Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

🏆 Discover the health benefits of Katuk: a Superfood for your mind and body

• 🌿 Katuk, or Tropical Asparagus (Sauropus androgynus), is a delicious leafy vegetable popular in South and Southeast Asia. Its young shoots, often referred to as tropical asparagus, are highly prized for their taste and high yields.
• 🌿 In Vietnam, Katuk is commonly cooked in soups with crab meat, minced pork, or dried shrimp, while in Malaysia, it’s stir-fried with egg and dried anchovies.
• 🌿 The plant is unique for being one of the few plants that contains vitamin K. It’s also rich in folate, vitamin K, and lutein - nutrients linked to improved memory and reduced cognitive aging.
• 🌿 Katuk thrives in full sun or semi-shade, making it a versatile and healthy addition to your garden or kitchen.

Lean more:
📚 Tropical Asparagus, Katuk: Grow your own food
📱 How to cook with Katuk

🛒 Add Katuk Superfood to your edible garden today

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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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🌳 How to Plant a Tree - A Fun Guide

1️⃣ Dig a Big Hole
Start by digging a hole 2-3 times the size of the pot. Make sure it's deep enough to give your tree's roots room to grow. Remove any sandy dirt or rocks—replace them with rich, nutrient-packed soil to help your tree establish.

2️⃣ Place the Tree Just Right
Gently remove your tree from the pot and place it in the hole. The base of the tree (where the roots meet the trunk) should sit slightly above ground level (2-3"). Avoid covering the trunk with soil to allow for proper air circulation and to promote a healthy tree.

3️⃣ Mound the Soil
Add nutrient-rich soil around the roots, then toss in a handful of granulated fertilizer. With the leftover soil, build a little mound around the tree to form a "bagel" shape. This will help water stay around the roots and give your tree a strong start.

4️⃣ Add Mulch and Water
Spread mulch around the tree, but leave a small gap around the trunk. Water generously to settle the soil and give your tree a refreshing drink. Water by hand daily for the first couple of weeks or until you see new growth. After that, you can rely on sprinklers.

⭐️ With these simple steps, your tree will be off to a great start!

🛒 Go plant shopping to excersize your green thumb and make our planet better

📚Learn more:
How to plant a tree: care of mail-order plants and detailed planting instructions (PDF)

#How_to #Trees #Discover

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🔤 What is the best plant for a carefree flower border

• How to add effortless elegance in your garden?

Dietes - African Iris - is a stunning, exotic beauty with delicate pale yellow flowers and bold maroon markings. It blooms in cycles throughout the warm months, giving your garden a fresh, elegant look time and time again. With its graceful, clumping sword-like foliage, it adds texture year-round. Plus, it thrives on neglect!
• What makes African Iris a must-have?

Tough, drought-tolerant, flood-tolerant, and cold-tolerant, African Iris is perfect for virtually any type of landscape. It handles heat, sun, and even partial shade like a champ, and it's perfect for xeriscaping, borders, or mass plantings.

🛒 Get African Iris for a low-maintenance, always-blooming showstopper

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #How_to #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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How to grow tropical fruit outside the Tropics

👨‍ Can you grow tropical fruit in colder climates? Absolutely! The key is growing them in containers so you can move them indoors during cold weather. With the right plant selection, a bit of motivation, good plant food, and a little love, you can enjoy a delicious harvest of exotic fruit - enough to treat your family and even share with friends. Here's everything you need to start your own Tropical Fruit Garden in containers.

🏆 Top tropical fruits and expert tips for growing in containers

• 📌 Top 10 Dwarf "Condo" Mango, great for container culture
• 📌 What are the Condo Mangos - a practical guide
• 📌 How to grow cold-hardy avocados
• 📌 Avocado everyone should have: dwarf Condo Avocado
• 📌 What is the best Avocado variety?
• 📌 The best tropical fruit tree for container: Annona.
• 📌 How to grow your own Carambola
• 📌 Tropical Cherries: Eugenias
• 📌 Peanut Butter Tree and Blackberry Jam Tree produce right away
• 📌 How to grow a Guava Tree: practical guide
• 📌 Coffee as the best Gift plant
• 📌 Top 10 fast-fruiting trees
• 📌 Three must-have fruit for every tropical garden
• 📌 What Fertilizer to Use Now and How?
• 📌 How to make plants green quickly: Green Magic - the fertilizer that truly works

🛒 Shop top picks for your container tropical garden:

Condo Mango
Cold hardy Avocado
🍒 Tropical Cherries - Eugenias
⭐️ Carambola (Start Fruit)
🍉 Guava
🍈 Annona
🍍 Pineapple
🌶 Herbs and spices - tropical edibles right away
🕙 Fast-fruiting trees
🍊 Shop all fruit trees
Supplies and Boosters

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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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Yes, you can grow a tropical fruit tree in a pot!

