Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 3 Sep 2024 Top Tropicals Telegram channel & chat

How to have the Blue Sky in just one season and forever

Thunbergia laurifolia - Blue Sky vine, Blue Trumpet Vine, Scrambling sky flower

💙 How to have the Blue Sky in just one season and forever

🔵 Thunbergia laurifolia - Blue Sky vine, Blue Trumpet Vine, Scrambling sky flower - is a super-fast growing climber that will cover your fence in just one season.
🔵 Scrambling sky flower is the most striking blue flowered vine in the world, with a robust and twining habit producing long hanging clusters of 3" sky blue funnel shaped flowers from fall through spring, displayed throughout it's dense deep green foliage.
🔵 White flowering variety is Thunbergia grandiflora Alba.

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#Hedges_with_benefits

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Date: 2 Sep 2024 Top Tropicals Telegram channel & chat

Top 10 fast-fruiting trees:

Papaya (Carica papaya)

🍊 Top 10 fast-fruiting trees:
#6. Papaya (Carica papaya)

Papaya is probably the fastest fruiting tree that can start production the same year from planting a seed. Many dwarf varieties available in selection, reaching only 6-8 ft tall, but producing large crops of full size fruit - they are easy to harvest. Plant 2-3 Papaya trees of different cultivars that fruit at different times of the year and enjoy heavy crops of healthy fruit year around! Another benefit - this tree doesn't take much space in the garden, you can plant as many as you want.

📚 Learn more from previous post:

🛒 Shop Papaya varieties

#Food_Forest

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Date: 2 Sep 2024 Top Tropicals Telegram channel & chat

Fun Fact: what Bougainvillea is thornless and grows as a tree

Bougainvillea arborea

😳 Fun Fact: what Bougainvillea is thornless and grows as a tree

💜 Bougainvillea arborea is a rare gem with fragrant lavender-pink blooms and no thorns! Its slow, compact growth naturally forms a charming tree shape, and best of all, it doesn’t need pruning—perfect for low-maintenance gardens.
#Fun_Facts #Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits

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#Fun_Facts #Trees

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Date: 1 Sep 2024 Top Tropicals Telegram channel & chat

How I spent my weekend

🐈 How I spent my weekend

"Here is a video how I spent my weekend"
"But this is a... photo?"
"This is a video"

😂 Hope your weekend was fun!

Share your cats in comments!
📸 🐈🐈🐈👇

🐾 More #PeopleCats in our Garden:
PeopleCats.Garden

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Edible Landscape

Four must-have herbal edibles for your instant Food Forest

Q: What attractive and useful edibles or herbs can I grow in my yard landscape without needing dedicated garden beds?

A: When we think of an "herb garden," parsley and chives often come to mind -plants that aren't particularly showy and typically require a dedicated vegetable garden, space, and regular maintenance. However, creating a food forest in your yard doesn't have to be a complex project. Useful edibles and medicinal herbs can also be exotic and beautiful, enhancing the charm of your landscape. Here are some examples of unusual tropical edibles that are not only stunning ornamentals but also bring delicious goodness to your kitchen.

1. For drinks: Jamaica Tea flower - Karkade Hibiscus

Hibiscus sabdariffa - Flor de Jamaica, Karkade Sorrel, Roselle, or Jamaica Tea flower (Karkade Tea) - yes, many hibiscus species are edible!
- Flowers of Roselle hibiscus are used to make a tea "Agua de Flor de Jamaica". To be exact, those are flower bracts around flowers and seed pods.
- Medical studies show that it lowers blood pressure and has diuretic effects.
- The pleasant flavor is similar to a cranberry juice and it's so good, you may not even want to add any sugar. We make this cold tea every day - perfect for hot summer.
- Karkade Hibiscus grows into a large bush within just one season from seed! Lots of flowers to harvest will last you the whole winter. It can be treated as annual in cooler areas due to its fast growth and same-year harvest. Thrives in full sun.
- Short video: &feature=youtu.be">how to make hibiscus tea

Shop Flor de Jamaica

2. For medicine: Aztec Sweetleaf - Lippia

Lippia dulcis - Aztec Sweet Herb, Sweetleaf is a wonderful fragrant groundcover.
- Fragrant Mexican herb with incredibly sweet and aromatic leaves.
- The fresh leaves can be eaten from the plant like candy or tossed into fruit salads for an unusual addition, or used for making a healing tea.
- It has been used since the time of the Aztecs for coughs and colds.
- The sweetness tastes great, and can be used by diabetic patients. We add this herb to Karkade or Mint tea as a sweetener, instead of sugar or honey.
- Grows like a ground cover, in shade or semi-shade, great perennial container plant.

Shop Sweetleaf

3. For salads and stews: Longevity Spinach, or Cholesterol spinach

Gynura procubens - Longevity Spinach, or Cholesterol spinach is a perennial spinach, and once you plant it, you have it for many years, and can grow many more easily from cuttings!
- Longevity Spinach is one of the Superfoods, and there are many claims that it lowers cholesterol.
- We use Longevity Spinach in our cooking all the time and so far we are all alive, so it works! :)
- Longevity spinach can be eaten raw in salads or cooked wherever you would use a regular spinach.
- Grows as a large spreading herbal bush, in full sun. - See some recipes with more pictures

Shop Longevity Spinach

4. For meat wraps: Vietnamese Pepper or Wild Betel Leaf

Piper sarmentosum - Vietnamese Pepper, Lalot, Wild Betel Leaf, Chaa-plu adds wonderful peppery flavor to meats and is great for wrapping meats and cooking in the oven, on a stove or grill. We use it all the time, wrapping ground beef of turkey and putting wraps on a grill or on a frying pan, very easy!
- Vietnamese Pepper leaves are eaten raw in salads or cooked with other greens or dishes.
- The leaves are used as food wraps in Vietnam. It is used medicinally in India and SE Asia.
- It is also chewed with Betel Nut as a tonic and medicine, very similar to Betel Leaf (Piper Betel) which is very popular tonic in Indian culture.
- Vietnamese Pepper grows as a vining herbaceous shrub or ground cover, in both sun or shade, and spreads with runners so you can have plenty if you want to have more. Can be grown in container and indoors, too. - Check out recipes of meat wraps for grilling

Shop Wild Betel Leaf

Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

How to have the Blue Sky in just one season and forever

Top 10 fast-fruiting trees:

Fun Fact: what Bougainvillea is thornless and grows as a tree

How I spent my weekend

When you are in the mood for something special - you need a Loquat Liquor

Top 10 fast-fruiting trees:

Fun Fact: Lemon-Scented Climbing Ylang-Ylang

When you love your Teddy Bear so much

Top 10 fast-fruiting trees:

Edible Landscape

Four must-have herbal edibles for your instant Food Forest