Garden Blog - Top Tropicals
Date:
PeopleCats saving us from COVID-19!
Cat owners have higher immunity for COVID-19?
In our previous newsletter, we were talking about cats fighting the coronavirus and how to help them to recover.
The research made by Sabina Olex-Condor, a Polish doctor who works in a
clinic in Madrid, showed that due to cross-immunity (cats are a known reservoir
of coronaviruses) cat owners have milder sympthoms of COVID-19! Perhaps this
is due to the fact that in a cross-reaction antibodies are produced to the
virus, and owners of cats are more protected from COVID19... Read more)
Now that quarantine has been introduced almost universally because of
coronavirus, dog owners are also in a better position - they can officially go
outside for a short while. But the benefit of dogs (and other pets) is not only
that. Scientists from the Italian city of Catanzaro found in the course of
the study, that those who have a four-legged pet, have very mild symptoms of
the COVID-19. A similar effect was observed in those in contact with cattle...
To find an explanation for this phenomenon, the researchers compared viruses.
It turned out that the disease of bulls, cows and other cattle is similar to
Chinese coronavirus by 38.4%, and the virus of dogs by 36.9%. This means
that owners of animals already have some kind of immunity. So the owners of cats
and dogs, as a rule, tolerate coronavirus easier or completely asymptomatic.
Read more...
Stay safe and healthy with your PetPeople!
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 of the day: Anders from the King's Palace
We receive many letters from customers who enjoy our Cat of the Day column, including those who want to share their cat stories with us! Today's guest in PeopleCat studio -
Cat Anders. Anders lives in Stockholm. He is a manager of a Garden
Center located in one of the King's properties - Palace Ulriksdal. He has so many beautiful flowers in
stock! Lots of orchids, camellias, and showy colorful annuals.
Anders' favorite spot is to sit by the cash register where he can closely
monitor every payment transaction. Sometimes he takes a walk around the
premises to take care of security issues and to stay on top of his inventory
control. During lunch time Anders visit Flower Cafe nearby, to make sure visitors'
dogs behave properly... Yes, dogs and cats are welcomed in!
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!
Date:
Grow Your Own Food...
Affordable for everyone!
Grow Food Not Lawns - this is the theme for our Garden party. But it's much more than that. It's a philosophy and a
state of mind. One that more and more people are adopting as the world's food
supply continues to dwindle and get more expensive...
Like all things plant and garden related, each of us can adopt this state
of mind at whatever level we're capable of and comfortable with. Many of our
customers just want to start small and see what it's all about. After all, the
world of tropical plants can be more than just beautiful, it can be
sustaining as well!
Growing your own food is more than just about price, it's also about quality, choices and availability. As you watch the choices, and quality of store bought food go down and prices continue to go up, maybe it's time to grow more of your own food?
Fun Facts
- A mature mango tree can produce 200 to 300 fruit per year
- A single avocado tree is capable of producing 500 avocados in one
year
- A mature papaya plant can produce as many as 100 fruits per
growing season
- One longevity spinach plant can provide you with a fresh supply of
healthy spinach leaves all the time!
At Top Tropicals we offer a wide selection of fruit, including mango and avocado, and even spinach to get you started and to continue down the road on your own self sustaining journey. Even better, to help you with your food project, we have not only added to our varieties, but we have reduced prices on many items to make it even more affordable and enjoyable!
Who is cutting prices in today's world?! - We are, because...
...it's important that we do what we can to make it easier for our customers!
We have Avocados starting at only $49.95 and Mangos as low as $79.95, with dozens of varieties in stock! Use our discount coupons to save even more, and if you're local or in Fort Myers, stop by our Garden Center and save even more!
Date:
The best Aquarium fish food ever - stikiStik
Everyone knows that Top Tropicals is good at unique, special novelties.
And it is not a secret that most plant people also are pet people - cat
people (with PeopleCats), dog people (with PeopleDogs) or at least fish people,
right?
Today we are excited to introduce our new revolutionary Fish Food developed
by our business partners at Floritin Aquarium Labs
Floritin stikiStikâ„¢ - Ultimate Aquarium fish food
StikiStik is a dry powder that you just mixed with water to create a sticky paste. The paste can be attached to any surface inside your aquarium.
StikiStik is a patent pending fish food that does things which conventional fish food does not. It introduces picky eaters to a more natural feeding environment, does not pollute the fish tank, is easy to mix from its powder format and provides gradual feeding. It is easy to apply to any surface in the aquarium, such as interior glass wall, rocks or coral skeleton.
stikiStik advantages
- Easy to use. Just mix with a few drops of water and stik it in!
Self adhesive paste can be applied to any surface. Stays intact for hours in
aquarium. Does not pollute water
- Scientifically designed and proven for all types of aquarium fish,
invertebrates, and corals
- Optimal and balanced nutrition. Contains vitamins and amino
acids
- Natural. No hormones, no artificial colors
- Stimulates fish appetite and enhances fish color
- Promotes natural feeding habits. Helps training hard to feed fish.
