Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

🌱 Chaya's health benefits: a must-have tropical leafy vegetable for sustainable gardening

• 
  🌿 What is Chaya?

· Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius) is a little-known, nutrient-packed leafy green.

• · It is a small perennial tree or shrub, native to the Yucatan Peninsula.
• · Also known as Maya Spinach, Kikilchay, or Chaykeken.
• · Younger leaves and stems are used like spinach: cooked and served with oil or butter.

• 🌿 Health Benefits:

· Rich in protein, calcium, iron, and vitamins A & C.

• · Aids digestion, improves circulation, and supports lactation.
• · Used in folk medicine for diabetes, high blood pressure, and anemia.

• 🌿 Important Tip:

· Always cook the leaves (boil for 10-15 minutes) to neutralize toxins and make them safe to eat.

• 
  🌿 Growing Chaya:

· Fast-growing perennial, thriving in full sun to partial shade.

• · Perfect for food forests or backyard gardens.
• · Propagate easily from 6-12 inch stem cuttings and make more to eat!
• · Can grow up to 6-8 feet tall and be continuously harvested with proper care.

🌿 Garden Benefits:

• · Pretty white flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
• · Resilient to drought and thrives in various soil types. Heat and cold tolerant.

🛒 Start growing your Chaya today for a sustainable garden!

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Discover

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🌱 Chaya's health benefits: a must-have tropical leafy vegetable for sustainable gardening

• 🌿 What is Chaya?

· Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius) is a little-known, nutrient-packed leafy green.

• · It is a small perennial tree or shrub, native to the Yucatan Peninsula.
• · Also known as Maya Spinach, Kikilchay, or Chaykeken.
• · Younger leaves and stems are used like spinach: cooked and served with oil or butter.

• 🌿 Health Benefits:

· Rich in protein, calcium, iron, and vitamins A & C.

• · Aids digestion, improves circulation, and supports lactation.
• · Used in folk medicine for diabetes, high blood pressure, and anemia.

• 🌿 Important Tip:

· Always cook the leaves (boil for 10-15 minutes) to neutralize toxins and make them safe to eat.

• 🌿 Growing Chaya:

· Fast-growing perennial, thriving in full sun to partial shade.

• · Perfect for food forests or backyard gardens.
• · Propagate easily from 6-12 inch stem cuttings and make more to eat!
• · Can grow up to 6-8 feet tall and be continuously harvested with proper care.

🌿 Garden Benefits:

• · Pretty white flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds.
• · Resilient to drought and thrives in various soil types. Heat and cold tolerant.

🛒 Start growing your Chaya today for a sustainable garden!

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Discover

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

🍓 What does the Strawberry Tree look like?

• 🔴 Strawberry Tree, (Muntingia calabura) also known as Cotton Candy Fruit, is a super fast-growing tree with a beautiful, dense, umbrella-like canopy.
• 🔴 Despite the name, its fruit doesn't taste like strawberries - but rather like cotton candy! Sweet, melt-in-your-mouth flavor with no acidity, making it a favorite among both kids and adults.
• 🔴 The tree gets its name from its pretty white flowers, which resemble those of a strawberry plant.

📚 Lean more from previous posts:
What is better - Strawberry or Strawberry Tree Fruit?
Why Strawberry Tree is called Cotton Candy
What fruit tree will produce right away?

🛒 Grow Sweetness – Plant the Tree Kids Love!

#Food_Forest #Discover

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🚩 Top 3 Fastest-Growing Red-Leaf Bananas – Add Bold Color to Your Garden!

💅 Looking for instant tropical flair? These red-leaf bananas are among the fastest-growing and most eye-catching ornamentals you can grow. Perfect for pots, patios, or planting in the ground - they grow fast, look exotic, and bring bold color to your space. Best of all, they're low maintenance and cold-tolerant!

