Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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What does a dragon taste like? Does Dragon Fruit come from a monster cactus? Learn why you need to grow your own. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

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

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


📚 Learn more about Dragon Fruit
🍹 Recipe: What to do with a Dragon fruit?

🛒Grow your own Tasty Dragon Fruits

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Nature_Wonders #Dragon_Fruit

🏵 TopTropicals

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Horny plant hanging in the air. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Horny plant hanging in the air

Staghorn fern (Platycerium)

Staghorn fern (Platycerium)

Staghorn fern (Platycerium)

Staghorn fern (Platycerium)

Staghorn fern (Platycerium)

Staghorn fern (Platycerium)

Staghorn fern (Platycerium)

Horny plant hanging in the air...
  • 👀 Staghorn fern (Platycerium) is one of those #Nature_Wonders... Everyone who sees it, wants to have one!
  • 👀 Showy, tropical looking epiphyte that can be grown on a tree or in a large hanging basket.
  • 👀 It is able to grow high in the trees of the rainforest, often grows in large masses.
  • 👀 Long, pendulous, much bifurcated fertile fronds produce spores on special cup-shaped appendages. Basal fronds form a crown-shaped basket.


🛒 Order online - we have a few X-large plants

#Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden #Container_Garden

🏵 TopTropicals

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Who thinks this is an Eggplant? Do you? What is it? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Who thinks this is an Eggplant? Do you? What is it?

🍆 Who thinks this is an Eggplant? Do you? What is it?

Correct answer: Avocado Red Russel.

🛒 Shop Avocado Varieties

📸 😺 👇 Share your cats in comments!

#Food_Forest #PeopleCats #Nature_Wonders

🏵 TopTropicals

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What to plant by the mailbox? Mailbox plant! Ideal plant for the Brown Thumbs. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

What to plant by the mailbox? Mailbox plant! Ideal plant for the Brown Thumbs

Kalanchoe - Mother of Thousands, Mailbox plant

Kalanchoe - Mother of Thousands, Mailbox plant

Kalanchoe - Mother of Thousands, Mailbox plant

Kalanchoe - Mother of Thousands, Mailbox plant

📬 What to plant by the mailbox? Mailbox plant! Ideal plant for the Brown Thumbs 👍🏾
  • 🚩 Kalanchoe plants are often called Mother of Thousands or the Mailbox plant - and guess why?
  • 🚩 Kalanchoe is the most convenient plant that will grow even by your mailbox! It requires no care, tolerates almost any conditions.
  • 🚩 Very fast growing, drought tolerant small perennial.
  • 🚩 The young plantlets which grow along the leaf edges are easily dislodged to become new plants and can be found in profusion around the base of the adult plant. Hence the name: Mother of Thousands. You will have as many of these tough cookies as you want!
  • 🚩 Perfect houseplant.
  • 🚩 Spectacular bloomer.


🛒 Shop kalanchoe varieties

#Nature_Wonders

🏵 TopTropicals

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How to get big shade tree in one season with an ice cream on it? It's real! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

How to get big shade tree in one season with an ice cream on it? Its real!

Ice Cream Bean Inga

Ice Cream Bean Inga

Ice Cream Bean Inga

Ice Cream Bean Inga

Ice Cream Bean Inga fruit

Ice Cream Bean Inga fruit

Ice Cream Bean Inga tree

Ice Cream Bean Inga tree

🍧 How to get big shade tree in one season with an ice cream on it? It's real!
  • 🍦 Ice Cream Bean Inga is the ultimate fast-growing, shade-providing fruit tree with an irresistible twist! It not only transforms your yard into a cool, inviting oasis in record time but also produces fruit that kids (and adults!) can't get enough of!
  • 🍦 Picture this: pods up to a foot long, bursting with sweet, creamy pulp that tastes exactly like ice cream!
  • 🍦 Craving instant shade? Perfect for those sunny spots where you need shade, the Ice Cream Bean Inga rapidly unfurls its lush, umbrella-like canopy, creating a natural, leafy retreat in just one season!
  • 🍦 With its delectable treats and speedy growth, this extraordinary tree is sure to be the highlight of your garden - where shade and sweetness meet!


