Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

🗂 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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TopTropicals

🏡 How to get a big flowering bush quickly? Calliandra - Powderpuff - is your answer for blocking the unwanted view!

💗 With so many varieties to choose from, Calliandras are the winners when you need to create a screen quickly. Just in one season you can have a nice dense shrub with benefits - the Powderpuff flowers are so pretty! Everbloomer.

🛒 Shop Calliandras - Powderpuffs

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants #How_to

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🕊 Top irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven. Part 2.

Full list of Hummingbird favorite vines for the previous post ⤴️

Antigonon leptopus - Mexican Coral Vine 📸
Aristolochia - Dutchman's Pipe
Bignonia capreolata - Crossvine 📸
Camptosema - Dwarf Red Jade Vine
Chonemorpha fragrans - Frangipani Vine
Clerodendrums - Bleeding Heart and others
Clitoria ternatea - Butterfly Pea
Combretum aubletii - Monkey Brush Vine
Dipladenia (Mandevilla)
Faradaya splendida - Glory Vine
Gmelina philippensis - Parrot's Beak
Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower
Ipomoea - Prince Kuhio Vine 📸
Lonicera - Honeysuckle 📸
Mansoa alliacea - Garlic Vine
Pandorea jasminoides - Pandora Vine
Passiflora - Passion Flower 📸
Petrea volubilis - Queen's Wreath
Pyrostegia venusta - Flame Vine 📸
Quisqualis indica - Rangoon Creeper
Senecio confusus - Mexican Flame Vine
Solandra - Butter Cup
Stephanotis floribunda - Bridal Bouquet
Tecomanthe dendrophylla - New Guinea Creeper vine
Tecomaria capensis - Cape Honeysuckle 📸
Thunbergia - Sky Vine, Clock Vine 📸
Turn Your Garden Into a Hummingbird Paradise!

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants #How_to

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🕊 Top Eight irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven. Part 1.

Below is the Hummingbird Haven Plan designed for continuous blooms, vertical interest, and year-round hummingbird attraction.

Centerpiece (Tall Structure / Arbor)

• Thunbergia, especially Thunbergia mysorensis (Clock Vine). Provide strong overhead support for its hanging blooms. Let this showstopper trail over a sturdy pergola or arbor. Its long, red-and-yellow flowers will be your garden’s main hummingbird magnet.


Side Support (Trellis or Fence)
• Bignonia capreolata (Crossvine) - A hardy, fast-growing native that clings to supports. Train it on a trellis for early-spring blooms that attract the season’s first hummingbirds.
• Tecomaria (Cape Honeysuckle) - A vigorous, evergreen bloomer that loves full sun. Its bright red-orange tubular flowers draw hummingbirds throughout the year and are perfect for training along fences or trellises.


Mid-layer (Fence, Arch, or Large Pot Trellis)
• Passiflora (especially vitifolia or coccinea). Needs full sun, rich soil, and regular water; prune to manage size and boost flowering. Let it twine near seating areas for bold red blooms and close-up hummingbird visits.


Ground-Level Accents
• Ipomoea (including Prince Kuhio Vine) - Thrives in warm, frost-free zones with sun and moisture. Plant at the base of structures or in containers to sprawl or climb with vivid purple-pink blooms.
• Lonicera (including L. sempervirens - Coral Honeysuckle) - Plant at the base of a trellis or fence, near the arbor. This cold-hardy native has red-orange or yellow tubular blooms from spring to fall and adds a delicate contrast to tropical textures.


Wild Touch / Quick Filler
• Antigonon leptopus - Mexican Coral Vine - Loves sun and drains well; drought-tolerant but frost-sensitive. Great for fences and open trellises as a fast-growing, summer-to-fall bloomer buzzing with activity.
• Pyrostegia venusta (Flame Vine) - Bursting in fiery orange, perfect for fences or pergolas. Plant along a back fence or side trellis where it can sprawl wide and fill empty space. Thrives in full sun, blooms in winter-spring, and complements vertical stars like Thunbergia and Passionflower.

📝 These vines feature tubular, nectar-rich blooms that hummingbirds adore.
Add a shallow birdbath or feeder nearby, and you'll have a full-service nectar station!

See full list of Hummingbird favorite vines in next post ⤵️

🛒Turn Your Garden Into a Hummingbird Paradise!

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants #How_to

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❌ What flowers do NOT attract bees?

Most tropical flowers bring in pollinators, and bees are usually first in line. But what if you’d rather avoid them? Maybe you’re allergic, or just don’t want bees buzzing around. Good news: some flowers attract butterflies, hummingbirds, moths, or even flies - but not bees.

• 👉 Quick rules:

• ✔️ Night-blooming + strong fragrance = moths or bats, not bees.
• ✔️ Red tubular flowers with little scent = hummingbirds or butterflies, not bees.
• ✔️ Rotten or fermented smell = flies, not bees.
• ✔️ Carnivorous plants = trap insects, no bee nectar.