• 🔥 Banana Red Leaf, Musa x sumatrana - Stunning maroon undersides and variegated green-and-red leaves. Compact in containers (3–5 ft) or dramatic in the ground (up to 8 ft). A true showpiece.
• 🔥 Blood Leaf, Musa x sumatrana Zebrina Rojo - Rich burgundy splashes across green foliage, with small red fruit. Loves containers and adapts well to cooler zones.
• 🔥 Bordelon, Red Striped - Hardy and tall (10–15 ft!), with striking red-striped foliage. A Louisiana native that flowers and fruits if protected in winter.

📚 More about ornamental Bananas:

• 💋Top Ornamental Banana Varieties - Which One Belongs in Your Garden?
• 💋Musa Zebrina Rojo - Blood Leaf Banana

🛒 Grow fast, grow bold – these sell out quickly!

#Discover #Hedges_with_benefits #Bananas

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❤️‍ The Most Fragrant Medicinal Herb You'll Ever Grow!

• 🌱 Just brushing past it releases a wave of spicy, citrusy fragrance - Lippia alba, also known as Poleo or Pitiona, is an herb garden must-have. Fast-growing, drought-tough, flood-friendly, and practically indestructible - it thrives where other plants fail!
• 🌱 HELTH BENEFITS OF POLEO - LIPPIA ALBA

• 🌿 Crush a leaf - instantly uplifting aroma! Close relative of popular Lantana but with much better scent.
• 🌿 Grows into a lush, dense groundcover with dainty pink blooms
• 🌿 Used in traditional Oaxacan cooking - especially mole sauces
• 🌿 Leaves and roots make teas and syrups for cough, anxiety, digestion, and more
• 🌿 Known for sedative, antidepressant, and analgesic effects
• 🌿 Each plant has a unique essential oil profile!

🌱 Whether you’re into healing herbs, culinary magic, or just want the best-smelling plant in your garden - this is it.

🛒 Bring Home Nature’s Most Fragrant Medicine!

📚 Learn more:
What is the most aromatic medicinal herb

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Discover #Hedges_with_benefits

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🔥 Is This a Plant or a Coral?

• 
  🟠 Medinilla scortechinii - Orange Coral Spike - these flowers look like they came straight from a coral reef! Orange Coral Spike is a rare gem that's hard to find and easy to love.
• 
  🟠 Bright orange stems burst into star-shaped blooms that mimic glowing underwater branches - but they're blooming in your garden or home instead. Exotic, rare, and totally unforgettable.
• 
  🟠 Compact and easy to grow - stays under 2 ft tall.
• 
  🟠 Glossy dark leaves highlight the vibrant orange panicles.
• 
  🟠 Grows in light shade or filtered sun
• 
  🟠 Great in pots, hanging baskets, or as an epiphytic accent
• 
  🟠 Perfect for collectors of unusual tropical plants
• 
  🟠 Add a pop of orange to your garden or indoor jungle – this coral spike doesn’t stay in stock for long!

🛒 Buy Your Coral Bloom Beauty

📚 More from previous post:
A splash of tropical flair

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Discover

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🔥 Is This a Plant or a Coral?

• 🟠 Medinilla scortechinii - Orange Coral Spike - these flowers look like they came straight from a coral reef! Orange Coral Spike is a rare gem that's hard to find and easy to love.
• 🟠 Bright orange stems burst into star-shaped blooms that mimic glowing underwater branches - but they're blooming in your garden or home instead. Exotic, rare, and totally unforgettable.
• 🟠 Compact and easy to grow - stays under 2 ft tall.
• 🟠 Glossy dark leaves highlight the vibrant orange panicles.
• 🟠 Grows in light shade or filtered sun
• 🟠 Great in pots, hanging baskets, or as an epiphytic accent
• 🟠 Perfect for collectors of unusual tropical plants
• 🟠 Add a pop of orange to your garden or indoor jungle – this coral spike doesn’t stay in stock for long!

