Growing mango tree in California

Q: I just ordered a mango tree. I live in Southern California and was wondering if you have any tips on how to acclimate the mango to our climate. I know it is coming from hot and humid Florida to hot and dry Southern California and don't want to kill it because of the differences in climate.

A: Mangos in fact prefer dry conditions rather then humid. It may be perfect conditions for a mango tree at your place. Plant your tree in a pot size of the root ball; give it ample water and then let the soil surface slightly dry before watering again. Keep the plant in bright shade and gradually move into full sun. Once the tree is recovered from shipping stress, you may plant it in the ground and make sure to protect from freezing temperatures in winter. Use Mango Food for quick establishing and better fruit production. More to read:
Mango boosters
How to grow Mango in hot climates
Growing Mango in Arizona.

Meet People of TopTropicals. Pea Cock of the Day: the Orchid Guard

Recently we started to reveal the secret about who works behind the scenes on TopTropicals project; you have already met our editors and their assistants: Marina with Tilda, and Alex with Sonya. Today's story is about a Magic Peacock who works in orchid greenhouse of Eleanor Wilks - our photographer and tropical plant journalist in New Zealand and Australia. The watermark EleNZ you see on pictures of Australian flora - is Eleanor's!
Today Eleanor is sharing with us pictures of this amazing bird that helps her around her Orchidarium.
This young Pea Cock showed up one day in her backyard from nowhere and set up his living quarters in a tree. She asked around: no one was missing a peacock... so she took the Pea in and now he is in charge of her orchid collection. After a day of a hard work, Pea comes home to the back porch, waiting for Eleanor to sing him a good-night lullaby. Pea won't go to sleep until everyone in the house is ready for bed and the lights turned off. What a responsible house guard!

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Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat of the Day: Sonya, the Co-Author

In our previous newsletter, you met our editor/photographer tandem - Tilda & Marina. Today we introduce our columnist assistant - Sonya. For the past decade, this True Norwegian Forest Cat has been a great helper and inspirational co-author for Alexandra, TopTropicals website writer and social media blogger.

Alex has been with TopTropicals since Day One (2003). In 2011, she got Sonya, a 3-month old kitten that someone kicked out: at that young age she already had quite a temper of a real Wild Cat. No one wanted to adopt her and Sonya was doomed to suffer a street life... So Alex invited her in the house... and it took her many months to teach Sonya some good manners! And Sonya turned into a beautiful and affectionate Purrrson as well as became the Boss in the house (what a surprise, duh) and Alexandra's dearest life companion. Sonya also discovered her talent in writing plant stories for TopTropicals, sitting on Alex's shoulder and whispering into her ear while she is typing Sonya's horticultural tips. And when Alex stares at monitors for more than 5 hours, Sonya lays on her keyboard saying: "Now get up and get some stretch lady! Let's go re-pot some plants for a change!"

We will be following up on Sonya's creative work, and you will hear from her again soon...

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Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Charlie, the Indoor Hunter

Carlie was a kitty drop off with LadyBug, Rickie, and Purry.
Charlie is Jamie's baby. She has an attitude of a teenager, one minute she loves you and the next - wants nothing to do with you. Carlie stays with the inside PeopleCats, she says it's too big in the outside world for her and she gets scared. Carlie has a fun game (fun to her): she plays around 2:00 am in the morning, she loves to drag random items down the hall (socks, toys, shirts, even blankets) in her mouth MEOOOWWWING as loud as she can. She then sets the items down on her human's bedroom rug and waits for her human to say thank you. We're pretty sure her hunting instinct is off...

Check out and more Cat of the Day stories.