1. Night-blooming, fragrant - moth and bat flowers

Bees forage by day, so many night-fragrant flowers skip them.

• ▫️Brugmansia - Angel’s Trumpet - big, hanging blooms, moth and bat pollinated.
• ▫️Cestrum nocturnum - Night-blooming Jasmine - powerful night scent, moths only.
• ▫️Hylocereus Dragon Fruit - huge cactus flowers, bats and moths.
• ▫️Brunfelsia - Lady of the Night - sweet fragrance at dusk, no bee interest.


2. Hummingbird and butterfly flowers

Bees don’t see red well. Tubular reds, oranges, and yellows usually go to birds and butterflies.
• ▫️Hibiscus - hummingbirds and butterflies visit, bees less so.
• ▫️Heliconis and Gingers - designed for hummingbird beaks, bold tubes are for birds, not bees.
• ▫️More good picks: Ruellia, Sanchezia, Aeschynanthus, Aphelandra, Anisacanthus, Cuphea, Fuchsia, Iochroma, Justicia, Lonicera, Hamelia, Russelia, Odontonema, Tecomaria, Bougainvillea.


3. 🐱 Fly-pollinated oddballs

Some flowers smell bad to us but irresistible to flies.
• ▫️Amorphophallus (Voodoo Lily) - rotting meat scent.
• ▫️Tacca (Bat Head Lily) - spooky black flowers, fly-pollinated.
• ▫️Stapelia (Carrion Flower) - also fly-pollinated.
• ▫️Aristolochia (Pelican Flower) - giant, bizarre fly-traps.


4. 🌸 Specialized orchids

Not all orchids rely on bees. Many use moths, butterflies, or beetles instead.
• ▫️Vanilla orchid - its natural bee pollinator is absent in most regions, so no bee appeal elsewhere.
• ▫️Brassavola nodosa and others - open at night for moths, not bees.


5. 🕷 Bonus: carnivorous curiosities

Carnivorous plants don’t offer nectar. They trap insects instead, so bees stay away.
• ▫️Nepenthes (Pitcher Plant) - uses pitchers of liquid to lure and digest insects.

These flowers keep the beauty, fragrance, and wildlife appeal - but without making your garden a bee hotspot.

🛒 Explore butterfly attractors

#Butterfly_Plants #How_to #Discover

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Butterfly Haven or a Heaven on Earth?

❓Q: What should I plant in my yard to create a butterfly haven? I love butterflies and want to create a unique butterfly paradise, but I'm looking for something exotic and unusual - nothing like the typical Milkweed or Pentas that everyone recommends. What can you suggest to make my yard stand out from the usual native landscape while still attracting butterflies? I have plenty of space and want something diverse and showy!

‼️ A: In previous posts we introduced many #Butterfly_Plants including Five best butterfly attractors.
In next post you will see the most spectacular tropical and subtropical plants perfect for Southern gardens so you can create a dynamic and colorful butterfly haven. These options are unique, eclectic, and exotic - your flowers will not only be butterfly magnets but will also turn heads with their striking beauty! 👇

🛒 Transform your yard into a Butterfly Haven with exotic plants

#Butterfly_Plants

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📱 Thornless Bougainvillea Tree Video:



#Trees #How_to

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📱 How to get your own Dragon Fruit plantation:


#Food_Forest #How_to #Dragon_Fruit

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🌪 Pre-hurricane season tips: how to protect your trees from winds

Some trees like mango have deep roots and handle wind well. Others - like our favorites Spathodea campanulata - African Tulip Tree or Tabebuia caraiba - Yellow trumpet tree (in the photos) - need extra care. You've likely seen crooked Tabebuias in South Florida or lost a bushy Tulip Tree to strong winds. Their wide crowns act like sails in a storm.

💨 To help your trees withstand wind damage:

• ✅ Stake young trees with strong support - use a tripod-style setup (three bamboo sticks or boards secured around the tree for balance from all sides)
• ✅ Check and adjust supports every 6 months
• ✅ Trim long or rubbing branches - they break first
• ✅ Add extra support if a storm is coming (larger trees benefit from sturdy tripod-style bracing with boards)
• ✅ Lighten bushy growth, less sail = more survival

💡 Some remove all leaves from plumeria before a hurricane - it works!
💡 We pruned our Tulip Tree and Ceiba - and they withstood Hurricane Milton while others fell

• ✅ If a tree falls, stand it up ASAP and support it. Trim broken branches - they’ll remind you what needed pruning before, not after!
• ✅ Trees protected young, grow strong for life.

🛒 Grab your beautiful Tulip Tree and Tabebuia Tree today - support them early for strength and beauty later!

📚Learn more:
Everyone loves these tulips growing on a tree

#How_to #Trees #Discover

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