Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Why Dutchman's Pipe is the best butterfly attracting vine? Smell it!

Without any doubt, Aristolochia, or Dutchman's Pipe, is one of the best butterfly plants.

• 🍃 Aristolochia trilobata - Birthwort Dutchman's Pipe is celebrated for its unique and intricate flowers that resemble Dutch smoking pipes, hence its name.
• 🍃Dutchman's Pipe flowers emit a scent mimicking decaying matter, which certain butterfly species, like the Pipevine Swallowtail, find irresistible 💩🙄
• 🍃The butterflies lay their eggs on the plant, as it serves as a suitable host for their larvae, contributing to the plant's ecological significance by promoting pollination and biodiversity.
• 🍃 As a result, it not only beautifies gardens but also supports local butterfly populations, enriching the ecosystem.
• 🍃 Beyond its distinctive appearance, it's valued for its historical use in traditional medicine, particularly for its alleged healing properties.

🛒 Bring butterflies to your garden!

#Butterfly_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits #Fun_Facts

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📖 Fun Fact: Bleeding Heart Vine (Clerodendrum thomsoniae) is named for its unique red and white flowers that resemble... bleeding hearts! 😍

• ❣️Native to tropical West Africa
• ❣️ Spectacular, dramatic flowers look like a line of dangling hearts, each emerging from the other.
• ❣️ It's a climbing vine often grown as a houseplant or in gardens with a trellis for support.
• ❣️Winder heavy bloomer, but as long as you provide lots of light to it, it'll bloom most of the time.

🛒Get your own Bleeding Heart

#Fun_Facts #Hedges_with_benefits

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🗂 Index of TopTropicals Telegram Channel

Follow these tags to find your interests:

#Butterfly_Plants - Butterfly attracting plants.

#Container_Garden - Plants suitable for container garden and indoor culture.

#Fertilizers - All the truth about fertilizers, plant food supplements, and our recommendations for different types of plants.

#Food_Forest - Fruit trees, Spice plants, and Edibles.
Including: #Avocado, #Mango, #Papaya, #Guava, #Jackfruit, #Loquat

📖 #Fun_Facts - interesting plant facts and legends.

🌳 #Hedges_with_benefits - Practical approach to your landscape and how to properly select showy and useful plants for your yard.

♍️ #Horoscope - Plant Horoscopes and Cat Horoscopes. Did you know that cats also have their Zodiac signs?

🛠 #How_to - Q&A about growing plants, tropical garden lifehacks.

👀 #Nature_Wonders - Unusual, amusing, outrageous, bizarre plants...

🐈 #PeopleCats - our Favorite PeopleCats (and some PeopleDogs, too).

🌸 #Perfume_Plants - Fragrant plants and perfume trees.

✍️ #Quotes - Interesting quotes.

#Recipes - Exotic recipes for tropical fruit and edibles.

💊 #Remedies - Medicinal plants.

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🌼 #Trees - Spectacular flowering tropical trees.

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What is the bluest flower of the Tropics?

Eranthemum pulchellum - Blue Sage, or Lead Flower is brightest gentian blue - very unusual color in the tropics!

• 💙 Winter heavy bloomer
• 💙 Attracts butterflies and bees 🐝
• 💙 Compact shrub, responds well to pruning.
• 💙 Shade lover. Will happily bloom in the shade!

🛒 Order oline

#Fun_Facts #Hedges_with_benefits #Shade_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

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We Grow Happiness

New Complete Guide to Avocado Varieties. How to choose the right type of Avocado.
How many varieties of Avocado are there in cultivation? Did you know that there are hundreds of them? You probably thought there were only 2 kinds - black and green?

You may not realize is that this basic (but practical!) classification doesn't encompass all the wonderful qualities avocados have to offer.

There are numerous hybrids in cultivation, and once you plant your first tree and taste the REAL fruit (not from the grocery store), you'll be eager to explore other varieties. It's a guarantee! While it's true that avocado fruit can vary in "butter" content, most superior varieties are equally delicious.

This Avocado Variety Guide helps to choose the right variety for you. With its interactive tool, you can sort cultivars by fruit shape and quality, cold hardiness, origin, crop season, flower type A or B, tree habit and more.

🛒 Shop Avocado Varieties

#Food_Forest #Fun_Facts #How_to

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🍓 What fruit tree will produce right away? Strawberry Tree!

• 🍒 Want a fruit tree that will produce for you right away? That's the one. Strawberry tree, or Cotton Candy - Muntingia calabura. So, why Strawberry and why Cotton Candy?
• 🍒 Pretty white flowers with 4-5 petals look exactly like flowers of a Strawberry plant - hence the name.
• 🍒 The fruit as so sweet and tasty, have no acid whatsoever - this is why it is also called Cotton Candy!
• 🍒 This is probably the most profuse and rewarding fruiting tree! From spring to fall, you will harvest 2 crops a day once the plant is established.
• 🍒 Easy to grow, fast growing tree of a medium size 20 ft tall, and graceful umbrella-like shape. Drought tolerant, once established. Requires almost no care, however, it is sensitive to freeze. But if you live outside of Tropics - it grows well and fruits non-stop in containers!

🛒 Get a Strawberry Tree

#Edible_Forest #Fun_Facts

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⚡️ #Fun_Facts

Shaving Brush Tree Pseudobombax ellipticum has fluffy, pink or white flowers resembling a shaving brush, hence its name.

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🍧 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

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❤️💰 Fruit of Money and Love

Theobroma cacao, commonly known as the Chocolate Tree or Cacao Tree, is very exciting plant and a superfood as we mentioned earlier.

• 💥 Theobroma means "food of the gods" in Greek. "Theo" means god, and "broma" means food.
• 💥 The Olmecs, Mayans, and Aztecs were among the first to cultivate cacao, using it to make a bitter beverage called xocoatl. It was often spiced with chili peppers and used in various rituals and ceremonies.
• 💥 Currency: in ancient Mesoamerican cultures, cacao beans were so valuable that they were used as a form of currency. For example, 100 beans could buy a slave or a turkey.
• 💥 The Aztecs believed that cacao had stimulating properties and used it as an aphrodisiac. Emperor Montezuma was said to consume a large amount of cacao before visiting his harem. We can't deny that chocolate's mood-enhancing properties, combined with cultural and psychological factors, contribute to its romantic allure! ❤️
• 💥 A cacao pod contains 20 to 50 beans, each surrounded by a sweet, mucilaginous pulp. The pods grow directly on the trunk and larger branches of the tree, a feature known as cauliflory.
• 💥 After harvesting, cacao beans are fermented for several days, a critical step that develops the flavor precursors needed for chocolate production.
• 💥 The Cacao tree thrives in the humid, tropical regions around the equator. It can be grown as an exciting house plant.
• 💥 Health benefits: cacao beans are rich in antioxidants, magnesium, iron, and other minerals. They also contain flavonoids, associated with heart health benefits.
• 💥 There are three main varieties of cacao beans: Criollo, Forastero, and Trinitario. Criollo is considered the highest quality but is less common due to its susceptibility to disease. Forastero is the most widely grown, known for its hardiness. Trinitario is a hybrid of the two.
• 💥 It takes about 400 cacao beans to make one pound of chocolate. The beans undergo roasting, grinding, and mixing with sugar and other ingredients to produce the final chocolate product.

📚Learn more: Plants of Love - Aphrodisiacs of the plant world

🛒 Grow your own Chocolate Tree

#Food_Forest #Fun_Facts

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