Garden Blog - Top Tropicals
Blooming Lobster Claw Show at TopTropicals
Heliconia rostrata - Lobster Claw
- 🔻 Heliconia rostrata - Lobster Claw or Parrot's Beak - is one of the most iconic tropical plants, and for good reason. Its vivid, dangling blooms look like parrot feathers or lobster claws and last for weeks, making them perfect for garden displays or cut flower arrangements.
- 🔻This bold beauty grows up to 7 feet tall, thriving in tropical climates or large pots in cooler zones. Surprisingly cold-tolerant, it can handle temps in the high 20s and still put on a spectacular show.
🛒 Shop Heliconias and Gingers
📚 Learn more:
#Hedges_with_benefits #Shade_Garden #Nature_Wonders
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Date:
Happy Independence Day!
4th of July Sale
"Independence is happiness." - Susan B. Anthony
Happy 4th of July from the tropics! Whether you're staying local or escaping for the long weekend, it's the perfect time to enjoy your garden, start something new, or grab that plant you've been eyeing. Red Desert Roses, white fragrant Gardenias and Jasmines, rare Blue Ginger - tropical blooms are showing off right now, and we are celebrating with a hot summer sale: 20% off everything with code HAPPY4TH25, plus extra savings on combined DEALS and BOGO! Add some color to your summer and let your garden do the fireworks!
Use the code below to save 20% on your entire order:
HAPPY4TH25
Min order $200. Excluding S/H. Exp. 7-7-25
Reminder: use our FREE and DISCOUNTED SHIPPING for qualified orders
Shop Now
In the photo above: Bauhinia madagascariensis, Red Butterfly Orchid Tree - dazzles with bright red flowers striped in gold. A rare, fast-growing tropical that brings serious color to your garden, it is one of the most striking Orchid trees you can grow. It thrives in sun and rewards with nonstop color.
Imagination will take you everywhere
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." - Albert Einstein
🐈📸 James Coconuts and his Time Machine at TopTropicals
#PeopleCats #Quotes
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Where do Macadamia nuts come from
Macadamia trees with fruit
🐿 Macadamia trees (Macadamia integrifolia) that were flowering earlier in Spring, are now full of nuts at Top Tropicals garden! We are looking forward to harvesting these sweet, delicious and nutritious treats, competing with squirrels!
📚 More about Macadamia tree:
- ▫️What are the flowers of Macadamia nuts
- ▫️Ten best fruit trees to grow in Florida and Southern landscapes. # 6: Macadamia Nut Tree.
- ▫️How to grow your own Sweet Macadamia Nuts
🛒 Grow your own Macadamia Nuts
#Food_Forest
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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
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Coral-blooming bonsai with a bottle-shaped trunk - perfect container plant
Jatropha podagrica - Gout 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
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Never trouble the trouble
"Better never trouble trouble until trouble troubles you;
For you only make your trouble double trouble when you do."
- Robert D. Keppel
🐈📸 Wesley is staying out of trouble at TopTropicals
#PeopleCats #Quotes
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How to grow tropical fruit outside the Tropics
👨 Can you grow tropical fruit in colder climates? Absolutely! The key is growing them in containers so you can move them indoors during cold weather. With the right plant selection, a bit of motivation, good plant food, and a little love, you can enjoy a delicious harvest of exotic fruit - enough to treat your family and even share with friends. Here's everything you need to start your own Tropical Fruit Garden in containers.
🏆 Top tropical fruits and expert tips for growing in containers
📌 Top 10 Dwarf "Condo" Mango, great for container culture- 📌 What are the Condo Mangos - a practical guide
- 📌 How to grow cold-hardy avocados
- 📌 Avocado everyone should have: dwarf Condo Avocado
- 📌 What is the best Avocado variety?
- 📌 The best tropical fruit tree for container: Annona.
- 📌 How to grow your own Carambola
- 📌 Tropical Cherries: Eugenias
- 📌 Peanut Butter Tree and Blackberry Jam Tree produce right away
- 📌 How to grow a Guava Tree: practical guide
- 📌 Coffee as the best Gift plant
- 📌 Top 10 fast-fruiting trees
- 📌 Three must-have fruit for every tropical garden
- 📌 What Fertilizer to Use Now and How?
- 📌 How to make plants green quickly: Green Magic - the fertilizer that truly works
🛒 Shop top picks for your container tropical garden:
Condo Mango
Cold hardy Avocado
🍒 Tropical Cherries - Eugenias
⭐️ Carambola (Start Fruit)
🍉 Guava
🍈 Annona
🍍 Pineapple
🌶 Herbs and spices - tropical edibles right away
🕙 Fast-fruiting trees
🍊 Shop all fruit trees
Supplies and Boosters
#Food_Forest #How_to #Discover
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
How to grow tropical fruit outside the Tropics
👨 Can you grow tropical fruit in colder climates? Absolutely! The key is growing them in containers so you can move them indoors during cold weather. With the right plant selection, a bit of motivation, good plant food, and a little love, you can enjoy a delicious harvest of exotic fruit - enough to treat your family and even share with friends. Here's everything you need to start your own Tropical Fruit Garden in containers.
🏆 Top tropical fruits and expert tips for growing in containers
- 📌 Top 10 Dwarf "Condo" Mango, great for container culture
- 📌 What are the Condo Mangos - a practical guide
- 📌 How to grow cold-hardy avocados
- 📌 Avocado everyone should have: dwarf Condo Avocado
- 📌 What is the best Avocado variety?
- 📌 The best tropical fruit tree for container: Annona.
