Garden Blog - Top Tropicals
Date:
Don't miss this one:
PodCast Premiere!
Episode 1
How to Protect Tropical plants in Winter: Q & A
Featuring Horticulturist Mark Hooten
...We are introducing our new Series: Top Tropicals Podcast. Growing tropicals and pushing the limits. Watch the first episode:
How to Protect Tropical plants in Winter
...Who doesn't like tropical beauty? Everyone wants tropical plants. But not everyone lives in a warm climate. Is it possible to grow tropicals outside of Tropics?
Top Tropicals horticulturist Mark Hooten, who is well known to many
gardeners as the Garden Doc with his
Saturday Plant Clinic, is answering gardeners' questions about how to prepare and protect tropical plants during winter...
Premiere scheduled:
Thursday, January 27, 8:00 AM
More about cold hardiness and cold protection:
Cold hardy tropical fruit trees
Growing Stephanotis and cold protection
Cold protection of tropical container plants
Plumeria cold protection
Ghost Cold Protection
Seven rules of cold protection for tropicals
Improving cold hardiness before winter: fertilizer and micro-elements
3D garden ideas and winter cold protection
Cold protection - winter action for your plant collection
About Cold Protection
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PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cats of the day: Biggy's Cat Hospital
Biggy checking on patient Abu when he couldn't walk
During these challenging times for the whole planet, we receive kind letters from our customers checking on how our PeopleCats are doing, especially those that previously were ill. And since we promised to follow up on everyone, including heart-breaking story of Raja and Abu, today's report is about everybody's progress!
As we mentioned in our previous newsletter, several cats in TopTropicals
Cat Sanctuary had a coronavirus (we call it COVID-Cat-20), or simply a cat respiratory infection. Chiefy, Snitch, Marco and Biggy had it really bad, but some other PeopleCats surprisingly didn't
get it! Just like with humans. Lucky King didn't have a single sneeze!
Finally, everybody has recovered by now, but it has been a very stressful
couple of weeks for us, considering limited vet availability at this stay-home
time. On top of that, Lil S had an abscess and was also contained in a home hospital, away
from flu-quarantined PeopleCats. Our homes become real cat hospitals!
We are thankful to our customers support, especially Silvia who made
several donations for our PeopleCats, and also recommended antiseptic pads - those worked great for Lil S!
Abu and Raja's adventures were not over... After 2 weeks of seeing a
vet treating their infections and injuries, they got worse... Then after a
couple of weeks in another hospital (and a couple thousand more in bills) we were
suggested to put them down as hopeless since they would never walk again...
But Kristi did not want to believe it, she did not give up! The kittens heard
her. They won. Today, they are all better, walking, jumping and playing!
Thank you Kristi!
Never give up hope!
Stay safe and healthy with your PeoplePets!
TopTropicals PeopleCat Club
Thank you everybody for supporting us in helping PeopleCat Community!
Make
your kind donation today and receive a surprise gift from us. Every little
bit helps! Thank you and God bless you and your pets!
Date:
Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat, Pet & Plant Community
Marco watching Dobi Duck; King & Marco with their Pet Frog
Barcy, Wesley and Coconuts at sweet liquor tasting
Anyone knows the name of this creature? He feeds on our Jasmines!
Date:
Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat of the Day: Chief
Shipping Department Supervisor
Chief is one of the oldest PeopleCats at TopTropicals. And of course the
most experienced one. So he is in charge of the Shipping Department.
Chief likes to chill out in front of the nursery gate together with Marco, Lil S*t and Dobi Duck.
Chief doesn't like car rides to his vet and when it happens, he is very
loud. The sound he makes is "Oy-yo-yo-yooooy!!!"
Chief likes milk. He has a white spot on his black face - from drinking
so much milk! No matter how much milk we buy for him, there never seems to
be enough. Chief even has a refrigerator for his milk. If you come to visit
Chief at TopTropicals Garden Center, you may bring him a small bottle of fresh
milk!
Thank you for your purrrrrrchase for Chief!