🛒 Buy Your Coral Bloom Beauty

📚 More from previous post:
A splash of tropical flair

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Discover

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⏳ How to tell the difference between Jasmine Sambac Varieties

• 💮 Jasminum Sambac is hands down the most fragrant jasmine in existence - and the most popular among tropical gardeners and plant collectors.
• 💮 Native to India, it's the source of jasmine perfume oil and the signature ingredient in jasmine tea.
• 💮 This plant comes in several varieties, each with unique flower size, shape, and growth habit - ranging from compact shrubs to vigorous bushes and climbing vines. It takes both sun and shade and makes a perfect container plant and indoor plant favorite.
• 💮 All varieties of Sambac are equally fragrant. To get more flowers, just use Sunshine Pikake plant booster and enjoy the perfume all day long!
• 💮 At Top Tropicals, we grow every known variety of Jasminum sambac in cultivation:

Arabian Nights - compact slow growing shrub with small delicate flowers

Belle of India - compact vine with long elegant petals, shade lover

Grand Duke of Tuscany - the most popular, vigorous bush with carnation-like flowers

Grand Duke Supreme - bigger, more vigorous version of Grand Duke with larger flowers

Gundu Malli - new hybrid between Arabian Nights and Grand Duke

Little Duke - more compact version of the Grand Duke

Maid of Orleans - vigorous full sun climber, great for hedges and fences

Mali Chat - very delicate, rare variety, with miniature 3-tier flowers, not easy to establish, shade lover

Mysore Mulli - vigorous vining shrub for sunny or semi-shade locations

🛒 Smell the Difference – Shop Sambac varieties

Learn more:
📚 Jasminum Sambac Absolute Flower - book download

• 📱 Sambac varieties
• 📱 Jasminum Sambac Page

#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits #How_to #Discover

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Grow Your Own Guac: Avocado Independence Starts Now!

News from Mexico? Avocado supplies are uncertain, and prices are going up. Why wait and worry - when you can grow your own right here at home?

Our grafted avocado trees are LOADED with flowers this April and ready to set fruit by the end of spring. Dozens of varieties, from 3-gallon to 25-gallon sizes, these are not babies - they're future guacamole machines!

🛒 Plant today. Harvest tomorrow. Never run out of avocados again. Get your Avocado tree!

📚 For more information on #Avocado varieties, including fruit color and size, tree habit, season, and much more - check out our interactive Avocado Variety Guide. It will 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.

🎥 How Avocado trees set fruit

#Avocado #Food_forest #Discover

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⚡️ Fuel Your Day Naturally: Grow Plants That Boost Your Energy

Feeling tired, sluggish, or mentally foggy? Your garden can be your energy station!
These tropical fruits and edibles are rich in Vitamin B1 (Thiamine), natural caffeine, and metabolism-enhancing compounds that help convert food into fuel, power your body, and sharpen your mind - naturally and sustainably.

⚡️ Top 9 Energy-Supporting Plants (Vitamin B1 - Thiamine):

• 🟡 Jackfruit - A delicious tropical source of vitamin B1, supporting energy production and nervous system function.
• 🟡 Pineapple - Contains thiamine, essential for turning food into usable energy.
• 🟡 Banana - Supplies vitamin B1 and quick-access natural sugars, ideal for an energy lift.
• 🟡 Pigeon Pea (Cajanus cajan) - A protein-rich edible legume packed with thiamine to aid in energy metabolism.
• 🟡 Camellia sinensis (Tea Plant) - Leaves used to brew green and black tea, combining caffeine with L-theanine to promote sustained mental energy.
• 🟡 Coffee - One of nature's most famous energy boosters - grown from a beautiful tropical tree.
• 🟡 Yerba Mate - A South American favorite for mental clarity and physical stamina - with natural caffeine and nutrients.
• 🟡 Wiri wiri and Biquinho Peppers - These fiery little peppers are rich in capsaicin, which may help boost metabolism, burn fat, and enhance overall energy levels.
• 🟡 Macadamia Nut - Loaded with thiamine (B1) and healthy fats that support nervous system function and long-lasting energy.

📚 Learn more about health benefits of tropical plants:
TROPICAL FRUIT HEALTH BENEFITS GUIDE - Part 1 and Part 2

🛒 Shop Energy-Boosting Plants for Natural Energy

#Food_Forest #Discover #Remedies #Bananas

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