You are safe in your garden!

Lucie's tropical garden in Montreal, Canada:
"The movement of plants fascinates me!"

Our customer Lucie Herard shared pictures of her tropical garden with us... Many of you have beautiful gardens that you are proud of... but this one is... in Canada! Believe it or not, before winter she digs everything up and brings it inside! Then in Spring, she starts again every year. Dedication? Determination? Heroism! Lucie won the Planet Bananiers photo contest for the third time.
Look at these pictures and visit Lucie's Facebook page for more photos and videos of her amazing garden. Ask yourself: and what can I do? Is my life really that hard with mowing a lawn once a week and blowing the leaves? You don't have to be a hero to make something worthwhile in your life. Just take a shovel and start... one plant a day. And you will end up living in Paradise.
Lucie reminds you: "Ornamental horticulture production activities are now considered an essential service! Add soil in a pot, water very slightly for the first two weeks and put closer to the window. That's all, the leaves will start growing again!"

Share with us photos of your garden. The winner of this contest will get plants $200 worth, with FREE shipping!

Submit your photos before April 15, 2020
and win $200 in tropical plants!

Garden Sustainability Tips: Live your Life. Dig your Garden.

You can grow herbs and vegetables that can be easy incorporated into your home landscape. You don't need a raised bed for a few little things that will come really handy for your kitchen.

1. Parsley. Get a small 4" pot parsley plant from a local garden center. It grows super fast and just one plant can provide great healthy addition for your cooking for a few months. Plant in in full sun, under a tree or shrub, where it gets hit by a sprinkler.
2. Dill. This one grows from seeds quickly and easily. It also needs full sun and regular water.
3. Chives, or Green Onion. Don't through away "bulbs" from chives you got from the store. Stick them in the ground, pretty much anywhere in your garden. You will have supply of fresh chives loaded with vitamins right away (withing a few days!) and for many months. You can also plant an onion bulb (root-end down... duh) - this one will produce greens even faster!
4. Bay Leaf. If you live in a mild climate, plant a Bay Leaf in your yard (closer to the door - closer to the kitchen!). It is a wonderful healthy spice for soups and stews that makes them super flavorful. If your winters are cold, keep the plant in a pot. Bay Leaf makes a great undemanding houseplant that needs bright light, but very little water.
5. Cherry tomatoes are easy to grow, heat tolerant and even grow in lower light, so they are easy to incorporate into any existing landscape. Get Sunshine Boosters to double your crop: see how it works.
6. More herbs and spices. Check out our large selection of herbs and spices - they are on sale today!
7. Garden work is a great exercise. While the gym is closed - get to gardening. Read about Fun workout and Calories Burning Gardening.
8. Lemons. Vitamin C is your best friend for boosting immune system, and Lemons have tons of it! In areas where citrus can grow outside, Lemon tree is a must-have for your garden, or at least find a friend who has one! Citrus also makes a great house plant, so you can keep it in a pot, too. Just make sure to have a grafted tree that will produce right away.

Lemon Juice Health Booster Recipe

1. Squeeze juice from 1 lemon and mix it with 1 cup of water.
2. Add ice cubes and 1-2 tbsp of any flavored syrup (optional). You may add some fresh mint for Mojito flavor.
3. Enjoy this drink at least once a day.
4. Get a bunch of lemons, squeeze fresh juice into ice cube trays and freeze. 1 lemon = makes 1 ice cube. Store in freezer and use 1-2 cubes to make the above drink, daily.

Besides being rich in vitamin C that will boost your immune system, Lemon juice is a Natural medicine that helps to treat:
- cold and flu
- headaches and high blood pressure
- stomach problems
- insomnia
- and much more
Drinking lemon juice on regular basis will make your body stronger and more resistant to infections and many illnesses.

Butterfly Garden from Anna Banana

Butterfly facts

1. There are approximately 20,000 different species of butterflies, the largest of which is the Queen Alexandra Birdwing with a wingspan of 11 inches.
2. Female butterflies can lay over 1000 eggs during their short lifetime.
3. Butterflies lay their eggs on host plants which usually hatch within a few days, then turning into caterpillars. The caterpillar will then eat until it sheds it's skin several times, called instars, finally emerging from the chrysalis as a beautiful butterfly.
4. Butterflies are born to breed, their goal being to mate and begin the cycle again. Most live only a few days except the Monarch which can live up to six months.
5. Monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico every fall and remain there until spring when they make the return migration.
6. Due to the continuing destruction of the rain forests, where the largest population of butterflies are found, their numbers are dwindling. We encourage you to plant a butterfly garden!!