🛒 Get shade with ice cream benefit

#Food_Forest #Fun_Facts #Nature_Wonders #How_to

🏵 TopTropicals

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Why cannon balls grow on a tree with mollusk open mouth. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Why cannon balls grow on a tree with mollusk open mouth

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree with fruit

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree with fruit

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree flower

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree flower

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree fruit

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree fruit

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree flower

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree flower

🔮 Why cannon balls grow on a tree with mollusk open mouth.
  • 🐙 Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree - is a rare tree from South America with a bizarre fruit and flowers, that can be seen only in tropical botanic gardens.
  • 🐙 It is a very tall tree with large, elliptical leaves
  • 🐙 The pinkish-red flowers, strongly scented at night, grow directly from the trunk near the base of the crown, and not on the branches. They look like exotic mollusks! They have a complex structure with numerous stamens that resemble sea anemones or other marine life. The flower is often described as looking like an open mouth or a sea creature.
  • 🐙 The tree blooms year round. Flowers are followed by large, globular fruit, up to 8 inches in diameter, resembling cannonballs, hence the name "Cannonball Tree." They remain on the tree for many months. On older trees there may be dozens of fruits and flower clusters at the same time!
  • 🐙 When the ripe fruits fall from the tree, they can make a loud, cannonball-like noise upon hitting the ground due to their size and weight.


🛒 Shop rare plants

#Fun_Facts #Trees #Nature_Wonders

🏵 TopTropicals

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More pictures of the Cannonball Tree for the previous post. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

More pictures of the Cannonball Tree for the previous post

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree fruit

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree fruit

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree flowers

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree flowers

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree flower

Couroupita guianensis - Cannonball Tree flower

More pictures of the Cannonball Tree for the previous post 👆

#Fun_Facts #Trees #Nature_Wonders

🏵 TopTropicals

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Would you like a Bat Head? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Would you like a Bat Head?

Bat Head Lily, Bat Flower, Devil Flower or Tacca Lily

Would you like a Bat Head?

The Bat Head Lily we mentioned earlier - is blooming again!

🙈 Bat Head Lily, Bat Flower, Devil Flower or Tacca Lily - is one of the most exotic and bizarre flowers along with Amorphophallus, Sausage Tree and Clitoria.

🛒 Shop Bat Head Lily Tacca

#Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden #Container_Garden

🏵 TopTropicals

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Breaking news: flower smells of freshly baked bread! It smells so good, you want to eat it! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Breaking news: flower smells of freshly baked bread! It smells so good, you want to eat it!

Vallaris glabra - Bread Flower

🍞 Breaking news: flower smells of freshly baked bread! It smells so good, you want to eat it!
  • 🍔 Vallaris glabra - Bread Flower - is one of the most impressive tropical vines that is very popular in Thailand and other South-East Asia countries.
  • 🍔 Moderate growth woody climber with clusters of freshly-baked-bread fragrant white flowers.
  • 🍔 Easy to care and tolerates wide range of conditions. It can be trained as a compact bush and is good for container culture.
  • 🍔 Attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.
  • 🍔 Relatively cold hardy, mild frost doesn't do any damage to it, even large tropical leaves stay glossy, green and healthy.
  • 🍔 It is very vigorous grower that can create nice privacy hedge or cover a large fence.


❓ Have you smelled the Bread Flower? Did you like the fragrance? Share in comments👇

🛒 Shop tropical vines

#Hedges_with_benefits #Nature_Wonders #Butterfly_Plants

🏵 TopTropicals

Date:

Hamburger Bean: A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Hamburger Bean:

Mucuna sloanei - Yellow Jade Vine or Hamburger Bean

Mucuna sloanei - Yellow Jade Vine or Hamburger Bean seeds

Mucuna sloanei - Yellow Jade Vine or Hamburger Bean seeds

Mucuna sloanei - Yellow Jade Vine or Hamburger Bean flower

Mucuna sloanei - Yellow Jade Vine or Hamburger Bean flower

🍔 Hamburger Bean: how to cover a fence fast with an exotic vine: Jade Vine here.
  • 🟡 Mucuna sloanei - Yellow Jade Vine or Hamburger Bean. You saw the Sea-Green Jade vine in our earlier post. This one is lemon yellow.
  • 🟡 It is much more hardier than the Sea-Green variety and is super fast growing!
  • 🟡 This is a high-climbing woody vine native to rain forests of South America.
  • 🟡 It has long, rope-like stalks hanging below the forest canopy where night-flying bats can easily access the fragrant blossoms.
  • 🟡 The name Brown Hamburger Bean is because of the beautiful seeds (looking like little hamburgers) that are often collected and polished by natives and made into lovely necklaces and bracelets.


🛒 Shop Jade Vines

#Nature_Wonders #Hedges_with_benefits

🏵 TopTropicals
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