Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

🌈 Wise Mango - a smart choice for flavor lovers: sweet, juicy, and Florida-tough.

Mango Wise is a forgotten gem from the golden age of mango breeding in South Florida. Originating in Miami during the post-1930s boom of cultivar development, it was once part of a wave of exciting new introductions. Over time, many of these excellent varieties faded from commercial propagation, despite having outstanding eating qualities. Wise stands out with its nearly round fruit, minimal to no fiber, and rich, juicy sweetness. It's a smart, flavorful choice that deserves a comeback in Florida gardens.

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

🌈 Why mango lovers are obsessed with this rare variety: Maha Chinook - the mango even Nam Doc Mai envies

Maha Chinook Mango is possibly the best mango you've never tasted. Rare, beautiful, and unbelievably delicious. It is a prized semi-dwarf variety from Singapore, known for its exceptional flavor and fiberless flesh. The fruit is long, often with a pink blush, and resembles Nam Doc Mai - only better! It can be enjoyed green (sweet and crisp) or ripe (smooth and aromatic). Slow-growing and perfect for containers, it produces multiple crops and has a long, variable season. Its nearly paper-thin seed and high flesh-to-seed ratio make it one of the most sought-after mangoes in the world.

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

🌈 Mango Rainbow tasting table: varieties you should try

• Kent Mango variety is native to Florida. It is originated in Coconut Grove, in 1945 from a Haden seed.
• Kent has an excellent flavor, large size, and very little fiber. Considered by many to be one of the best tasting Florida mangoes and one of the most beautiful, truly rainbow colored fruit!
• Eat before fruit gets too ripe.
• The most rewarding attribute is a bountiful late season crop.

❔ What Mango varieties do you have in your garden?
Share in comments 👇

📚 Previous Mango Rainbow Tasting Table: 1 • 2 • 3 • 

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

🌈 Mango Rainbow tasting table-2: what's the taste of that Mango variety?

We've had another mango tasting table and asked participants to describe the taste in a few words. And this is what we got:

• 🟠 Haden - mild, melting, classic heavenly mango flavor,dark yellow flesh, almost fiberless.
• 🟠 Ugly Betty - opposite to the name, the taste is excellent , juicy, melting, sweet.
• 🟠 Cotton Candy - true candy, fiberless, sweet, melting.
• 🟠 Madame Fransis - dark orange pulp, slightly fibrous, robust, meaty like a steak, good with cognac. A little pulpy but unique flavor.
• 🟠 Diamond - bright yellow, fiberless, sugary, juicy, no pulp at all, classic mango taste, good with ice cream, "wow" taste!
• 🟠 Pickering - zesty, waterfall: all the flavors come at once, eat with White wine and/or a cake. Oval fruit somewhat flat, very large for a dwarf tree!
• 🟠 Baptiste - hint of citrus, melts in your mouth, dark orange flesh, crisp, eat with Red wine and cheese.
• 🟠 Florigon - creamy, buttery, spicy. Eat with Ice cream!
• 🟠 Tommy Atkins - has a bit zing to it, perfect consistency, perfect taste. Super colorful, crimson red to purple skin!
• 🟠 Nam Doc Mai - gold standard! Perfect every day.
• 🟠 Carry - tastes even better than all others, smooth buttery, lite!

❔ What Mango varieties have you tried this year?
Share in comments 👇

📝 Previous post: Mango Rainbow Tasting Table

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

🌈 Mango Rainbow tasting table: what's the taste of that Mango variety?

We just had a mango tasting table of a few early and mid-season varieties and here is our impression:

• 🟠 Tommy Atkins (purple) - the earliest variety, sweet a juicy, but a bit fibrous. The fruit is super colorful! The tree is an excellent producer, vigorous and problem-free.
• 🟠 Haden (red) - a full sweet flavor, less fibrous than Tommy. Very colorful, large fruit.
• 🟠 Florigon (yellow-green, round) - completely fibreless, sweet and flavor is somewhat mild pineapple-like.
• 🟠 Baptiste (bright yellow) - very sweet, firm flesh, good flavor.
• 🟠 Val Carrie (green elongated) - reminds large Asian mangoes, with firm flesh, very sweet, fibreless and juicy. It is a cross between Valencia Pride (large fruit) and Carrie (excellent flavor). It took the best from its parents. Very aromatic flesh has no fiber at all.
• 🟠 Kent (large green-and-red) - excellent flavor, large size, and very little fiber. Eat before fruit gets too ripe.

❔ What Mango varieties have you tried this year?
Share in comments 👇

📝 See also earlier posts:

• 🔸 5 most Favorite Mango Varieties
• 🔸 Top 10 Dwarf "Condo" Mango
• 🔸 Top 5 vigorous growers and reliable producers
• 🔸 Top 5 exotic Mango varieties for rare fruit collection
• 🔸 How to grow a mango tree
• 🔸 How to protect mango fruit from rodents

🛒 Shop Mango Trees

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

🏵 TopTropicals

😳 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

🛒 Shop Bougainvillea

#Fun_Facts #Trees

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

🌱 Why do the Chinese drink tea?

• 
  🍃 It actually has to do with the Chinese theory of the five elements - wood, metal, fire, water, and earth:

木 金 火 水 土

• 
  🍃 Tea comes from a plant - Camellia sinensis - the Tea Leaf Tree - that is used to make all true teas: green, black, white, and oolong. The Tea Tree contains the element of wood (木) 🌳
• 
  🍃 When it's roasted in a cast-iron pan, it gains the element of metal (金)
• 
  🍃 Then it's dried over fire, adding the element of fire (火) 🔥
• 
  🍃 When it's brewed with boiling water, the element of water enters (水) 💦
• 
  🍃 Finally, tea is poured into a clay vessel, symbolizing the element of earth (土) 🍯
• 
  🍃 In this way, all five elements - wood, metal, fire, water, and earth - come together in a single cup.
• 
  🍃 The plant grows slowly and can thrive in containers or frost-free gardens with sun to semi-shade.

🛒 Grow your own tea

📚Learn more from previous posts:
Tea facts
How to grow your own tea?
Where does the tea come from?
Instructions how to make tea from tea leaves (PDF)

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Fun_facts

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

⚡️ How productive is Tamarind - for previous post 👆

Tamarind tree (Tamarindus indica) can live for over 200 years and produce both edible fruit and valuable timber.

#Food_Forest #Fun_Facts

🏵 TopTropicals

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

🏵 TopTropicals