Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Why cucumbers grow on a tree? Because they are candles!

Why cucumbers grow on a tree? Because they are "candles"! 🕯

🕯 This bizarre tree is a conversation piece and every plant collector should have one!
🕯 Parmentiera edulis - Candle Tree, or Guahalote - is a highly ornamental tree with interesting leaves, pretty cream flowers and...ready?
🕯One foot long fruits resembling a greenish-yellow cucumbers or candles that hang off the tree!
🕯Juicy fruit is edible and has a sweet flavor similar to sugar cane. Eaten raw or cooked; used to make pickles or preserves
🕯The fruit is a remedy for colds; roots used as a diuretic.
🕯Easy to grow and not fussy about conditions. Cold tolerant to light frost.

Parmentiera edulis - Candle Tree, Guahalote

Parmentiera edulis - Candle Tree, Guahalote fruit

Parmentiera edulis - Candle Tree, Guahalote flower

Why cucumbers grow on a tree? Because they are "candles"! 🕯

🕯 This bizarre tree is a conversation piece and every plant collector should have one!
🕯 Parmentiera edulis - Candle Tree, or Guahalote - is a highly ornamental tree with interesting leaves, pretty cream flowers and...ready?
🕯One foot long fruits resembling a greenish-yellow cucumbers or candles that hang off the tree!
🕯Juicy fruit is edible and has a sweet flavor similar to sugar cane. Eaten raw or cooked; used to make pickles or preserves
🕯The fruit is a remedy for colds; roots used as a diuretic.
🕯Easy to grow and not fussy about conditions. Cold tolerant to light frost.

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) fruit

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) trees in pots

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) tree

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) compot

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica) fruit

What tropical fruit tree is cold hardy and easy to grow? It's Golden Loquat – the Symbol of Prosperity, and it tastes like apricots!

🍑 Loquat tree (Eriobotrya japonica) is fast-growing, drought-tolerant, cold-tolerant, compact tropical fruit tree.
🍑 Heavy producer. Fruits are juicy, aromatic, and resemble apricots. Ripen from early Spring to early Summer.
🍑 Ideal for small gardens, beginner fruit tree growers.
🍑 High in sugar, acids, vitamins B and C, minerals, and pectin.
🍑 Eaten fresh, used in fruit salads, jams, jellies, chutneys, pies, tarts, and wine

🍑 Grown in Japan for over 1,000 years. In China, represents gold and wealth, often included in auspicious displays or offerings for prosperity💰

🐲 What does a dragon taste like? Does Dragon Fruit come from a monster cactus? Learn why you need to grow your own. 🌵

🔴 You may have tried a Dragon fruit from the store l, but do you know how it grows? On a cactus tree!
🔴 Names: varieties of Hylocereus and Selenicereus - these fruit bearing cactus plants are also called Dragon Fruit or Pitaya.
🔴 Commercially grown fruit sold in a grocery store may be tasteless. You need to grow your own good variety to have tasty, sweet, flavorful fruit!
🔴 Dragon fruit comes in many varieties. Colors of flesh differ: white, pink, dark red and even purple. The outside of the fruit can be red/pink or yellow.
🔴 In commercial groves, Pitayas grow like cactus trees, over a strong support - big "umbrella frames" ☂️
🔴 It is an easy plant, with low water needs, takes both sun and semi-shade.
🔴 Our favorite variety is Yellow Dragon Fruit Palora, (Selenicereus megalanthus). It is the sweetest and has the most flavor of all. We shared some recipes earlier.
🔴 Can be grown in container with a wooden trellis. And the flower is beautiful, too!