Date:
Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat of the Day: Field Grown Marco
Marco loves growing plants and be involved in different projects outside. He is good at finding spots either on top, or inside some inappropriate objects. Yet simple boxes, that most cats find super comfy, do not interest him. Is has to be a plant container, saucer, or even a charcoal grill full of ash... He can sit in some weird places for hours like on top of a fence pole, or lay in the middle of a busy walking traffic while everybody have to step over or walk around him... We have quite a collection of Marco's special places and will be sharing with you!
Check out and more Cat of the Day stories.
Date:
Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat of the Day: Wesley (Vasiliy)
Vasiliy is Russian Blue. Everybody calls him Wesley. Wesley is Marco's twin brother. They both were found as little kittens in a box
that someone dropped off... right, under TopTropicals car.
Marco is long hair, and Wes is short hair, so Wes doesn't get a haircut
like his bro.
Although Wes is much bigger and fatter, he is not as brave as skinny Marco
who fearlessly spends his days at the front gate. Wes is afraid of Thunder,
Rain, and a Doorbell. So he is mostly hiding behind the scene... unless food
is on the table!
In the photo: Wesley Roll - bikini shot
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Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat of the Day: Lil-S*
You know how it is, cats are like potato chips, they can't be just one.
And they come to you, they adopt you. They always pick the right people.
Every one of them has a story of their appearance.
Lil-S* came from a car engine. One cold winter morning of 2013 when we
were about to start a car... lil "meow" squeaked as a warning... Thank God
the engine wasn't started. She was hiding from cold under the hood right on the
engine, probably still catching some warmth from it... She was 4" size
kitten that fit in a palm of your hand... And she always has been a handful!
That's why we named her Little Sh*t.
Lil-S* likes to hang out with Marco in front of TopTropicals gate, greeting the customers.
Date:
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.
2019, from Top to Bottom: Moe, Charlie, Bagheera, and Snitch. 2016: Charlie
Date:
Cold protection of tropical container plants
Q: I am long time customer of yours, I live in San Diego California and while the summer and Fall temperatures are warm to mild, the winter temperatures dip to a point where some tropicals die off. We are experimenting with different variations of way to heat and insulate the pots we have the tropicals planted in as a way to keep them alive during the colder winter months. I was wondering if you knew of the ideal soil temperature for these tropical in order to look their best year round. All of the heaters we have installed have thermostats and temperature adjustments so we can now keep the soil anywhere between a range of between 65-75 degrees. Any advise you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
A: This is a very interesting concept you are working with.
Indeed, keeping pots/roots warm, may help a lot! We've been experimenting with
cold protection for a long time - for the above-ground plant parts. For sure
keeping roots protected (even with a thick layer of mulch) will benefit tropical
plants during winter. In case with container plants, this may help
dramatically.
The guideline is, tropical plants slow down or stop their metabolism at
65F. As long as you can keep soil above that temperature - this should work
great. Of course, the higher the better.
Optimum temperature for growing tropical plants in general - 70-85F.
Above 90F, metabolism stops too, unless it's a heat tolerant, desert
plant.
More information on winter cold protection of tropical plants and zone pushing:
Greenhouse in Virginia
Plumeria cold protection
Ghost Cold Protection
Seven rules of cold protection for tropicals
About Cold Protection
Cold protection - winter action for your plant collection
Tropical Treasures articles on zone pushing.
Date:
PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat of the Month: Moishe, the Google Intern with a Sweet Tooth
Just a few months ago we introduced our new Little Purrrson Jim II that we got as a "toy" for intellectual
Google the Cat, to cheer him up after he lost his friend Jim I... Jim II, the fluffy goofball, grew up in no time and in his turn,
requested entertainment, since Google bored him with his technical lectures... So
we got a toy for Jim-the-toy... and he turned out to be - another
mini-Google!
Moishe is very busy young individual, spending his day solving math
equations and discovering laws of physics... Google appreciates the new generation's input. Jim II is simply glued to the little guy. He follows Moishe everywhere, including boring seminars by Google. Jim loves his new little brother with all his heart!
Moishe's favorite things are - gravity experiments, reading scientific manuscripts, and eating JAM for breakfast! No toast required.
TopTropicals PeopleCat Club and Zoo
Thank you for supporting us in helping PeopleCat Community!
Make
your kind donation today and receive a surprise gift from us! Every little
bit helps. Thank you and God bless you and your pets!
In the photo: Moishe the Scientist and Jim the Hopeless Romantic
