Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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Tacca wants to be a cat! And everyone loves cats! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Tacca wants to be a cat! And everyone loves cats!

Tacca wants to be a cat! And everyone loves cats! Tacca wants to be a cat! And everyone loves cats! Tacca wants to be a cat! And everyone loves cats!
🐈‍⬛ Tacca wants to be a cat! And everyone loves cats!

That’s probably the real evolutionary secret no botanist will admit! Those whiskers? Pure marketing genius from nature.
Cats had it figured out first — look mysterious, add long elegant whiskers, and everyone falls in love.
Tacca just took notes and said, “Alright, I can work with that!”

So now we have a tropical plant that looks half orchid, half bat, and just enough cat to make people stop, smile, and want one for their collection!

  • Tacca is also called the Bat Lily or Devil Flower. This tropical wonder grows bat-shaped wings and foot-long whiskers. The black form (Tacca chantrieri) looks straight out of a gothic dream, while the white one (Tacca nivea) is ghost-like and elegant.

  • Some of our plants are blooming right now in the nursery — true Halloween magic! Blooms are delicate and may not travel, but the plants are strong and will flower again soon in your care.

  • Tacca colors: Black, White, Green:

Tacca nivea - White Tacca
Tacca chantrieri - Black Tacca
Tacca leontopetaloides - Green Tacca

📚 Learn more:

🛒 Add Taccas - Bat Lilies to your collection

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Nature_Wonders

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Black Bat Lily and White Bat Lily plants blooming together in the Top Tropicals greenhouse, showing contrast between dark maroon and ivory bracts with long trailing whiskers.Black and White Bat Lilies (Tacca chantrieri and Tacca nivea) side by side in bloom

How to Care for Bat Lilies

by Top Tropicals Plant Expert Tatiana Anderson

🌞 Light

  • Bright, filtered light. Morning sun or dappled shade is perfect.
  • Avoid direct midday sun outdoors — it can scorch the leaves.
  • Indoors, place near a bright window with sheer curtains or use a grow light.

🌡️ Temperature

  • Warm and stable, ideally 70-85 F during the day.
  • Protect from cold drafts or sudden chills.
  • Ideally, do not let temperature drop below 45 F, although Taccas can tolerate short period of upper 30's.

💧 Watering

  • Keep soil evenly moist but not soggy.
  • Water when the top inch feels barely dry.
  • Use lukewarm water.
  • Avoid letting the pot sit in water.

💨 Humidity

  • High humidity (60-80%) is key.
  • Mist leaves often, use a humidity tray, or keep near a humidifier.
  • In greenhouses or bathrooms with a skylight, it thrives naturally.

🌱 Soil

  • Use rich, loose, well-draining mix
  • Combine bark, peat, and perlite for ideal airflow around the roots.
  • Best mix for growing tropical Tacca in pots - soilless potting mix Abundance . It provides perfect drainage and has a texture similar to a jungle rainforest media.

🍽️ Feeding

  • During growth season (Spring through Fall), feed with Green Magic controlled release fertilizer every 6 months. For even better results, you may apply liquid fertilizer Sunshine Boosters Rubusta.
  • Stop feeding dry fertilizer in cooler months when growth slows. Liquid Sunshine Boosters are safe to use with every watering, year around.

🏡 Indoor Growing

  • Great for bright bathrooms, sunrooms, or any warm, humid corner.
  • Rotate pot occasionally for even growth.
  • Keep away from heating vents and AC drafts.

🌴 Outdoor Growing (in warm climates)

  • Partial shade or filtered light under trees.
  • Excellent in large containers that can be brought inside for winter.
  • Shelter from heavy rain and wind.

Sunshine: "So… it’s a diva?"
Smokey: "Exactly. But take care of it - and it rewards you with wings!"
Smokey and Sunshine: "Happy Halloween!"

🎥 Watch Short Videos:

🛒 Grow your own gothic masterpiece:
Shop Bat Head Lily Tacca

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👻 When plants grow wings...

