Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

All the nothing you want

"Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now. There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want!" - Bill Watterson

🐈📸 Cat Matilda at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden.

#Quotes #PeopleCats

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Plant for birds: feast for wildlife and people from a tiny vine!

• Passiflora suberosa - Corkystem Passion Flower: did you know this Florida native passion vine is more than just a butterfly host? Birds love it too - they’ll happily snack on the little fruits and sing you thank-you songs all day long!
• And yes, the fruit is edible for people as well! The berries are small, but they make a fun and exotic treat.
• The plants has a tiny flower and a tiny fruit – both only about half an inch – but together they create a mighty native habitat.
• It's a triple win: butterflies, birds, and people can all enjoy something from this charming little plant. Plus, it’s the larval host for Gulf Fritillary, Zebra Longwing, and Julia butterflies, and its tiny greenish flowers provide nectar all year long. Fast-growing, easy, and full of life – a real gem for any Florida garden.
• This vine is delicate and compact, perfect for a medium trellis or climbing a small tree. Unlike the big, aggressive passion vines that can cover a whole fence, this one stays manageable.
• This Passion vine is not just charming and wildlife-friendly, it’s also tough as nails. Cold hardy and easy to grow, this native vine takes whatever Florida throws at it – heavy rains, long droughts and heat, poor sandy soils, even total neglect – and still thrives. A perfect choice if you want beauty, wildlife, and resilience all in one little plant.

🛒 Plant this small and tough vine with food and wildlife benefits

📚 Learn more:

• ✦ What is the sweetest Passionfruit?
• ✦ How big is Giant Granadilla?
• ✦ Does Red Passion flower produce edible fruit?
• ✦ The truth about Passion flower and Passion fruit
• ✦ Top 20 plants for a Butterfly Haven
• ✦ Top Eight irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven

#Food_Forest #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants #How_to

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🔍 Hiding in plain sight

"All the secrets of the world worth knowing are hiding in plain sight." - Robin Sloan

🐈📸 Cat Google (partial view) at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden.

#Quotes #PeopleCats

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🍌 Blue Ice Cream banana you’ll never find in stores!

• 🔵 The Blue Java Banana, also known as the Ice Cream Banana, is the banana everyone wants - and for good reason.
• 🔵 First of all… it's blue. Yes, really. When the fruit is unripe, it has a frosty blue-green tint - especially striking in the sun. These short, chunky bananas are only about 4 inches long and grow in beautiful bunches under mauve-colored flowers. The whole plant is a tropical showstopper.
• 🔵But the real magic happens when the fruit ripens. The blue fades to yellow… and inside? Oh my God - it’s heaven! The texture is soft, smooth, and creamy. And the flavor? Like vanilla ice cream.
• 🔵That’s how it got the name Ice Cream Banana. And this isn’t just a gimmick - it’s a cold-tolerant, vigorous variety that grows fast, reaches 10-15 feet tall, and produces heavy bunches (up to 60 pounds!) of sweet fruit that you can eat raw or cook with.
• 🔵 Your store-bought bananas can’t compete with this. Add it to your edible landscape, food forest, or patio garden - this one is a must-have! Grab it while it’s in stock. Or if it’s sold out - hit that wishlist button.

🛒 Explore Banana Varieties

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️ Is Blue Java Banana really blue? Great question!
• ▫️Why every garden needs a banana tree (or three!)
• ▫️The best varieties of edible Banana to plant
• ▫️What banana fits anywhere - Banana Truly Tiny
• ▫️How to double your banana crop without extra space - Banana Double Mahoi
• ▫️Which Banana has red fruit and leaves - Banana Bordelon
• ▫️Why everyone wants Banana Lakatan - Banana Lakatan
• ▫️More about #Bananas

#Food_Forest #Bananas

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🍴 Peanut butter fruit smoothie: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

• 🔴Peanut butter fruit (Bunchosia argentia) makes delicious shake!
• 🔴Blend ripe peanut butter fruits with milk and honey.
• 🔴A creamy shake that tastes like dessert straight from the tree!

Peanut Butter Fruit Smoothie

Ingredients

• 1 cup ripe peanut butter fruit (Bunchosia argentea), seeded
• 1 cup cold milk
• 1–2 tablespoons honey
• Ice cubes (optional)

Instructions

1. Remove seeds from ripe peanut butter fruits.
2. Blend fruits with milk and honey until smooth.
3. Add ice cubes if desired for a chilled version.
4. Serve immediately and enjoy a creamy shake that tastes like dessert straight from the tree!

🛒 Harvest Peanut Butter Fruit - the tree is fast fruiting!

#Food_Forest #Recipes

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🍿 Coconuts owns the kitchen

"A man may call himself the owner of a cat, but the cat calls him nothing at all - and still gets supper." - Mark Twain

🐈📸 Cat James Coconuts owns the kitchen at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden.