- 📌 How to grow your own Carambola
- 📌 Tropical Cherries: Eugenias
- 📌 Peanut Butter Tree and Blackberry Jam Tree produce right away
- 📌 How to grow a Guava Tree: practical guide
- 📌 Coffee as the best Gift plant
- 📌 Top 10 fast-fruiting trees
- 📌 Three must-have fruit for every tropical garden
- 📌 What Fertilizer to Use Now and How?
- 📌 How to make plants green quickly: Green Magic - the fertilizer that truly works
🛒 Shop top picks for your container tropical garden:
Condo Mango
Cold hardy Avocado
🍒 Tropical Cherries - Eugenias
⭐️ Carambola (Start Fruit)
🍉 Guava
🍈 Annona
🍍 Pineapple
🌶 Herbs and spices - tropical edibles right away
🕙 Fast-fruiting trees
🍊 Shop all fruit trees
Supplies and Boosters
#Food_Forest #How_to #Discover
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
The perfect ever-bloom beneath your shade tree
Tabernaemontana divaricata - Pinwheel Jasmine in bloom
- ➕ Tabernaemontana divaricata, also known as Pinwheel Jasmine or Crape Jasmine, is in bloom virtually year around at Top Tropicals garden.
- ➕ It is a charming, low-maintenance shrub that thrives under taller trees, like palms or oaks. With glossy green leaves and delicate white, pinwheel-shaped flowers, it adds brightness and elegance to shaded spaces.
- ➕ Blooming year-round, Pinwheel Jasmine brings steady beauty to your garden and can even be trained into a small ornamental tree.
- ➕ While it loves bright light for the best floral show, it's surprisingly shade-tolerant - making it a go-to choice for under-tree planting.
🛒 Let your shady spots bloom beautifully!
📚 Learn more:
What is the best showy shrub to plant under a shade tree?
#Hedges_with_benefits
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Holding the world together
"Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together." - Woodrow Wilson
🐈📸 Pearl and her cat buddy Ricki at TopTropicals
#PeopleCats #Quotes
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Starry fruit and rusty leaves: the tropical tree full of surprises
Chrysophyllum cainito - Caimito, Star Apple
❓ 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:
- ▫️ Where can I try a rare Abiu fruit and what does it taste like?
- ▫️ Why is it called Star Apple?
- ▫️Star fruit: the Star of the orchard
#Food_Forest #Nature_Wonders
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Napoleons Plume - Orchid Tree that blooms in a pot
Bauhinia monandra - Napoleons Plume Orchid Tree in bloom
- Bauhinia monandra - Napoleons Plume Orchid Tree - is a breathtaking tropical tree with flowers that truly resemble delicate orchids, and leaves folding like butterfly wings. It is one of he most impressive varieties of orchid trees.
- Each blossom starts off pale yellow and transforms to soft pink by the next day, with the center petal beautifully streaked in magenta - a unique color shift that makes the tree look like it's blooming in multiple shades at once. When in bloom, it's covered in these showy flowers, creating a dazzling display.
- Despite its exotic look, this tree is surprisingly well-suited for containers. It can be easily kept trimmed and compact, with seedlings often blooming when just 2 feet tall. While it's sensitive to cold, growing it in a container makes it easy to move indoors during chilly weather. This makes Bauhinia monandra the perfect choice for gardeners who want a tropical tree that delivers nonstop visual impact in a manageable size.
- How to enjoy the orchid flowers and butterfly foliage of Bauhinia right on your patio or balcony? Choose the right variety. More bauhinia species suitable for containers: B. galpinii, B. madagascariensis, B. monandra, B. alba (candida), B. acuminata, B. bidentata, B. blakeana, B. grandidieri and many others.
🛒 Shop Orchid Trees
📚 Learn more about Orchid trees:
- ▫️How to grow Orchid Trees in pots
- ▫️Bauhinias: trees with Orchid Flowers and Butterfly Wings
- ▫️Why Bauhinias are called Orchid Trees: orchid flowers with butterfly wings...
- ▫️Bauhinia blakeana - Hong Kong Orchid Tree
- ▫️Bauhinia galpinii (punctata) - Pride of De Kaap or Nasturtium Bauhinia
#Container_Garden #How_to #Trees
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Looking forward to harvest
"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." - Robert Louis Stevenson.
🐈📸 Bob is harvesting Bay Leaves at TopTropicals
#PeopleCats #Quotes
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Turn up the color in your garden with the bold everblooming Brazilian plume
- ❣️Looking to add nonstop color, tropical flair for shade or sun, and pollinator appeal to your garden?
- ❣️ With its big, bold leaves and eye-catching crimson-to-mauve flower spikes, this plant brings exotic beauty - without the need for a steamy jungle.
- ❣️The best part? It's surprisingly cold hardy. This lush-looking tropical can handle brief dips into the 30s (F), making it a top pick for USDA zones 9-11. Plant it in full sun or partial shade, and with regular watering, it rewards you with a steady burst of blooms that butterflies and hummingbirds can't resist.
- ❣️Reaching 5-7 ft tall in the ground, it fills out beautifully to anchor beds or soften fences. In colder regions, it can still thrive in large pots - just give it a sheltered spot, bring it indoors when temperatures drop, and enjoy its vivid flower show all winter long.
- ❣️If you want a garden that doesn’t fade with the season, the Brazilian plume delivers color, volume, and wildlife appeal - all year round.
Megaskepasma erythrochlamys - Brazilian plume or Red Cloak, is the ultimate show-stopper shrub that takes both sun or shade.
🛒 Make your garden pop with color of Brazilian plume
#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants
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