Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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What does Dragon Fruit Flower look like? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

What does Dragon Fruit Flower look like?

Dragon fruit flowers

🐲 What does Dragon Fruit Flower look like?
  • Dragon fruit flowers are large, bright, and truly eye-catching. They have long, pale petals that spread out like a star, with a creamy white or yellowish center.
  • The flowers open at night, giving them a magical, moonlit vibe, and their size makes them look almost otherworldly.
  • When they bloom, they can be up to a foot wide, and they give off a sweet, subtle fragrance. It's like seeing a flower from a fairy tale!


📚 More about Dragon Fruit from previous posts:

🛒 Plant a Dragon fruit

#Food_Forest #Hedges_with_benefits #Dragon_Fruit

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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

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Top 10 fruit you'll ever need for your health benefits: A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Top 10 fruit youll ever need for your health benefits:

Dragon fruit

Dragon fruit

😼 Top 10 fruit you'll ever need for your health benefits:
#6 Dragon fruit 🐲🌵
  • 🟡Dragon fruit is often used in smoothies, fruit salads, and refreshing drinks.
  • 🟡It is high in fiber, aiding digestion and promoting gut health.
  • 🟡Low in calories and packed with nutrients, it's great for weight management.


📚 More about Dragon fruit from previous posts:

🛒 Plant a Dragon Fruit Cactus Vine

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Dragon_Fruit

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Do red, white and yellow Dragon fruit taste differently? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Do red, white and yellow Dragon fruit taste differently?

White Dragon Fruit

White Dragon Fruit

Red Dragon Fruit

Red Dragon Fruit

Yellow Dragon Fruit

Yellow Dragon Fruit

⚡️Do red, white and yellow Dragon fruit taste differently?

🐉 White Dragon Fruit is not as common as the red variety and has a slightly sweeter taste. The sweetest one, however, is the yellow variety.

#Fun_Facts #Food_Forest #Dragon_Fruit

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What is Mickey Mouse Plant? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

What is Mickey Mouse Plant?

Ochna integerrima - Vietnamese Mickey Mouse plant, Hoa Mai

Ochna integerrima - Vietnamese Mickey Mouse plant, Hoa Mai

⚡️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? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

What is the best flowering shrub for a shady spot?

Aphelandra hartwegiana - Yellow Aphelandra

Aphelandra hartwegiana - Yellow Aphelandra

Aphelandra squarrosa - White Zebra Plant

Aphelandra squarrosa - White Zebra Plant

Aphelandra sinclairiana - Panama Queen

Aphelandra sinclairiana - Panama Queen

Aphelandra x panamensis - Scarlet Candle

Aphelandra x panamensis - Scarlet Candle

💐 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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How to French Kiss the Red Button Ginger. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

How to French Kiss the Red Button Ginger

Costus spicatus x woodsonii - Red Button Ginger, French Kiss

Costus spicatus x woodsonii - Red Button Ginger, French Kiss

Costus spicatus x woodsonii - Red Button Ginger, French Kiss

Costus spicatus x woodsonii - Red Button Ginger, French Kiss

⚡️ #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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What Tree Calliandra brings into your garden? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

What Tree Calliandra brings into your garden?

Calliandra houstoniana - Tree Calliandra

Calliandra houstoniana - Tree Calliandra

Calliandra houstoniana - Tree Calliandra, flower

Calliandra houstoniana - Tree Calliandra, flower

⚡️ #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. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

What vine to plant over a big fence

Chonemorpha fragrans - Frangipani vine

❗️ 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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Why is it called Passion flower and Passion fruit? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Why is it called Passion flower and Passion fruit?

Passion flower - Passiflora

Passion flower - Passiflora

Passion fruit - Passiflora

Passion fruit - Passiflora

Passion fruit - Passiflora

Passion fruit - Passiflora

☸️ The truth about Passion flower and Passion fruit.
  • Passion vines, passion flowers, and passion fruits - these are all Passiflora - fascinating plants with a rich history. These vines come from tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas.
  • Medicinal: Various parts of the passion vine have been used in traditional medicine to treat ailments such as anxiety, insomnia, and hypertension.
  • Host for Butterflies: Passion vines serve as host plants for several butterfly species.
  • Passion of Christ: the passion flower's complex structure with five sepals, five petals often used to symbolize the Passion of Christ in Christian tradition. Spanish Christian missionaries in South America saw the flower's structure as a representation of Christ's crucifixion, which led to the name Passion Flower.
  • Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis) - Maracuya - is highly nutritious, rich in vitamins A and C, fiber, and antioxidants.
  • Delicious pulp: the fruit is popular in many cuisines around the world, used in beverages, desserts.
  • Two main types of passion fruit: the purple sweeter variety (Passiflora edulis) and the yellow variety larger and more acidic (Passiflora x flavicarpa).
  • Fast growing vine in no time: known for their rapid growth, Passifloras need strong support as they can quickly cover large areas.


📚 Learn more: The Passion Fruit – Juicy Maracuya

🛒 Shop Passiflora plants

#Food_Forest #Hedges_with_benefits

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