Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

🍓Strawberry Guava for best Margaritas - the easiest fruit tree you'll ever grow!

• 🍓 If you're looking for a cold-hardy tropical fruit tree that thrives on neglect, you’ve found it: Strawberry Guava, or Cattley Guava (Psidium littorale). It's our favorite Guava at Top Tropicals!
• 🍓 This fast-growing, evergreen small tree or dense bush doesn’t mind poor soil, limestone, or salt. It’s hardy to the low 20s F, drought-tolerant once established, and can even handle short-term flooding. Great as a hedge, windbreak, or container specimen, it also adds beauty year-round with glossy green leaves, peeling reddish bark, and soft red new growth.
• 🍓 You’ll get round, tangy-sweet fruit from spring through fall - perfect for snacking, jams, or jellies, juices, and adding to all kinds of drinks, especially Margaritas and Mojitos! 🍸
• 🍓 The red and yellow types are both tasty, with the yellow often a bit larger and sweeter. The sweetest and the most flavorful Cattley Guava variety is Hawaiian Gold - Psidium littorale var. Lucidum. This one is our favorite for eating out of hand!
• 🍓 Cattley Guava is productive, low-maintenance, and ornamental - one of the easiest tropical fruit trees to grow in poor or alkaline soils.

🛒 Add a sweet guava hedge to your yard

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️Favorite Guava fruit for eating fresh
• ▫️Top 10 fast-fruiting trees: #2. Cattley and Tropical guava
• ▫️How to always have lots of Guava Juice

#Food_Forest #Guava

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🍍What is the best pineapple to grow at home

• 🍍 Pineapple plants (Ananas comosus) are easy to grow, virtually carefree plants. You you plant a few - you will always have the benefit of fresh and delicious fruit on the table, full of health benefits.
• 🍍 White Jade Pineapple, also known as Eleuthera, is one of the most prized pineapple varieties you can grow at home - and for good reason. If you're only growing one pineapple, make it this one. And here is why:

✔️ Six reasons why you want to grow White Jade Pineapple

• 🟡Super sweet and low acid: White Jade has tender white flesh that's ultra-sweet with almost no acidity. The flavor is smooth and rich, far better than anything you'll find in a grocery store.
• 🟡Edible core: The core is soft, juicy, and 100% edible - no waste and no tough center.
• 🟡Spineless leaves: Unlike most pineapples, White Jade has soft, spineless leaves, making it much easier and safer to handle.
• 🟡Compact and container-friendly: It stays small, perfect for pots, patios, or tight garden spaces.
• 🟡Backyard hero, not for shipping: This variety bruises easily, so it's rarely seen in stores - but perfect for home gardeners who want top-tier taste.
• 🟡Tropical beauty + fast fruiting: With its blue-green foliage and striking fruit, it's ornamental as well as productive. Expect fruit in as little as 18-24 months with good care.

• 🍍 Although often mistaken as a Hawaiian variety, White Jade actually originated in Eleuthera, Bahamas. It thrives in warm climates and rewards gardeners with a sweet, low-acid treat unlike any commercial pineapple. It is grown in Hawaii now, especially by backyard gardeners and small farms, because it does so well there.
• 🍍 Make sure to feed your pineapple plants what they crave - sunshine and nutrients! Boost their growth with - SUNSHINE Ananas - Pineapple and Bromeliad Booster. This special formula gives your plants the energy they need to thrive and produce tons of sweet, juicy fruit just for you!

🛒 Plant the pineapple that grocery stores can’t sell

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️What are the best varieties of Pineapples?
• ▫️How we ate all pineapples from that ugly corner
• ▫️The most luscious Hospitality Fruit: Pineapple
• ▫️Three must-have fruit for every tropical garden

#Food_Forest #Container_Garden #Discover

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🍒 Cocoplum: secret fruit in your hedge

• 🍒 Most people think Cocoplum is just a boring hedge plant: Bahamas Cocoplum (Chrysobalanus icaco). Thick, green, easy to trim - great for privacy. But hidden in all that greenery? Super-sweet plum-like fruit that are edible and very tasty! They look like small plums and come in pink, purple, or white when ripe.
• 🍒 Cocoplum is native to Florida and has been quietly feeding people for generations, long before it became a landscaping go-to. The fruit is mild, a little sweet, and great for snacking or making into jam.
• 🍒 Cocoplum isn't just a tasty surprise - it comes with some health perks too:

▫️Rich in antioxidants - especially anthocyanins, which give the purple fruit its color and help fight free radicals in the body.

• ▫️Good source of fiber - helps with digestion and keeping you full.
• ▫️Contains vitamin C - supports your immune system and skin health.
• ▫️Low in calories - great for snacking without guilt.
• ▫️So when you bite into a Cocoplum, you're not just tasting Florida - you're getting a little wellness boost too.