Remember:

- A sunny, less windy location is best, however, Zebras love to float in the shade of bushes and trees.
- The more host and nectar plants you have, the more butterflies will be attracted to your garden.
- Butterflies "puddle". They like a wet sandy area where they congregate and sip minerals and nutrients from the wet sand and water.
- Rocks to rest and enjoy their beautiful garden, and don't forget a bench or hammock for yourself.

FREE butterfly garden guide from Anna Banana

For our local Florida customers, it is a perfect time now to start a garden with plants for butterflies that will appear first thing in Spring. Establish these plants now for the Spring blooms that will attract the Beauty into your garden!
Stop by our Garden Center to check out our Butterfly Plants display, or simply call Anna Banana for a free consultation on Butterfly Garden at 239-771-8081.

Hurry up while butterfly plants are on 4-day sale!

Full Sun Garden vs Shade Garden

"Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago." (Warren Buffett)

Q: I live in California and I have a large area of my garden in full shade. Are there any plants that will be happy there? I am looking for something colorful. I also have a smaller area in front of the house that has full sun almost all day long, but I am afraid this can be too hot for flowering plants? Can you recommend something?

A: Full sun gardens have a strong, bright look while shade gardens have cooler, subdued appearance. Both types of gardens are fun to design and maintain as long as you pick the right plants.
Full Sun Garden is the easiest to grow. Depending on exposure, it may require some plants that can tolerate the hottest summer days and the dry conditions in your area. The good news is, the majority of tropical and subtropical plants prefer full sun, so you have a large selection to pick from - fruit trees, flowering trees, shrubs, vines, and small perennials. The more sun, the more flowers and fruit you will get! However, keep in mind that sun gardens require more water, but generous mulching will help to minimize watering.
Shade Garden is much more restful in appearance, but sometimes may be a little more difficult to work with. As shade trees grow bigger and thicker, it may become too dark; nothing will grow in total darkness. In this case you need to prune back some branches to let more light in. Filtered sunlight or dappled light coming through the leaves of the trees is beneficial and considered light shade, which would be the best light conditions for shade loving plants to thrive. Although shady cooler spaces attract more insects and will require more attention to control them, they also have some advantages over sun gardens. You can enjoy working in cooler conditions, and your garden will require less water. Many foliage plants look more deeply colored and healthier than in full sun; white flowers shine instead of looking washed out!
Our favorite shade plants are fragrant brunfelsias , clerodendrums, and of course colorful gingers and heliconias. You may also consider ornamental foliage of Calatheas, lush Alocasias, Colocasias, and colorful Cordylines. Check out our shade loving plant list for more colorful suggestions. These are also great for indoor gardens!

On the photo: Calathea lancifolia Rattlesnake

Fast-fruiting trees

Q: It would be easier for us buyers, if we could search for plants that produce fruit in 2 years or less... I don't have the patience to wait longer than that for fruit. I'm trying to buy for a fairly good sized garden but want some fast growers and fruit produced in 2 yrs. Can you help me out?

A: Fruiting time depends on many factors (growing conditions, fertilizing, and even specific variety), this is why we can not just put a simple icon "will fruit within 2 years". However, most grafted and air-layered fruit trees, including all Mango, Avocado, Loquat, Sapote, Sapodilla, Longan, Peaches and Nectarines - will fruit right away.
If you see in our store "grafted" or "air-layered" in plant description - these trees will fruit soon. Some of them are already flowering and fruiting!

Some non-grafted trees will fruit within a couple of years or even sooner (those from cuttings, root division or even seedlings) - such as: Annona, Artocarpus (Jackfruit), Eugenia, Guava, Banana, Dragon fruit, Mulberry, Blackberry/Raspberry. Banana, Mulberry, Dragon fruit, Blackberry-Raspberry - usually fruit within a year. You may refer to our store directory page for fruit specials.

Also, all spice trees like Bay Leaf, Bay Rum, Allspice and many more - will produce spice for you right away, so you don't need to wait at all!

Forget the gym and get to gardening?
Calories Burned Gardening

Fun workout? We never have enough time to go to the gym or do an exercise so it's good to know that just doing something that you love can give you a workout. We all know that when we are out in the garden it gives us a bit of exercise but we do not realize how much exactly. Working out in the yard is a healthy hobby for many reasons, the high number of calories burned gardening being one of them. When you do this kind of physical labor, you carry out a wide variety of movements that most definitely burn calories, and may even tone. The best part about it in terms of physical activity is that if you enjoy yard work at all, you aren't watching the clock or counting down the minutes until you are done (the way that many people do while they are on a treadmill). You can easily spend a whole afternoon or an entire day working without feeling as though you are putting yourself through a mentally grueling workout. Finding physical activities that you enjoy are key to maintaining a healthy weight throughout your lifetime, and this hobby is a perfect example of that scenario for many people.