#Quotes #PeopleCats

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🌷 Ten shrubs you need to have for winter colors

Many snowbirds ask what to plant when they’re here just for the season. The answer is simple: go for trees and shrubs that bloom in winter. Fall is the perfect time to get them in the ground so your garden will be bursting with flowers once the cool season arrives. In our earlier video, we shared 8 best flowering trees that will bloom for you in Winter. Now, here are the shrubs that will complete your colorful winter garden.

• 🌷 1. Mansoa alliacea - Garlic Vine

Known for its garlicky scent, it also puts on clusters of lavender to purple flowers in cool weather. Reliable and eye-catching, often trained on fences or trellises. 👉plant it
• 🌷 2. Dombeya wallichii - Tropical Hydrangea

Large pink pompom clusters hang like lanterns from the branches. Sweetly fragrant and showy, it creates a hydrangea effect right in winter. 👉plant it
• 🌷 3. Brunfelsia pauciflora Compacta - Dwarf Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow

Small and manageable, it opens purple flowers that fade to lavender and then white, giving the look of three colors at once. A cheerful winter bloomer for pots or borders. 👉plant it
• 🌷 4. Clerodendrum minahassae - Fountain Clerodendrum

This shrub lives up to its name with cascades of long white flower sprays, blooming heavily in the cooler months and brightening shaded corners. 👉plant it
• 🌷 5. Tibouchina multiflora (grandifolia) - Glory bush, Quaresmeira

Covered in clusters of soft, fuzzy purple blooms, this shrub adds tropical flair during the cooler months. Its velvety leaves are ornamental year-round. 👉plant it
• 🌷 6. Holmskioldia sanguinea - Red Chinese hat

Cup-shaped bracts form red “hats” around small flowers. This shrub stands out with unique form and long-lasting blooms. 👉plant it
• 🌷 7. Barleria cristata - Philippine violet

A hardy shrub with masses of purple-violet blooms in the cool season. It flowers when many plants are quiet, adding dependable winter color. 👉plant it
• 🌷 8. Thunbergia erecta - King’s Mantle

A compact shrub with velvety purple blooms and bright yellow throats. It’s neat, easy to manage, and flowers generously in winter. 👉plant it
• 🌷 9. Eranthemum pulchellum - Blue Sage, Lead Flower

Few shrubs can match its electric-blue spikes of flowers in winter. Compact and low-care, it brings a rare color to the cool season garden. 👉plant it
• 🌷 10. Petrea volubilis (racemosa) - Queen’s wreath

A woody vine-shrub that bursts into cascading sprays of lavender stars. It flowers heavily in winter, resembling wisteria in the tropics. 👉plant it
🛒 Explore Winter bloomers

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️8 best flowering trees that will bloom for you in Winter
• ▫️9 best tropical shrubs that bloom all summer long or year around
• ▫️4 best low-growing perennials that bloom all summer

#Hedges_with_benefits #Discover

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🍑 Guess what's missing? Lost and found: two cats, zero tails

“Why do Manx cats make bad storytellers? …Because they always skip the tail!”

🐈📸 Matilda and Timo are Manx tailless siblings. Learn why they are tailless from this touching story: Timo and Matilda - Manx cats

#PeopleCats

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Can you name all the fruits on this tray? One of them will stump you!

• This morning I walked the garden and came back with a tray of fruits! That’s the joy of living in Florida with your own tropical garden: something new is always in season.
• On today’s tray: Papaya, Avocado, Egyptian guava and Cas guava, Barbados cherry… And this little red one? Peanut butter fruit!
• At Top Tropicals, you’ll find every tropical fruit tree you can imagine. What fruits are you harvesting from your garden right now?

🛒 Explore rare tropical fruit

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️10 best fruit trees to grow in Florida and Southern landscapes
• ▫️Five best fruit trees to plant in Summer
• ▫️Top 10 fast-fruiting trees

#Food_Forest #Discover

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🍴 Loquat salsa: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

• 
  🔴Dice Loquat fruit with tomato, onion, and jalapeno.
• 🔴Great spooned over grilled fish or eaten with chips.

Loquat Salsa Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups fresh loquats, peeled, pitted, and diced
• 2 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
• 1 jalapeno, finely diced
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• Juice of 1 lime
• Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Peel and pit the loquats, then dice them into small cubes.
2. Dice tomatoes and onion, finely chop the jalapeno.
3. In a bowl, combine loquats, tomato, onion, jalapeno, and cilantro.
4. Add lime juice and salt to taste, stir gently to mix.
5. Chill for 15 minutes before serving.

Serving Suggestions

• Serve with tortilla chips.
• Spoon over grilled fish, chicken, or shrimp.
• Use as a topping for tacos or salads.

🛒Plant your Loquat tree

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Loquat

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😰Are you for real?

"There are no strangers here; only friends you haven’t yet met." - William Butler Yeats

🐈📸 Cats Cash and Bob greeting a new comer at Top Tropicals PeopleCats.Garden

#Quotes #PeopleCats

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🚚 How do we ship plants?

🚚 How do we ship plants?

📦 More pictures of packing plants for the previous videos:

• ▫️How do we ship plants? Part 1: prepare the plant
• ▫️How do we ship plants? Part 2: packing in the box
• ▫️How do we ship plants, Part 3: it's Christmas - unwrapping is fun?

