopleCats Garden - Top Tropicals Ghost light in the forest the spirit is always watching!

Photo above: blue light in the forest - TopTropicals Garden Ghost, the spirit is always watching!

Date:

Top Story: The little mango tree that could

Mango Tree

By Ed Jones, the Mango Guy

"...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?

For information on how to shape your mango trees, see this video:

Annona - Golden Sugar Apple youtube video

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REAL DEALS:
More specials
with instant 30% OFF!

Real Deal PeopleCats

No min order. Exp. 5-22-22.


Tithonia diversifolia - Sunflower tree1213 Tithonia diversifolia - Sunflower tree
Grown in
10"/3 gal pot

$32.95
  
Flash sale 30% OFF:  $23.07


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Jackfruit tree Super Thai (Artocarpus 
heterophyllus)
4334 Jackfruit tree Super Thai (Artocarpus heterophyllus)
Grown in
10"/3 gal pot, large plant

$72.95
  
Flash sale 30% OFF:  $51.06


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Tropicals

Persimmon tree Native American, Low chill, Diospyros virginiana
3500 Persimmon tree Native American, Low chill, Diospyros virginiana
Grown in
6"/1 gal pot

$37.95
  
Flash sale 30% OFF:  $26.57


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Bauhinia variegata purple - Orchid Tree
2728 Bauhinia variegata purple - Orchid Tree
Grown in
10"/3 gal pot

$42.95
  
Flash sale 30% OFF:  $30.07


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Vernonia fulta - Tropical Aster, Ironweed, 
Bitterleaf
5647 Vernonia fulta - Tropical Aster, Ironweed, Bitterleaf
Grown in
10"/3 gal pot, large plant

$32.95
  
Flash sale 30% OFF:  $23.07


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Monstera deliciosa (Philodendron pertusum) - Swiss cheese 
plant
2988 Monstera deliciosa (Philodendron pertusum) - Swiss cheese plant
Grown in
6-10"/1-3 gal pot

$37.95
  
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Pavonia multiflora - Brazilian 
Candles
2710 Pavonia multiflora - Brazilian Candles
Grown in
6"/1 gal pot

$32.95
  
Flash sale 30% OFF:  $23.07


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Jasminum mesnyi - Japanese Jasmine
1120 Jasminum mesnyi - Japanese Jasmine
Grown in
10"/3 gal pot

$37.95
  
Flash sale 30% OFF:  $26.57


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Alocasia Imperial Red
6785 Alocasia Imperial Red
Grown in
10"/3 gal pot, large plant

$37.95
  
Flash sale 30% OFF:  $26.57


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Justicia Fruit 
Cocktail
2100 Justicia Fruit Cocktail
Grown in
6"/1 gal pot

$17.95
  
Flash sale 30% OFF:  $12.57


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Kopsia arborea (pruniformis) - 
Pin-Mala
2509 Kopsia arborea (pruniformis) - Pin-Mala
Grown in
10"/3 gal pot

$22.95
  
Flash sale 30% OFF:  $16.07


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Alpinia x purpurata - Hot Pink Cone 
Ginger
6020 Alpinia x purpurata - Hot Pink Cone Ginger
Grown in
10"/3 gal pot

$37.95
  
Flash sale 30% OFF:  $26.57


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