Smokey the black-and-white tuxedo cat stands upright holding a glowing jack-o'-lantern filled with tropical fruit, while Sunshine the fluffy ginger tabby lounges in a hammock under string lights, sipping cocoa. Around them are pumpkins, lanterns, and tropical plants under a warm twilight sky.

🌴 Twilight in the garden. Smokey is holding a glowing pumpkin. Sunshine is sipping cocoa.

Sunshine: "Smokey, why does that plant look like it wants to fly away?"
Smokey: "That’s the Bat Lily - Tacca. It’s rare, it’s weird, and it’s in bloom just in time for Halloween."
Sunshine: "Figures. You always find the spooky ones."

Meet the Bat Lily (Tacca)

Tacca is also called the Bat Lily or Devil Flower. This tropical wonder grows bat-shaped wings and foot-long whiskers. The black form (Tacca chantrieri) looks straight out of a gothic dream, while the white one (Tacca nivea) is ghost-like and elegant.

Some of our plants are blooming right now in the nursery — true Halloween magic! Blooms are delicate and may not travel, but the plants are strong and will flower again soon in your care.

Black Bat Lily (Tacca chantrieri) plants in bloom inside the Top Tropicals greenhouse, showing dark maroon bracts and long pale whiskers rising above large green leaves.

Black Bat Lily (Tacca chantrieri) with dark maroon wings and long whiskers

Close-up of White Bat Lily (Tacca nivea) plants in a greenhouse at Top Tropicals, showing large white bracts and long trailing whiskers above glossy green leaves.

White Bat Lily (Tacca nivea) in bloom with wide ivory wings

"The White Bat Lily (Tacca nivea) is bold and sculptural, with oversized ivory wings that command attention. Its pale bracts stretch wide above clusters of deep maroon flowers, and long, silvery whiskers spill gracefully through the foliage. In filtered light, the plant seems to glow from within — elegant, crisp, and perfectly balanced between the strange and the beautiful. If I could pick, I’d go with the White Tacca. It feels more architectural, more balanced — those oversized wings catch light in a way that shows off every vein and curve. It looks engineered by nature, almost like an alien design prototype that actually works.

The Black Bat Lily (Tacca chantrieri) feels alive with shadow. Its dark maroon wings and wiry whiskers make it look like something that fluttered out of the jungle at dusk. The bloom’s layered structure and near-black sheen give it a quiet power — mysterious, understated, but impossible to ignore. But if I were designing mood lighting for a greenhouse at night, the Black Tacca wins. It’s subtle, mysterious, like a secret only visible up close. Together, they’re perfect opposites — yin and yang of the tropical underworld: white for daylight, black for moonlight." — says Tatiana Anderson, Top Tropicals Plant Expert

Special Offer: Discounts on Rare Tacca Plants

Grow your own Bat Lilies — White or Black — at a special Halloween price!

Get 25% OFF Tacca plants with code

TACCA2025

Min order $25 (excluding S/H), valid online only, cannot be combined with other offers.

Hurry, offer expires November 03, 2025!

🎃 Storewide Halloween Sale – For Everything Beyond Tacca

Not into spooky plants? Enjoy savings on all other tropical plants across the store!

Get 15% OFF tropical plants with code

HALLOWEEN2025

Min order $100 (excluding S/H), valid online only, cannot be combined with other offers.

Hurry, offer expires November 03 2025!

👉 Collect Tacca plants:

Black - Tacca chantrieri

White - Tacca nivea

Green - Tacca leontopetaloides

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Possum Pete's night visit. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Possum Petes night visit

Possum Petes night visit
🐭 Possum Pete's night visit

"If it fits in your mouth, it’s yours." - Garfield (Jim Davis)

What do possums eat?
Obviously, cat food!

🐈📸 Possum Pete invited himself for a cat food dinner at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden.

#PeopleCats #Quotes

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