• 
  🍒 If you dream of picking fresh tropical fruit - Mango, Avocado, exotiс Annona and more - but only have a patio, balcony, or small yard, you’re not out of luck. Many tropical fruit trees grow perfectly well in large containers. The key is choosing the right variety, pot, and care routine.
• 
  🍒 Pick a compact tree type

Start with a dwarf or semi-dwarf variety. Regular tropical trees can grow huge, but container-sized cultivars stay under 8–10 feet and are much easier to manage. For example, Condo varieties of Mango like Pickering or Ice Cream stay small and still produce full-sized fruit. The same goes for Dwarf Avocados like Wurtz (also called Little Cado) and Sugar apples. Blackberry Jam fruit tree (Randia formosa) and Peanut Butter Fruit tree (Bunchosia argentea) are also excellent choices.
• 
  🍒 Choose the right pot

Begin with a 5-gallon container and move up as the tree grows. A mature plant will be happy in a 20–25-gallon pot. Drainage is critical - roots will rot if the pot stays soggy. Use a sturdy plastic, ceramic, or wooden container with multiple holes in the bottom.
• 
  🍒 Soil and watering

These trees all like loose, well-draining soil. Mix potting soil with perlite or pine bark for better aeration. Water deeply but not too often - let the top few inches dry before watering again. Overwatering is the quickest way to kill a potted tropical.
• 
  🍒 Light and feeding

Full sun is a must - aim for at least 6 hours daily. Fertilize during the growing season with a balanced fruit tree or slow-release fertilizer like Green Magic or liquid Sunshine Boosters. Many tropicals appreciate an extra boost of micronutrients like iron and magnesium to keep their leaves green.
• 
  🍒 Cold protection and pruning

If you live where winters get chilly, move the pot indoors or into a greenhouse before frost. Prune lightly in spring to keep shape and airflow. Container trees can fruit heavily if given light, warmth, and consistent care.

At the end of the day, container culture lets you grow the tropics anywhere - from a city balcony to a backyard deck.

➡ Next: The best tropical fruit trees for containers...

📸 Growing and fruiting Soursop in apartment (PDF download)

🛒 Explore tropical fruit trees

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Avocado leaf tea: island secret for a calm heart and blood pressure

• 
  🍃 You see that Avocado tree in your yard? Don't just love it for the fruit - the leaves carry magic too! Old folks in the tropics will tell you - never throw away the avocado leaves. They’ve been used for generations to brew a tea that helps steady the heart and ease high blood pressure.
• 
  🍃 When life gets busy and your heart starts beating too fast, this tea helps it find its rhythm again. The leaf holds flavonoids and quercetin - fancy words for what nature been doing all along: keeping the blood flowing smooth and the body at peace. Folks say it also helps with digestion and keeps the liver happy.
• 
  

  🍃 Avocado leaf tea

  Ingredients

  • 3 to 4 fresh avocado leaves
  • 2 cups water
  • Optional: honey, lemon, or cinnamon stick

  Instructions

  1. Rinse the avocado leaves well.
  2. Place them in a small pot with 2 cups of water.
  3. Bring to a gentle simmer and let it cook for about 10 minutes.
  4. Strain the tea and add honey, lemon, or cinnamon if desired.
  5. Sip slowly and enjoy the calm, earthy flavor.
• 
  
• 🍃 They say it helps the belly, calms the mind, and keeps the liver strong. Maybe that’s science, maybe it’s just island truth - but it surely does the body good! Some call it bush medicine, others just call it good sense. Either way, it’s a simple garden remedy that’s been soothing hearts long before pills and prescriptions came around.

🛒 Plant an Avocado tree and help your body stay healthy

📚 Learn more:
Tropical fruit and plants that help keep blood pressure in balance, Part 1, and Part 2.

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