Research says that three hours of gardening can have the same effect as an intense 1-hour gym session. The study was carried out with a group of 100 gardeners who were asked to monitor the amount of time spent doing a series of common gardening tasks over a four week period. Gardening tasks that were monitored included weeding, digging, mowing the lawn, hedge trimming, trimming shrubs and trees, raking, planting shrubs, and moving garden waste using a wheel barrow. Here are some facts and numbers:
- Just doing half an hour weeding can burn up to 150 calories and tasks that handle heavy electrical equipment such as hedge trimming will give you a good workout burning 400 calories per hour.
- Spending a day or five hours each week in the garden will burn up to around 700 calories
- Over a gardening season that works out at 18,772 calories per year, equivalent to running seven marathons
- The gardening hobby could help burn a million calories over a lifetime.

Calories burned with only 1 hour of:
340 cal - Chopping wood, splitting logs, gardening with heavy power tools, tilling a garden, chain saw. Mowing lawn, walk, hand mower. Shoveling by hand.
272 cal - Carrying, loading or stacking wood, loading/unloading or carrying lumber, digging, spading, filling garden, composting, laying crushed rock or sod. Clearing land, hauling branches, wheelbarrow chores.
238 cal - Operating blower, walking. Planting seedlings, shrubs, trees, trimming shrubs or trees, manual cutter. Weeding, cultivating garden.
224 cal - Raking lawn, sacking grass and leaves
136 cal - Picking fruit off trees, picking up yard, picking flowers or vegetables. Walking, gathering gardening tools.
102 cal - Walking, applying fertilizer or seeding a lawn
34 cal - Watering lawn or garden, standing or walking

Sources: DailyMail, CalorieLab, FitnessBlender.

Forget the gym and get to gardening?

Fun workout? We never have enough time to go to the gym or do an exercise so it's good to know that just doing something that you love can give you a workout. We all know that when we are out in the garden it gives us a bit of exercise but we do not realize how much exactly. Research says that three hours of gardening can have the same effect as an intense 1-hour gym session. The study was carried out with a group of 100 gardeners who were asked to monitor the amount of time spent doing a series of common gardening tasks over a four week period. Gardening tasks that were monitored included weeding, digging, mowing the lawn, hedge trimming, trimming shrubs and trees, raking, planting shrubs, and moving garden waste using a wheel barrow. Here are some facts and numbers:
- Just doing half an hour weeding can burn up to 150 calories and tasks that handle heavy electrical equipment such as hedge trimming will give you a good workout burning 400 calories per hour.
- Spending a day or five hours each week in the garden will burn up to around 700 calories
- Over a gardening season that works out at 20,000 calories per year, equivalent to running seven marathons
- The gardening hobby could help burn a million calories over a lifetime.

Calories burned with only 1 hour of:
340 cal - Chopping wood, splitting logs, gardening with heavy power tools, tilling a garden, chain saw. Mowing lawn, walk, hand mower. Shoveling by hand.
272 cal - Carrying, loading or stacking wood, loading/unloading or carrying lumber, digging, spading, filling garden, composting, laying crushed rock or sod. Clearing land, hauling branches, wheelbarrow chores.
238 cal - Operating blower, walking. Planting seedlings, shrubs, trees, trimming shrubs or trees, manual cutter. Weeding, cultivating garden.
224 cal - Raking lawn, sacking grass and leaves
136 cal - Picking fruit off trees, picking up yard, picking flowers or vegetables. Walking, gathering gardening tools.
102 cal - Walking, applying fertilizer or seeding a lawn
34 cal - Watering lawn or garden, standing or walking

Radio Top Tropicals Live Webcast upcoming event: Saturday May 20, at 11 am EST.
Topic: Come Ride My Peninsula! Discusses the REAL Florida. Our plants, the Everglades, how all of the wonderful plants Top Tropicals has to offer are grown in South Florida. Our Host Robert Riefer - Internationally Certified Crop Adviser and Weed Scientist - answering all your gardening questions.
Listen to Radio Top Tropicals, every Saturday, at 11 am EST! You may use our website radio player DURING AIR TIME. To ask questions using live chat, you need to log in at Mixlr.com or simply call our office 239-887-3323 during air time!
If you missed a live webcast, you may listen to recording by following Showreel item link.
Check out our upcoming radio shows and get your gardening questions ready!