Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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Coral-blooming bonsai with a bottle-shaped trunk - perfect container plant. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Jatropha podagrica - Gout Plant

🔥 Coral-blooming bonsai with a bottle-shaped trunk - perfect container plant
  • Jatropha podagrica - Gout Plant - is a one-of-a-kind tropical showpiece with a knobby, swollen caudex, massive umbrella-like leaves, and bright coral-red flowers that pop like underwater treasures.
  • Compact and only 2-3 feet tall, it's perfect for containers, bonsai lovers, and small gardens craving something bold and unusual. It thrives in partial shade, grows giant leaves in low light, and needs little water to stay happy. Easy-care and eye-catching, it's more than a plant it’s a conversation starter.


🛒 Get your Gout plant - the plant with a personality

📚 Learn more:
Attention grabber: swollen trunk, giant leaves, and flowers just like corals

#Container_Garden #Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden

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Starry fruit and rusty leaves: the tropical tree full of surprises. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Chrysophyllum cainito - Caimito, Star Apple

🌟 Starry fruit and rusty leaves: the tropical tree full of surprises

❓ Is it Star Apple, Star Fruit, Cainito or Caimito? Are you lost? Don't be - and here is the truth:
  • ⭐️ Don't confuse Chrysophyllum cainito (Caimito) with Pouteria caimito (Abiu), or Averrhoa carambola (Star Fruit) - which are all different fruit entirely!
  • ⭐️ The Star Apple tree - Chrysophyllum cainito, also known as Caimito, is a tropical treasure admired for both its fruit and foliage. It is related to Sapote and Sapodilla and produces round, glossy fruit that comes in stunning purple and green varieties.
  • ⭐️ When sliced open, the juicy flesh reveals a star-shaped pattern - hence the name "Star Apple"!
  • ⭐️ The flavor is mildly sweet, often described as a mix of grape, lychee, and apple with a hint of caramel.
  • ⭐️ The tree also features lush green leaves with a striking rusty-red underside, making it as beautiful as it is bountiful.
  • ⭐️ Caimito thrives in warm climates and is popular in the Caribbean, Central America, and Southeast Asia.


🛒 Plant your own exotic Star Apple tree

📚 Learn more:

#Food_Forest #Nature_Wonders

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Get the Red Jade look without the fuss: cold-hardy Dwarf Red Jade Vine. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

💃 Get the Red Jade look without the fuss: cold-hardy Dwarf Red Jade Vine
  • 🔥 Love the stunning, fiery blooms of the famous Red Jade Vine (Mucuna benettii) but live outside the tropics?

    • Its cousin - Dwarf Red Jade Vine - is tougher, easier to grow, and just as jaw-dropping, and delivers the same dazzling display of blazing red flower chains - without the high-maintenance, ultra-tropical demands.
  • 🔥 Camptosema grandiflora - Dwarf Red Jade Vine, Cuitelo, or Rooster's Crest - this Brazilian superstar brings cascading chains of bright red blooms that look like flames frozen in mid-air.
  • 🔥 Unlike the ultra-tropical and finicky Mucuna benettii, this cousin is tougher, easier to grow, and just as jaw-dropping. It thrives in full to partial sun, forgives a little drought, and even shrugs off light frost. Blooming in fall and winter, it gives your garden a fiery finale when everything else starts to fade.
  • 🔥 Got a pergola or arbor? Perfect. The hanging flower clusters will light up the space like a botanical chandelier. Just prune it hard in spring and feed it well, and it will thank you with a blooming spectacle year after year.
  • 🔥 If you've been dreaming of the iconic Red Jade Vine but thought it was out of reach - this is your sign.


🛒 Get all the wow of Red Jade Vine - without the worry

📚 Learn more:
Camptosema grandiflora, Dwarf Red Jade Vine - my favorite plant

#Nature_Wonders #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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Have you seen a rare Golden Tulip Tree? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Golden Tulip Tree

Golden Tulip Tree

Golden Tulip Tree

Golden Tulip Tree

Red Tulip Tree

Red Tulip Tree

Red Tulip Tree

Red Tulip Tree

🌷Have you seen a rare Golden Tulip Tree?

📸 More photos of Spathodea campanulata - African Tulip Tree - for the previous post.

🛒 Grow your tulips on a tree

#Nature_Wonders #Trees

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Tulips growing on a tree! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

African Tulip Tree blooming

🌷Tulips growing on a tree!

🌷 Spathodea campanulata - African Tulip Tree - is in bloom at Top Tropicals Garden several times a year. We have both red and yellow varieties. Yellow is very rare! See more photos of Yellow Tulip Tree on our website and in the next post.