🍯 Quick Cocoplum Jam:

• 🔸2 cups ripe Cocoplums
• 🔸1 cup sugar
• 🔸1 cup water*
• 🔸1 tbsp lemon juice
• 🔸Mash it all up, cook on low 20-30 minutes until thick. Cool and enjoy!

*To make a delicious summer drink, add 10 cups of water and just get to boil. Let sit 2 hrs, mash up, drain fruit and cool to enjoy.

So next time you walk by a Cocoplum hedge, check for fruit. There might be a free snack waiting for you!

🛒 Get your edible hedge Cocoplum: privacy with perks

#Food_Forest #Recipes

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🌳 Five best fruit trees to plant in Summer

☀️ Summer might be scorching, but it’s actually a great time to plant fruit trees that love the heat. If you've got sunshine and a little space, these five tropical picks will reward you with fresh, homegrown fruit - some you’ll never find in a store!

1. Mango - the King of all fruit, a must have in every garden. Fiberlress varieties only! You can't buy those in the store.

2. Avocado - a must have super-fruit in everyone's diet, grow your own!

3.🐲 Dragon fruit - heat tolerant easy plant with low water needs, sweet fruit-bearing cactus

4. 🍉 Guava - by far the most flavorful tropical fruit, great for Summer drinks

5. 🍐 Black Sapote - fast growing, heat- and flood-tolerant, fruit tastes like chocolate pudding

📚 Learn more from previous posts:

• 🟡10 best fruit trees to grow in Florida and Southern landscapes
• 🟡Top 10 fast-fruiting trees
• 🟡Top 10 fruit you'll ever need for your health benefits

🛒 Explore the finest rare tropical fruit trees

#Food_Forest #Discover

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Ice Cream mango: tiny tree, big flavor!
Mango Rainbow🌈

• 🟡Ice Cream is the king of condo mangoes - and for good reason! This tiny tree stays under six feet and still gives you a full size fruit that tastes like mango sorbet.
• 🟡The fruit may be small and green, but inside? Bright yellow flesh that's rich, sweet, and unbelievably smooth.
• 🟡It is the perfect pick for containers, patios, or small spaces. If you want big flavor from a little tree, Ice Cream mango is the one.

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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🍒 Health benefits of a simple plant: Coral bean

• 
  Don't let the tough, thorny branches fool you - this native plant has a long history of traditional use. While the seeds are poisonous, the young leaves and flowers have been safely cooked and eaten in small amounts by various cultures.
• 
  Traditionally, Erythrina herbacea - Coral Bean has been used in folk remedies for calming the nerves, easing muscle pain, and even promoting better sleep.
• 
  Modern science hasn’t fully explored these uses yet, but the plant contains alkaloids that may have sedative and muscle-relaxing properties. It's a reminder that even rugged native plants can carry powerful natural potential.
• 
  As a bonus, Erythrina herbacea is also beautiful and beneficial in the garden, drawing in hummingbirds and butterflies with its vibrant pink flowers - hummingbirds can't resist this wild bloomer! It grows well in poor soil and dry conditions - low effort, high reward!

🛒 Plant once, enjoy for years

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Butterfly_plants #Discover

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Florigon mango: smooth, early, and always reliable.
Mango Rainbow🌈

• 🟡 Florigon is one of those mangoes that keeps showing up early - and never disappoints!
• 🟡It's creamy and mild, with a buttery texture and just a hint of spice. Sweet, but not too sweet - perfect for eating fresh or even over a scoop of ice cream.
• 🟡The tree is compact, reliable, and disease resistant, making it a favorite for backyard growers.
• 🟡Early fruit, no fiber, and smooth as silk - Florigon is an easy win in your garden.

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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Tebow Mango - smooth, sweet, and melting.
Mango Rainbow🌈

• 🟡 Mango Tebow is Kent x Edward hybrid, an excellent late season variety. It is a Florida-born favorite named after Tim Tebow.
• 🟡 Fiber-free, smooth orange flesh with a sweet, tropical pineapple-coconut twist. It's juicy, fragrant, and just melts in your mouth.
• 🟡 A compact, heavy-bearing tree - perfect for home growers.

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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Van Dyke: the mango that glows and flows.
Mango Rainbow🌈

• 🟠 Van Dyke is a Florida classic mango that’s loved all over the world - and once you try it, you’ll know why!
• 🟠 The trees are strong, spreading, and loaded with beautiful fruit.
• 🟠 Walking through the grove, this one really pops - bright yellow skin with a red blush, like it’s lit from within.
• 🟠 I pick it, slice it open... and wow! No fiber, just rich, juicy flesh with a sweet, spicy twist. It’s dense, meaty, and bursting with tropical flavor. This mango isn’t just pretty - it's pure magic!

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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Mango tasting table with Chiane and Ashley

📱

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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