Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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Grows in neglect: tough plant for tough spots. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Devils Backbone, Jacobs Ladder - Pedilanthus tithymaloides

💪 Grows in neglect: tough plant for tough spots
  • 🌿If you've got a dry, rough patch where nothing wants to grow, try Devil's Backbone, or Jacobs Ladder - Pedilanthus tithymaloides.
  • 🌿This plant is seriously tough. It handles heat, drought, poor soil - no complaints.
  • 🌿Its zig-zag stems look like they were folded by hand, and the little pink flowers are a nice surprise.
  • 🌿Low maintenance, spreads well, and doesn’t mind being ignored.
  • 🌿Great as a groundcover, border filler, or just doing its thing in a forgotten corner.


📚 Learn more:
The best undemanding plant for dry and hot area

🛒 Add this survivor to your garden

#Container_Garden #Nature_Wonders #Hedges_with_benefits

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What is that Big Thing??? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Giant Bird's Nest Anthurium - Anthurium x hookeri

What is that Big Thing???
  • What is that big thing in the corner? It's the Giant Bird's Nest Anthurium minding its business and taking up way more than its fair share of space. This plant, Anthurium x hookeri, looks like it wandered in from the jungle and decided to stay.
  • The leaves are enormous - wrinkly, leathery, and can grow over 6 feet long! They feel kind of like cardboard and look like something out of a rainforest movie set.
  • Despite its size, it's easygoing. Doesn’t need much water, tolerates deep shade, and generally keeps to itself. Just give it room to stretch and maybe say hi once in a while.
  • If you like big, bold plants that know how to take up space without being fussy, Giant Bird's Nest Anthurium delivers!


🛒 Adopt the big guy - Giant Birdnest

📚 Learn more:
▫️Discover the Giant Bird’s Nest Anthurium

#Nature_Wonders #Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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A plant wearing a sweater. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Tradescantia sillamontana - White Velvet, Cobweb Spiderwort

👚 A plant wearing a sweater
  • 👕 Tradescantia sillamontana - White Velvet, Cobweb Spiderwort - is one of those plants that stops people in their tracks and makes them ask, "What is that fuzzy thing?" Here's why it's so cool:
  • 👕 It looks like it's wearing a sweater! Its silvery-green leaves are covered in a soft, white fuzz that looks like cobwebbing - hence the nickname Cobweb Spiderwort. It's as if the plant dressed itself for a chilly morning
  • 👕 It grows low and spreads nicely, forming a neat, dense mound about 10-12 inches tall and 18 inches wide, making it perfect for edging, containers, or spilling over walls.
  • 👕 In summer and fall, it surprises you with vivid magenta-purple flowers tucked among the fuzzy foliage.
  • 👕 Despite its delicate appearance, this plant is hardy to light freezes (zone 8) and thrives on neglect. Dry spells? No problem. It pairs beautifully with succulents. Sun or shade!
  • 👕 Whether in a rock garden, pot, or tucked into a sunny nook, White Velvet brings texture, contrast, and plenty of personality. This little spiderwort is weird, wonderful, and surprisingly easy to grow.


🛒 Get your own Fuzzy White Velvet Tradescantia

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Nature_Wonders

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What's inside the Napoleons Hat? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Napoleon's Hat - Napoleonaea imperialis

🎩 What's inside the Napoleons Hat? False Kola experience!
  • 🎩 Napoleon's Hat (Napoleonaea imperialis), lives up to its name with large, saucer-shaped flowers that bloom straight from the leaf axils or even directly from the trunk!
  • 🎩 The hat-shaped, brightly colored flowers smell like butterscotch!
  • 🎩 The reddish seeds resemble kola nuts and even have a similar taste, giving you a fun, "false kola" experience.
  • 🎩 An instant conversation starter, Napoleon's Hat is a quirky, fragrant addition to your garden - perfect for those looking for something a little different.


🛒 Experience Napoleon's Hat - the most bizarre flower with benefits!

📚 Learn more:
A French Emperor's Hat Blooming in Your Garden
Napoleons Hat - Endangered species from the outgone era of the Napoleon's War

#Fun_facts #Trees #Nature_Wonders

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Instant rainforest for your yard - tropical vibes made easy! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Cyathea cooperi - Australian tree fern

🌴 Instant rainforest for your yard - tropical vibes made easy!
  • 🌴 How to create your own jungle retreat quickly? Bring a touch of the tropics to your yard with the Australian tree fern!
  • 🌴 Cyathea cooperi - Australian tree fern - grows fast and looks like it came straight from a Hawaiian rainforest.
  • 🌴 Its giant, lacy fronds can reach up to 8 feet long.
  • 🌴 It takes bright shade or sun, as long as it stays moist.
  • 🌴 The baby fronds of the Australian tree fern unfurl like little furry scrolls, each one slowly unrolling like a curious creature’s tail coming to life. They look almost animated!
  • 🌴 Even in windy spots, this fern holds its own and adds instant jungle vibes. Create your own jungle retreat!


🛒 Yes, I want tropical vibes! Add to my paradise

#Nature_Wonders #Trees #Shade_Garden

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Blooming Lobster Claw Show at TopTropicals. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Heliconia rostrata - Lobster Claw

Blooming Lobster Claw Show at TopTropicals
  • 🔻 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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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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