📸 In the pictures:

• · James Coconuts managing Shipping Department at TopTropicals
• · Plants packed in boxes and ready to go
• · Plant packing conveyer
• · Mittens is a new Shipping hire

🛒 Shop plants online

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️Shipping information page
• ▫️Planting instructions

#How_to

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🚚 How do we ship plants, Part 3: it's Christmas - unwrapping is fun?

• 📦 In the previous videos (Part 1: prepare the plant and Part 2: packing in the box), we showed you how we ship the plant to you.

You received the package - what is next?
• 📦 Every order comes with planting instructions. Read them first!

How to take care of your mail order plant (potted plant)

When your plant arrives, carefully remove it from the box and water it right away.

• ▫️Place it in bright light but out of direct sun for the first few days so it can recover from shipping.
• ▫️Keep the soil evenly moist, not soggy.
• ▫️After about a week, gradually introduce it to more sun or move it to its permanent spot.
• ▫️Read detailed instructions.

🌴 How to plant your mail order plant in the ground

• ▫️Don't put a new plant straight from the box into the ground!
• ▫️First, pot it up and let it recover and grow strong for a few weeks.
• ▫️Once it's well established, choose a sunny, well-drained spot outdoors.
• ▫️Dig a hole twice as wide as the pot, place the plant at the same depth, and backfill with good, rich soil.
• ▫️Water thoroughly to settle the roots and add mulch around the base, keeping it away from the stem.
• ▫️Keep watering regularly until the plant takes off.
• ▫️Read detailed instructions.

🎥 Part 3 shows you how to unpack a plant. Happy Gardening!

🛒 Shop plants online

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️Shipping information page
• ▫️Planting instructions
• ▫️How do we ship plants? Part 1: prepare the plant
• ▫️How do we ship plants? Part 2: packing in the box

#How_to

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👽 Why Sphynx cats always need a sweater?

• 
  😺 Pelmen is a Sphynx cat. Sphynx is the famous hairless cat breed. He looks bald, but really has a soft peach-fuzz coat that feels like suede.
• 
  😺 Look, this summer Pelmen even got a suntan! His head is tanned while the rest stayed pale. Why? Because he was wearing a sweater outside! (Yes, he owns a whole wardrobe… the definition of a spoiled baby)
• 
  😺 Why a sweater? Sweaters aren’t just for fashion. Since Sphynx cats lack a fur coat, they need extra warmth, regular baths to wash off skin oils, and sun protection.
• 
  😺 The Sphynx may look like a little alien, but they’re really velcro cats - clingy, cuddly, and people-loving. The breed began in 1966 when a hairless kitten named Prune was born in Canada. From that quirky start, the Sphynx became one of the most affectionate cats around.

🐈📸 Cat Pelmen is a friend of TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden.

#PeopleCats

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🍴 10-minute recipe Bo La Lot with a leaf you’ve never cooked before!

• 🌮 Forget boring tacos - this wrap will blow your mind! In Vietnam they call it Bo La Lot - beef wrapped in peppery Lalot leaves.
• 🌮 It started as grape leaf wraps in the Middle East, but in tropical Asia grapes don’t grow, so people swapped to Lalot. Way more flavor than grape leaves!
• 🌮 Grilled beef, garlic, onion, lemongrass - all can be tucked into these shiny green leaves. Smoky, juicy, and so good you’ll wonder why you didn't try it sooner! It's better than grape leaf wraps, because it has so much flavor!
• 🌮 Most large leaf pepper plants will work for this recipe - Vietnamese pepper Lalot (Piper sarmentosum), Betel Leaf (Piper betle), or even large leaves of the traditional Black Pepper plant (Piper nigrum).

🌯 BO LA LOT RECIPE

✔️ Ingredients

• · 1 pound ground beef or turkey
• · 2 tablespoons chopped lemongrass (optional)
• · 1 tbsp spice powder
• · 1 tbsp curry powder
• · 1 tbsp finely minced garlic
• · 1 tbsp oyster sauce or fish sauce (optional)
• · 1 tsp ground black pepper
• · 1 tbsp finely minced shallots
• · 1 tbsp soy sauce
• · 2 tsp sugar or honey
• · 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• · 1/2 tbsp salt
• · 10-15 fresh Lalot leaves

• 👉 Directions

• · Preheat the grill.
• · Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well.
• · Wrap about 2 tablespoons of the mixture into each betel leaf.
• · Spear 3 to 4 betel leaf wraps onto a skewer and grill until the meat is thoroughly cooked.
• · Be sure to eat immediately.

🛒 Grow Leaf Pappers for tasty, peppery recipes

📚 Learn more:

• ▫️Lalot beef wraps: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes
• ▫️Vietnamese Pepper - Lalot food wraps BBQ recipe
• ▫️How to grow your own Pepper plants. Five most valuable Pipers
• ▫️How to to get Pepper leaves large and green

📱 Growing Lalot Pepper

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Container_Garden #How_to

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