Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

💋 What is lipstick made of? Lipstick plant!

• 💄Bixa orellana - Lipstick Tree, Annatto or Achiote - is a bushy shrub or a small tree South America with large, impressive leaves, charming pink flowers and amazing... seeds! It is used in various industries, including cosmetics and culinary arts.
• 💄Natural Pigment: The seeds of the Bixa plant contain a natural pigment called annatto, which ranges in color from yellow to deep orange-red.
• 💄Cosmetic Use: Annatto is commonly used in cosmetics, including lipstick, due to its vibrant coloration. It adds shades of red and orange to cosmetic products. Extract derived from the Bixa seeds is mixed with other ingredients to achieve desired shades. It provides a natural alternative to synthetic dyes.
• 💄Famous spice Annatto is widely used as a spice in cooking, particularly in Latin American, Caribbean, and Filipino cuisines.
• 💄Flavor and color: It imparts a mild, slightly peppery flavor and is prized for its ability to add a rich, yellow-orange color to dishes such as rice, stews, and sauces.
• 💄Health benefits: Beyond its culinary use, annatto seeds have medicinal properties, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
• 💄Flower arrangements: The dried seed pods add a unique touch to flower arrangements, enhancing their visual appeal.
• 💄Hedge or screen: Ideal for use as a hedge or screen, Bixa requires frequent pruning to encourage bushy growth at the base.

🛒 Grow your own Annatto

#Hedges_with_benefits #Food_Forest

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☕️ What is Nescafe Coffee made from? Purple Jade.

💜 Earlier we mentioned Green Jade Vine and Yellow Jade Vine. This one is purple!

• Mucuna pruriens - Nescafe, Purple Jade Vine has unusual royal purple flowers. The dark violet blooms appear closely pushed together in grape like clusters, up to 1 ft long and 6" in diameter.
• The seeds known as mucuna beans or Nescafe and used as a coffee substitute.
• It has been used for generations in India as a medicinal plant.
• Very vigorous woody tree creeper - during warmer weather this vine can grow 2 feet a day!
• Related to red Jade vine (Mucuna bennettii).

🛒 Order Nescafe Vine

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Hedges_with_benefits

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Use your yard instead of being used by your yard!

Tired of mowing a boring lawn? Get some colors in your yard and grow edible landscape!

Select useful, functional plants:
🌺 Spectacular Eye Candies

• 👉#Nature_Wonders

🌳 Hedges with Benefits

• 👉#Hedges_with_benefits

Butterfly Attractors

• 👉#Butterfly_Plants

🍒 Food Forest
👉#Food_Forest

Pick the right plants with TopTropicals free expert help.
At TopTropicals, we have 25 years experience growing rare tropical fruit trees and flowering plants.

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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.

☁️ #Shade_Garden - Plants suitable for low light conditions.

🌼 #Trees - Spectacular flowering tropical trees.

🏆 #Win - Contests, Sweepstakes, and other specials.

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⚡️What is Mickey Mouse Plant?

🐭 Ochna integerrima - Vietnamese Mickey Mouse plant, Hoa Mai.

• ⭕️ Its seeds and sepals resemble the face of Mickey Mouse, hence the common name.
• ⭕️ Hoa Mai, also known as Yellow Mai Flower, is the quintessential symbol of Spring in Vietnam, especially during the Tet celebration.
• ⭕️ "Hoa Mai" translates to "yellow blossoms," highlighting the bright yellow flowers that bloom during Tet.
• ⭕️ Ochna integerrima is a medium-sized shrub that can be trained into a miniature tree, making it a prized plant for exotic collections.
• ⭕️ In winter, it is covered with bright yellow flowers, which are believed to bring good luck and prosperity during the Tet celebration.

🛒 Get your own Mickey Mouse Plant

#Hedges_with_benefits #Nature_Wonders
#Fun_Facts

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💐 What is the best flowering shrub for a shady spot?

• 🚩 Aphelandra is hands down one of the best solutions for a shade garden where you want to see more colors. It is a great addition to a collectible tropical butterfly garden, can grow into 4-5" tall bushy specimen. Tolerates both sun and shade.
• 🚩Aphelandras have beautiful lush foliage and showy, long terminal inflorescences throughout the warm season.
• 🚩These flowers are loved by hummingbirds.
• 🚩Aphelandra hartwegiana - Yellow Aphelandra. Yellow flowers emerge out of long orange stalks in the fall time. Pretty and unusual!
• 🚩Aphelandra squarrosa Dania (Snow White) - White Zebra Plant. It is also one of the best house plants, not only pretty because of its white-veined "Zebra" foliage, but also for the apical inflorescence with its beautiful yellow bracts.
• 🚩Aphelandra sinclairiana - Panama Queen, has extremely tropical look and fragrant flowers of unusual color combination: orange and pink.
• 🚩Aphelandra x panamensis - Scarlet Candle - a rare hybrid with bright red flowers

📚 Learn more from previous posts:
Panama Queen
How to grow Zebra in container?

🛒 Shop Aphelandras

#Butterfly_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits #Shade_Garden

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⚡️ #Fun_Facts:How to French Kiss the Red Button Ginger

💋 Costus spicatus x woodsonii (Red Button Ginger, French Kiss): this ginger's inflorescence resembles a cluster of bright red buttons, making it a standout in tropical gardens.

🛒 Order French Kiss

#Hedges_with_benefits

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⚡️ #Fun_Facts: Tree Calliandra

🎉 Calliandra houstoniana - Tree Calliandra - is the only tree form of Powderpuff. It quickly grows into a bushy beautiful tree in just one season, and fluffy pink flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies year around

🛒 Order

#Trees #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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❗️ What vine to plant over a big fence.

• 🔹 Chonemorpha fragrans, or Frangipani vine, that we mentioned before, is a large woody tropical liana with clusters of large, perfume-fragrant flowers and lush green foliage. It is close related to perfumed Plumeria - Frangipani.
• 🔹 The fragrance is very fresh and pleasant, similar to Plumeria, fills the air around.
• 🔹 Leaves reaching up to 12 (!) inches - very tropical, majestic look!
• 🔹 Requires sturdy support - it can grow pretty big and heavy!
• 🔹 Takes both sun or shade. Full sun and regular fertilizer is essential for profuse blooming.

🛒 Buy Frangipani Vine

#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits

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