💗 What are the best Mulberry varieties

Muberries are very cold hardy (to hard freeze, up to zone 6), tough trees that take poor soils and grow well in almost any conditions once established.

💬 #Fun_Facts: Did you know that mulberries belong to the same plant family with Jackfruit?

🤟 The Best Mulberry Varieties for Your Garden:

• 🐾 Dwarf Everbearing and Dwarf Issai - Compact, container-friendly varieties perfect for small spaces. These dwarf trees (6-10 ft tall) are disease and drought resistant, with multiple crops year-round, even from the first year! Ideal for patios and small yards..
• 🐾 Florida Giant - A vigorous, fast-growing tree with large, heart-shaped leaves and long purple-black fruits bursting with a sweet-tart flavor. This beauty grows up to 6-10 ft per year and thrives as far north as zone 6, despite its name.
• 🐾 Shangri-La - A modest-sized tree with giant leaves and plump, sweet-tart berries. Originally from Florida, it's heat, drought, pest, and disease-resistant. Ripens from April through summer, bringing both beauty and bounty to your garden.
• 🐾 White Mulberry - Produces medium-sized, super-sweet white fruits without a hint of tartness. This productive tree makes a mess-free option since the fruit doesn't stain. Ideal for fresh eating or drying.

📚 Learn more about pineapples from previous posts:
Top 10 fast-fruiting trees: #7. Mulberry
How Mulberry fruit helps with diabetes

🛒 Shop Mulberry varieties

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🎨 Did you know that Lipstick plant has pretty flowers?

• 🌸 Bixa orellana - Lipstick Tree, Annatto, Achiote Bixa flowers are special not just for their beauty but for what comes next - annatto!
• 🌸 These delicate, pinkish-white blooms with soft petals give way to spiky seed pods filled with bright red seeds, which are the source of the natural dye and spice known as annatto.
• 🌸 Often called the “lipstick tree,” Bixa is celebrated for these seeds, used to color and flavor foods and even in cosmetics. So, those pretty flowers aren’t just decorative - they are the start of something vibrant and useful!

📚 Check out Lipstick Plant spectacular seeds

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🌞 What is your favorite Pineapple variety? A Sunshine State Delight: Florida Special!

• 🍍 One of our favorites here in Sunshine State is Pineapple Florida Special
• 🍍 Bred by the Libby fruit company for Florida's unique climate, the Florida Special Pineapple once thrived across 240 acres in Immokalee before Libby sold to Nestle.
• 🍍 This variety produces medium to large, golden-yellow fruits with a perfect balance of sweetness and tang. Known for its resilience, it can withstand temperatures down to the mid-30s without internal damage, making it a great choice for subtropical gardeners.
• 🍍The plant's compact size, reaching 2-3 feet, makes it perfect for containers, patios, or garden beds. Its spiny green leaves form a striking rosette, adding tropical flair to any space. Whether grown for its juicy fruit or ornamental appeal, the Florida Special brings a slice of paradise to your garden!
• 🍍 Enjoy it fresh, in smoothies, or as a tasty addition to tropical dishes.

📚 Learn more about pineapples from previous posts:
Three must-have fruit for every tropical garden
The most luscious Hospitality Fruit

🛒 Order Pineapple Florida Special

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🥰 Why Hog Plum is the most popular fruit tree after mango?

• 🍑 Spondias purpurea - Hog Plum, Mombin, Jocote, Ciruela... This fast-growing, spreading tree with thick branches is a favorite of tropical fruit lovers!
• 🍑 In spring, its showy, fragrant flowers bloom from bare, leafless branches in shades of red, purple, or yellow, hinting at the color of the fruit to come. The tree produces oval to round mildly sweet fruits, 1 to 2 ½ inches long, with waxy skin, juicy flesh, and a strong plum-like flavor.
• 🍑 Highly productive, the pleasant aroma of the ripe fruit can be smelled from many feet away!
• 🍑 The fruits are enjoyed fresh, stewed with sugar, or pickled while green for East Indian dishes. Mombin butter, made like apple butter, is especially delicious.
• 🍑 Even the young leaves can be cooked, though they carry a tangy, sour taste.
• 🍑 Deciduous and quick-growing, this tree can bear fruit before sprouting new leaves in spring. It thrives in many soil types and propagates easily from large cuttings, making it perfect for a living fence.
• 🍑 Very fast growing, and fruiting right away. Fruiting from May through July, the Hog Plum brings beauty, fragrance, and flavor to your edible landscape.

🛒 Plant Mombin Hog Plum

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🐰 What plant is a vine, a cactus, a tasty fruit, and a pretty flower at the same time? Barbados Gooseberry!

Perescia aculeata - Barbados Gooseberry is in full bloom all Fall through Winter, these flowers are so pretty!

📚 Learn more about this fruiting Cactus vine with pretty flowers and tasty fruit:
What is Barbados Gooseberry?