📚 Learn more:
Why everyone loves these tulips growing on a tree

🛒 Grow your tulips on a tree

Spathodea campanulata - African Tulip Tree, yellow flower #Nature_Wonders #Trees

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Heavenly Lotus in bloom - Bua Sawan Adenium. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Adenium Bua Sawan pink double flower

Adenium Bua Sawan pink double flower

🌸 Heavenly Lotus in bloom - Bua Sawan Adenium

🌸 Adenium (Desert Rose) Bua Sawan features vibrant double blooms with crisp red edges on soft pink petals, creating a striking and elegant contrast. The name Bua Sawan translates from Thai as "Heavenly Lotus," perfectly capturing the flower's bright, uplifting presence and graceful beauty.

🛒 Add a touch of paradise to your garden with Adenium Bua Sawan

📚 More adeniums

#Nature_Wonders #Container_Garden #Fun_Facts #Adenium

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Dance into prosperity with Ram Ruay Adenium. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Adenium Ram Ruay

Adenium Ram Ruay

🌸 Dance into prosperity with Ram Ruay Adenium
  • 🌸 Adenium Ram Ruay - the name of this Thai Adenium can be interpreted as follows:

    • Ram (รำ) – means "dance" or "to dance," especially in the context of traditional Thai dance.
    Ruay (รวย) – means "wealth," "prosperity," or "abundance."
    So the name Ram Ruay means "Dance of Prosperity" or "Dancing Fortune"!
  • 🌸 See photos of the actual Adenium Ram Ruay in the next post 👇


🛒 Bring home Adenium Ram Ruay - the bloom of fortune

📚 More adeniums

#Nature_Wonders #Container_Garden #Fun_Facts #Adenium

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Black Tacca Lily. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Tacca Lily - Black Bat Flower, Devil Flower

A flying bat with whiskers. Tacca. It's rare. It's weird.
  • Tacca Lily - also known as the Black Bat Flower or Devil Flower, looks like something brewed up in a witch's greenhouse.
  • The flower isn't really a single flower - it's a full-on performance. Giant black-maroon "wings" stretch out like a bat in flight, while long, drooping filaments dangle like eerie whiskers or jungle jewelry. Some can reach over a foot long!
  • Those weird, wild filaments? They're not just for show - they are believed to help mimic the look of decaying matter to attract pollinators like flies. Creepy? Yes. Clever? Absolutely.
  • The plant blooms best when it feels pampered - think filtered light, tropical vibes, and spa-level humidity. A smart indoor exotic for a bathroom with a skylight!
  • It grows from a rhizome, and while the Black Tacca (T. chantrieri) is prized for its spooky looks, its Green cousin (T. leontopetaloides) is actually used to make a type of tropical arrowroot starch.
  • Some gardeners say it takes a while to bloom (maybe a few months) - but once it does, it becomes the crown jewel of the greenhouse. People will ask if it's real. You'll say, "Yes, and it lives here!"
  • Tacca comes in different species/colors: Black, White, Green:

Tacca nivea - White Tacca
Tacca chantrieri - Black Tacca
Tacca leontopetaloides - Green Tacca

📚 Learn more:

🛒 Shop Bat Head Lilies - Devil's Flower Tacca

#Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden #Container_Garden #Fun_Facts

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A flying bat with whiskers? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Tacca Lily - Black Bat Flower, Devil Flower - cartoon

Tacca Lily - Black Bat Flower, Devil Flower - cartoon

A flying bat with whiskers?

Have you seen a flower like this? Find out from the next post!⤵️

Tacca Lily - also known as the Black Bat Flower or Devil Flower, looks like something brewed up in a witch's greenhouse.

🛒 Shop Bat Head Lilies - Devil's Flower Tacca

#Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden #Container_Garden #Fun_Facts

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One look and you're hooked: Macaranga! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Macaranga grandifolia - Elephant Ear Tree

One look and you're hooked: Macaranga! 🐸
  • 🐘 These leaves are bigger than your head!

    • Macaranga grandifolia – the Elephant Ear Tree - came from Hawaii. It has leaves so huge, they look like elephant ears or jungle umbrellas! Each one can grow over a foot wide, with a glossy, rounded shape that's pure eye candy.
  • 🐘 Macaranga is easy to grow - perfect for a frost-free garden or in a big pot.
  • 🐘 Macaranga is a real conversation starter. It looks like something straight out of a rainforest dream. Big, bold, and totally tropical! Fast-growing, it brings that lush, exotic vibe instantly to your garden.
  • 🐘 Hard to find, super cool, and ridiculously showy - you’ll want this beauty front and center. Once you see it, you have to have it!


🛒 Get your giant leaves - Elephant Ear from Hawaii

#Nature_Wonders #Trees

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