The perfect food to acclimate newly introduced fish, including Moorish Idol,
finicky butterfly fish, such as Copperband Butterfly, Pearscale
Butterfly, Mandarinfish, and many oithers
- Easy to store. Can be used immediately or frozen for future use
- Add any frozen fish food or medications to mix
See element contents / instructions and more information with videos on stikiStik website
- Mr Booster -
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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...
Check out and more Cat of the Day stories.
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PeopleCats Botanical Garden Grand Opening
Guided tour with Mark Hooten
Top Tropicals Garden Center is pleased to invite you to visit our new PeopleCats Botanical Garden on the grounds of Top Tropicals in Ft
Myers. It is named in honor of the relationship with our beloved Cats, who we treat like People. You'll see our Garden PeopleCats roaming the property. As a matter of fact, they rule
the garden!
The Garden has many mature trees and plants so you can see what they look like before your purchase them in our Garden Center. And of course, our
PeopleCats will be guiding you in the Gardens!
Photo above: blue light in the forest - TopTropicals Garden Ghost, the spirit is always watching!
Date:
Healthy Plants: Q&A from Mr Booster
Meet our new Booster Guy
Plants need food too! Our line of Complete Plant Nutrition system - Sunshine Boosters - will give your plants exactly what they need, and nothing they don't! The boosters are easy to use, and -
ON SALE NOW with FREE shipping
- as a part of our 4th of July specials!
We have a new team member to help you learn more about Sunshine Boosters and how they can make your plants grow healthy and
fast.
Meet
Ed Jones - our new Booster Guy! Ed will be your contact for all Sunshine
Boosters questions, he will help you with fertilizer product selection and
ordering.
Soon we will introduce some new fun stuff... including: new advanced formulas, and cool electronics for ultimate control of your plant collections, gardens, greenhouses, and groves... Stay connected!
MORE ABOUT ED >>
Meet Ed's serious Booster People: Roxy and Delilah
Date:
Healthy Plant Food
Q&A from Mr Booster
Plant food for a Star Fruit
Q: I have 2 Starfruit plants from you. One on the left is B10 has a lot of flowers but no fruit is developing. On the rite is Kenjeng. This one has no flowers at all. Both plants are growing very well. Plenty of sun and water. I am located in Boynton Beach Florida. So what to do?
A: Your trees on the pictures look very healthy, congratulations
with a great care!
Starfruit, as well as other grafted fruit trees (like mango, avocado, etc)
usually flower/fruit easily and readily while in pots in the nursery.
Sometimes, once planted in the ground, they may reduce flowering or even stop
flowering. What happened?
The answer is simple. In pots, we fertilize them on regular basis. In our
nursery, we have fertilizer injector inline with irrigation system that dozes
plant food with EVERY watering. In other nurseries, they may also use
slow-release fertilizers, but it is still a regular routine to provide plant food to
potted plants.
In the ground, especially in Florida poor soils, fruit trees may stop
flowering or delay fruiting due to lack of nutrients, or dis-balance of elements
in the ground. Without fertilizer, a tree may take extra time to develop
bigger root system to reach out for necessary elements, and eventually will start
fruiting anyway.
But we want it to fruit soon! The only way to fix the problem is to provide
fertilizer on regular basis for a young tree. It is especially important
during hot summer months when plant metabolism is fast due to high temperatures,
plus nutrients may get washed away with frequent summer rains (like we have
in Florida) even if you've added some fertilizer at time of planting.
You can use smart release fertilizer once a month during hot season,
this one or similar:
Mango-Food - Smart Release Fruit Tree Booster.
But the most effective way to get a tropical tree to flowering and
fruiting, is frequent applications of liquid fertilizer. We use Sunshine Boosters
with every watering on our plants. They work great even on hard cases and
weak plants, and you see the difference in a matter of weeks, sometimes even
days.
We recommend the following fertilizer that contains all necessary elements
for young fruit trees:
SUNSHINE C-Cibus - Crop Nutrition Booster
SUNSHINE C-Cibus - Crop Nutrition Booster from Garden Series, or Combo Total Feed Collection - all nutrients in just one bottle, for fruit trees and edibles.
Date:
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:
How to get rid of bad luck:
The story of the Garlic Vine
by Alex Butova, the Witch of Herbs and Cats
Are you a vampire? If not, then this is your Plant! Mansoa alliacea, or Garlic Vine, is a truly amazing plant. There are
two special features that make it so unique...
...First, the flowers start off deep lavender with white throat and change
to a lighter shade of lavender with age. Eventually fading to almost white,
and you will see three different color of flowers at the same time on the
plant. It's fantastic!...
...Secondly, the small of the leaves makes it a conversation piece: crushed
leaves smell like garlic...
...The plant is said to help get rid of bad luck and is a favorite with
hunters. Some Amazon natives offer their dogs a brew of this botanical to ensure
success during the hunt. Up until now, most consider the plant to be magical
or spiritual and they hang bunches of the leaves around their home for good
luck or in order to drive away evil spirits...