🛒 Plant Barbados Gooseberry

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😏 What fruit smells like roses? Rose apple!

• 🌹 If you liked the Java Plum (Jambolan) from our earlier post, its close relative is even more exciting, because the fruit smells like roses!
• 🌹 Syzygium jambos - Rose Apple - is a fragrant delight fruit! Also known as Malabar Plum or Pomme Rosa, the Rose Apple produces crisp, juicy fruits with a distinct rose scent, highly prized for jellies and confections.
• 🌹 This easy-to-grow plant is moderately cold-hardy and can tolerate poor soils.
• 🌹 Rose Apple trees are versatile – they make attractive, wide-spreading shade trees and can also thrive as compact, bushy fruiting plants in containers. Whether in the ground or a pot, this charming tree brings beauty and fragrance to any space!

🛒 Order Rose Apple

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🌳 How to get a large, bushy, exotic fruit tree in no time

*Meet the Divine Berry - Syzygium cumini - Jambolan, Java Plum

*Jambolan boasts fragrant white flowers in clusters at stem tips and produces purplish-black berries with sweet or mildly tangy flavors.

*These versatile fruits can be enjoyed raw or turned into tarts, sauces, and jams.

*Beyond its culinary use, Jambolan plays a role in folk medicine, with seeds, leaves, and bark used in Ayurveda and Chinese medicine.

*According to Hindu tradition, Rama survived on this fruit during his 14-year exile, earning it the title "fruit of the gods." Hindu mythology even describes Lord Krishna’s skin as the color of Jambul. The leaves are commonly used to decorate marriage pendals in India.

*This fast-growing, bushy tree isn't just for fruit lovers – it also makes a beautiful ornamental, forming dense privacy screens. The tree grows super fast - becoming a large, bushy screen in just two seasons, making it perfect for privacy or creating a dense ornamental barrier.

🎥 The tree on the video is only 3 years old!

🛒 Plant your own Jambolan

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🌷 Did you know that Tea has Camellia flowers?

• 🍃 Camellia sinensis - the Tea Leaf Tree - is used to make all true teas: green, black, white, and oolong.

🌱 Tea facts:

• · Tea is the world’s second most consumed drink, after water.
• · Green tea is packed with antioxidants that protect your cells.
• · Drinking tea boosts immunity, fights infections, and promotes oral health.
• · Regular tea drinking supports bone health, aids weight loss, and lowers heart disease risk.
• · Tea contains caffeine for focus and L-theanine to reduce stress.

🍃 The plant grows slowly and can thrive in containers or frost-free gardens with sun to semi-shade.

📚Learn more from previous posts:
How to grow your own tea?
Where does the tea come from?

🛒 Grow your own tea

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🎈 What does Blue Jaboticaba taste like?

• 🍇 Blue Jaboticaba - Myrciaria vexator - is full of fruit now! We enjoyed these delicious grape-like fruit.
• 🍇 Also known as Vexator or Blue Grape, this charming relative of the Jaboticaba is as delightful to look at as it is to taste.
• 🍇 It's a slow-growing, ornamental shrub or small tree that can reach up to 6 feet tall, with glossy leaves that add elegance to any garden.
• 🍇 The plant produces dark purple, almost bluish fruits with thin, sweet flesh surrounding one or two large seeds, offering a flavor reminiscent of sweet grapes. Fruiting in late spring or early fall, these delicious fruits are typically enjoyed fresh or used in refreshing drinks.
• 🍇 Though lesser-known in cultivation, Blue Jaboticaba can rival or even surpass the traditional Jaboticaba in fruit quality, with a single bush capable of producing several thousand fruits!
• 🍇 It's also tough enough to handle light frost once established, and its care needs are similar to those of Myrciaria cauliflora. Whether you grow it for its beauty or for its unique harvest, this plant is sure to charm with every season!

📚 Learn more from previous posts:
Blue Jaboticaba is different from regular Jaboticaba
What is Jaboticaba? I like the sound of this word!

🛒 Plant Blue Jaboticaba

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❓ What is Curry made of? 🍛

• 🌿 Murraya koenigii - Curry Leaf - is the Flavor Powerhouse!
• 🌿 Curry leaf, also known as curry patta, is a beloved ingredient in Indian kitchens, prized for its aromatic, oil-rich leaves.
• 🌿 These tiny green leaves bring a burst of flavor to dishes, often used fresh or quickly fried in butter or oil to unlock their full potential. In some recipes, they are toasted or oven-dried just before use for an extra punch.
• 🌿 Traditionally, curry leaves are enjoyed by diabetics in southern India for their health benefits.
• 🌿 The plant also graces you with small, fragrant white flowers, followed by showy purple fruit - making it as delightful to the nose as it is to the taste buds!

🛒 Grow your own Curry Leaf

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