Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

🎄 What is the most excusive tropical Christmas flower?

• 🎅 A festive showstopper, Ruellia colorata, known as Colorama, is a rare and vibrant addition to exotic container plant collection. Its brilliant scarlet bracts color up for Christmas and stay bright carmine for several months.
• 🎅 Native to Brazil, this small plant grows 2-4 feet tall, displaying brilliant scarlet bracts and crimson flowers that stay bright for months, adding a touch of holiday cheer.
• 🎅 One of Colorama's most striking features is its photoperiodic response: the top leaves turn crimson red around Christmas time due to changes in daylight length, much like the beloved Poinsettia. After winter, these leaves return to green, keeping the plant lively and versatile year-round.

Photoperiodism is the process where plants respond to the length of day and night, triggering changes such as leaf coloration or flowering.
• 🎅 Its blooms are a magnet for butterflies and hummingbirds, making it a favorite for wildlife enthusiasts.
• 🎅 Colorama thrives in shady to semi-shady spots and requires regular watering to stay lush and healthy. It's perfect for USDA zones 9-11 but can also be grown in colder regions if protected from frost. For winter care in cooler climates, move it indoors or to a warm area to keep this stunning beauty happy and blooming.
• 🎅 When grown in pots, ensure good drainage, use rich organic soil, and place the plant in a bright location.
• 🎅 Prune twice a year to maintain its compact, bushy shape, and fertilize with a flowering fertilizer once established.

🛒 Get your own Exclusive Christmas Colorama

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Why is it called Blood Feather?

• 
  A true gem for tropical plant enthusiasts, Sanchezia stenomacra - Blood Red Feather - is a rare and stunning perennial.
• 
  Native to the jungles of Peru, it thrives in humid environments with filtered light, making it perfect for lush, shaded spots in your garden, greenhouse or indoor plant collection.
• 
  Its striking blood-red flowers, shaped like delicate feathers, add a bold splash of color and are irresistible to hummingbirds. Feathery burgundy-red plumes rise above the deep green foliage and last for weeks. The true flowers are orange-red and tubular, emerging from the wispy flower heads day after day.
• 
  Upright, vigorous grower. When plants become too large, they can take a hard pruning and quickly recover and re-flower. Flowering continuously throughout the year, it even does well under partial sun.
• 
  A rare find for private collections, this showy plant is sure to become a centerpiece of your tropical paradise.

🛒 Order Blood Red Feather Sanchezia

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Why is it called Blood Feather?

• A true gem for tropical plant enthusiasts, Sanchezia stenomacra - Blood Red Feather - is a rare and stunning perennial.
• Native to the jungles of Peru, it thrives in humid environments with filtered light, making it perfect for lush, shaded spots in your garden, greenhouse or indoor plant collection.
• Its striking blood-red flowers, shaped like delicate feathers, add a bold splash of color and are irresistible to hummingbirds. Feathery burgundy-red plumes rise above the deep green foliage and last for weeks. The true flowers are orange-red and tubular, emerging from the wispy flower heads day after day.
• Upright, vigorous grower. When plants become too large, they can take a hard pruning and quickly recover and re-flower. Flowering continuously throughout the year, it even does well under partial sun.
• A rare find for private collections, this showy plant is sure to become a centerpiece of your tropical paradise.

🛒 Order Blood Red Feather Sanchezia

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

🔥 What is Pepper Made From? Black, white, green, and red...

• ♨️ Pepper comes from the dried berries (peppercorns) of the vine Piper nigrum, a plant native to South India and now widely cultivated in tropical regions.
• ♨️ Pepper has been a prized spice for millennia, with black and white varieties known in ancient times. The modern discovery of green and red pepper has only added to the allure of this versatile spice!
• ♨️ The different types of pepper - black, white, green, and red - are all derived from the same plant! Their distinct flavors and colors result from variations in harvest timing and processing methods.
• ♨️ Secrets of the Pepper Colors:

⚫️ Black Pepper: The most common variety, black pepper is made from unripe, green berries that are cooked briefly and then dried. The drying process darkens the skin, giving it a bold flavor with both pungency and aroma.
🔘 White Pepper: Created by removing the outer skin of fully ripe berries, leaving just the seed inside. White pepper has a stronger heat and less aroma, making it ideal for dishes needing subtle flavor.
🟢 Green Pepper: These are unripe berries that are either dried or pickled to preserve their fresh, herbal flavor. Green pepper is milder and more aromatic.

• 🔴 Red Pepper: A rare variety, red peppercorns come from fully ripened berries, often dried or brined. They have a unique, fruity sweetness balanced with pungency.

♨️ Growing Pepper Plant:

• · Piper nigrum is a moderate-growing vine that thrives on a trellis and can even grow in containers.
• · Care: Prefers partial shade and moderate watering, making it suitable for indoor cultivation.
• · Fertilize with Sunhine Boosters on regular basis. Miscrolement supplement (Sunshine SuperFood) is essential as Black pepper may be susceptible to leaf chlorosis (iron deficiency).

📚 Learn more from previous post:
How to grow your own Pepper plants. Five most valuable 'Pipers'

🛒 Grow your own Pepper

#Food_Forest

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals