Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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Watching things happen. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Cat Ricki watching a hockey game at TopTropicals

Cat Ricki watching a hockey game at TopTropicals

💻 Watching things happen

"Some people make things happen,
some watch things happen,
and some wonder what happened." - Jim Lovell

🐈📸 Cat Ricki watching a hockey game at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden 

#PeopleCats #Quotes

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Before eating ice cream, try this fruit from a house plant. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Swiss Cheese Plant - Monstera deliciosa

🍨 Before eating ice cream, try this fruit growing on a house plant!
  • 🍨 Most people know Swiss Cheese Plant - Monstera deliciosa - for its big holey leaves, but here’s the wild part: this jungle climber also makes fruit. Real fruit. And it tastes like pineapple mixed with ice cream.
  • 🍨 Have you tried Monstera fruit? Will you eat it again?
  • 🍨 This plant grows in the rainforests of Mexico and Guatemala, where young seedlings crawl toward the shade until they find a tree to climb. Yes, they grow in the direction of the darkest area, not just merely away from light. Interesting, ah?
  • 🍨 In time, it sends out a green, cone-like fruit nearly a foot long. It takes a while to ripen - about a year - and only when the scales start to lift can you peel them back and find the creamy pulp inside. Ice-cream sweet and tropical.
  • 🍨 One catch though: never eat the fruit unripe. The pulp contains oxalic acid that is generally harmless but will burn your mouth. Best trick is to let it wrinkle a little, wrap it up, and wait until the scales loosen on their own. Then it's ready.
  • 🍨 And for collectors? The Thai Constellation, with its cream-splashed leaves, is the crown jewel. Some specimens sell for thousands. Not bad for a "Swiss Cheese Plant"!


🛒 Shop Monstera plants

📚 Learn more:
How to harvest and eat Monstera Ice Cream

#Food_Forest #Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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Katuk egg stir-fry: quick n fun exotic recipes. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Katuk egg stir-fry: quick n fun exotic recipes
🍴 Katuk egg stir-fry: quick n fun exotic recipes

  • 🟢Saute chopped Katuk leaves (Sauropus androgynus) with garlic and a touch of soy sauce
  • 🟢Shen scramble in eggs.
  • 🟢Fast, simple, healthy, and full of flavor!


🛒 Add healthy Katuk to your perennial vegetable garden

#Food_Forest #Recipes

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The only animal that laughs. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

The only animal that laughs
💩 The only animal that laughs

"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be." - William Hazlitt

🐈📸 Cat Bob is laughing at us at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden 

#PeopleCats #Quotes

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When plants cross into the Gothic: the Darker Bat Lily. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Black Bat Lily (Tacca chantrieri)

When plants cross into the Gothic: the Darker Bat Lily
  • 🖤 Here’s a striking look at the Black Bat Lily (Tacca chantrieri) - its dramatic dark bracts resembling bat wings, trailing whiskers, and tropical elegance all in one. If you met its cousin, the White Bat Head Lily (Tacca nivea) in earlier video, you'll notice the family resemblance - same dramatic whiskers and wing-like bracts, but this one leans fully into the dark side.
  • 🖤 The Black Bat Flower isn’t just a bloom - it's a full performance. Giant black-maroon"wings" stretch out like a bat in flight, while long, drooping filaments dangle like eerie whiskers or jungle jewelry - some over a foot long!
  • 🖤 Those weird, wild whiskers aren't just for show either. They're thought to mimic the look (and no, not the smell!) of decaying matter, luring in pollinators like flies. Creepy? Yes. Clever? Absolutely.
  • 🖤 The Black Bat Flower blooms best when it feels pampered: filtered light, steady warmth, and spa-level humidity. It’s a smart exotic for a greenhouse or even a bright bathroom with a skylight.
  • 🖤 It grows from a rhizome, and while Tacca chantrieri is prized for its gothic looks, its green cousin Tacca leontopetaloides is actually used in the tropics to make arrowroot starch.
  • 🖤 Patience is part of the package - sometimes it takes months to bloom. But when it does, it becomes the crown jewel of the collection. People will ask if it's real. You'll just smile and say, "Yes - and it lives here."


🛒 Add this gothic gem to your collection - Black Tacca

Tacca colors: Black, White, Green:
Tacca nivea - White Tacca
Tacca chantrieri - Black Tacca
Tacca leontopetaloides - Green Tacca

📚 Learn more:

#Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden #Container_Garden

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Advantage of a rainy day. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Cat Philemon in a swing

😭 Advantage of a rainy day

"The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." - Dolly Parton

🐈📸 Cat Philemon is hanging out is his own swing at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden 

#PeopleCats #Quotes

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Helicopter flower Madhavi - the Spring Herald that clings to a Mango Tree. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower, Madhavi, Spring Herald, flower close up

Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower, Madhavi, Spring Herald, flower close up

Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower, Madhavi, Spring Herald, flower

Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower, Madhavi, Spring Herald, flower

Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower, Madhavi, Spring Herald, seeds

Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower, Madhavi, Spring Herald, seeds

Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower, Madhavi, Spring Herald, flowers on the bush

Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower, Madhavi, Spring Herald, flowers on the bush

🚁 Helicopter flower Madhavi - the Spring Herald that clings to a Mango Tree
  • 🍥 Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower: during TopTropicals plant trip to Thailand, this was one of the first discoveries that caught our attention. We were suddenly stopped by an incredible, sweet perfume drifting through the air. Following the scent, we found its source - a dense, vigorous vine covered in unusual, eye-catching flowers.
  • 🍥 Helicopter Flower? The name comes from its funny three-winged seed pods that spin like little helicopters. But the real show happens when it blooms. Clusters of pink-white-and-yellow flowers appear in profusion, with frilly petals and a fruity perfume that can stop you in your tracks. Best of all, it flowers in winter and early spring, just when most other plants are quiet, so it fills the air with fragrance at a time you need it most.
  • 🍥 Hiptage is easy-going and adaptable. It can be trimmed as a shrub, trained into a small tree, or let go as a climber, but be ready to give it space and strong support if you let it vine. It's fast-growing, tolerant of different soils, and happy in either sun or part shade. You can even keep it in a container and trim it into a rounded bush. It's pretty cold hardy too - can take some light frost.
  • 🍥 In India, the Helicopter Flower is called Madhavi - the Spring Herald, and often paired with mango trees in stories and gardens - the sturdy mango holding up this vigorous fragrant vine, symbolizing love, devotion, and the union of strength with beauty. Planting the two together makes for a striking, symbolic pair!
  • 🍥 For gardeners, it's the rare combination of beauty, fragrance, adaptability, and a good story to tell. A plant that not only perfumes your garden but also brings a touch of legend to it.
  • 🍥 Used medicinally in India.


🛒 Bring Perfume Spring Herald to your garden

#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits

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Mango chili salt bites: quick n fun exotic recipes. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Mango chili salt bites

Mango chili salt bites

🍴 Mango chili salt bites: quick n fun exotic recipes
  • 🟡Slice ripe mango into wedges.
  • 🟡Sprinkle lightly with chili powder, salt, and a squeeze of lime.
  • 🟡Sweet, spicy, salty, tangy - all in one bite!


🛒 Explore Mango varieties

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Mango

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