Nepenthes: Deadly Traps of Monkey Cups

by Alex Butova, the Witch of Herbs and Cats

...The name "monkey cups" refers to the fact that monkeys were once thought to drink rainwater from the pitchers. This is false; monkeys do not drink from them, and the pitchers are filled with digestive juices, rather than rainwater. The trap contains a fluid of the plant's own production, which may be watery or more viscous, and is used to drown the prey...
...The lower part of the trap contains glands which absorb nutrients from captured prey. Along the upper inside part of the trap is a slick, waxy coating which makes the escape of its prey nearly impossible...
...Prey usually consists of insects, but the largest Nepenthes species may occasionally catch small vertebrates, such as rats and lizards. Records of cultivated plants trapping small birds have been made!..

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Tropical Fruit Collections

September is a great month to plant. The soil is warm and the air is beginning to get cooler which helps to encourage new roots to grow. For much of the Country, September typically brings more opportunity for additional rain and moisture, allowing you to water less. Take advantage of this time of year to establish new plants in your gardens!

Tropical Fruit Starter Collection

Tropical Fruit Starter Collection - 4 plants for price of 2.
Tropical Fruit Starter set for half price! Rare tropical fruit trees that are easy to grow even for beginners. Start today to get fruit of your labor tomorrow! The Collection includes 1 of each: Fig, Banana, Mulberry, and Pomegranate.
Ficus carica - Fig Brown Turkey
Musa - Banana Double Mahoi
Morus sp. - Mulberry, Dwarf Everbearing
Punica granatum - Pomegranate var. Eversweet

Super Foods Bundle

Super Foods Bundle Collection - 4 plants for price of 2
Super Foods Bundle for half price! Get health foods right from your backyard. Start today to get healthy tomorrow! The Collection includes 1 of each: Goji Berry, Spice Ginger, Pomegranate, Tropical Asparagus (Katuk).
Lycium barbarum - Goji Berry
Zingiber officinale - Spice Ginger
Punica granatum - Pomegranate var. Eversweet
Sauropus androgynus - Katuk, Tropical Asparagus

Rare Fruit Collection

Rare Fruit Collection - 4 rare plants for half price.
Rare Fruit Set for Real Collectors - for half price! Hard to find, much wanted species all at once at low cost! Limited time offer. The Collection includes 1 of each: Chocolate Tree, Vietnamese Pepper, Peanut Butter Tree, Jackfruit.
Theobroma cacao - Chocolate tree
Piper sarmentosum - Vietnamese Pepper, Lalot
Bunchosia argentea - Peanut Butter Tree
Artocarpus heterophyllus - Jackfruit Super Thai

Tropical analogies of non-tropicals

By Kristi, the Florida girl...

...When I first started working at Top Tropicals eight years ago I knew nothing about plants. I didn't even know which ones I liked. Over the first few months I took in information on plants like I was a starving kitten who had just gotten its first meal in weeks...

...What I started to notice was that the plants I tended to gravitate to were more cold weather plants. Plants that couldn't be grown in the hot summers in Florida, and vines. Seemed like everything I set my sites on was a large vine or couldn't grow in the heat...

...Many of our local customers are from up North as well and are used to these colder weather plants too. This got me thinking, I wonder how many of these people are missing the plants they grew up knowing and loving. I know there are at least a few from the conversations I have had with some of you at the nursery. So, I decided to make a list of a few of the plants that will grow here that are similar but not the same and, in some instances, even better!..

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