Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 17 Dec 2025

What is a Dwarf Condo Avocado and does it really fruit at 3 ft tall?

What is a Dwarf Condo Avocado and does it really fruit at 3 ft tall?



🛒 Explore Avocado varieties and Dwarf Avocado

#Food_Forest #Avocado

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Date: 16 Dec 2025

Nobel Prize goes to this pregnant male!

Male papaya with fruit

🏆 Nobel Prize goes to this pregnant male!

  • 👀 Some Papaya trees really break the rules, and this one deserves its own headline. We have a true oddball in the garden - a male papaya tree that actually set a lot of fruit! Not just one fruit, but a whole cluster hanging from those long flower stalks.
  • 👀 We all know that male papayas only make flowers but never set fruit. They only give us sweet fragrance from these flowers! By the way, thanks for the flowers, guys!
  • 👀 The fruit comes from the female flowers that sit tight on the trunk. But every now and then, nature throws a curveball. It looks like a male tree forms perfect female flowers on its long stems and decides to become a parent after all!
  • 👀 The result? Ripe, sweet papayas growing where they absolutely should not be. And yes, they even had seeds inside.
  • 👀 Gardeners wait years for good surprises like this. A male papaya giving birth… that’s rare enough to give a Nobel prize!


🛒 Explore the unpredictable world of Papayas

📚 Learn more:


#Food_Forest #Papaya

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Date: 16 Dec 2025

Black sapote mocha dip: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

Black sapote mocha dip

Black sapote mocha dip

🍴 Black Sapote Mocha Dip

Ingredients

  • Ripe black sapote fruit (Diospyros digyna), pulp only
  • Cocoa powder, 1 spoon
  • Condensed milk, a light drizzle

Instructions

  1. Scoop the soft pulp from ripe black sapote fruit and remove any seeds.
  2. Mix the pulp with cocoa powder until evenly blended.
  3. Stir in a light drizzle of condensed milk until smooth and silky.
  4. Serve as a dip or spread and enjoy immediately.


📚 Learn more:


Black Sapote tree (Diospyros digyna) in Plant Encyclopedia

#Food_Forest #Recipes

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Date: 15 Dec 2025

🌿 Bring the Jungle Inside: Winter Survival Guide. Part 3. Watering and Humidity. ❄️


💦 Water, Humidity, and the Small Things That Decide Who Makes It to Spring

Smokey  the  tuxedo  cat  checks  soil  moisture  and  wipes  a  monstera  leaf 
 while  Sunshine  the  ginger  cat  relaxes  with  a  watering  can  beside  indoor 
 tropical  plants  in  winter.

Smokey:"Still damp. No watering today."
Sunshine:"Great. I am excellent at not watering."
Smokey:"You have been practicing not doing any work your whole life."

In Part 1 (Winter Survival Guide: Temperature) we covered the foundation: light, placement, and acclimation. That is the survival layer.

Part 2 (Winter Survival Guide: Temperature)

Date: 15 Dec 2025

Thank you for coming to Plant Market in Ft Myers

Kristi  Vanbenschoten,  Top  Tropicals  manager,  holding  Persephone  the  cat
    on  her  shoulder  in  the  garden

Kristi Vanbenschoten, Top Tropicals manager, and Persephone the cat

Thank you to everyone who came out and supported our Holiday Plant Market last Saturday, December 13, 2025. It was great to see familiar faces, meet new visitors, and watch the garden fill with people exploring, asking questions, and choosing new plants to take home. Our CatsPeople were busy greeting guests, supervising carts, and making sure everyone felt welcome. Your support and good energy are what make these events special for us. We hope your new plants settle in beautifully, and we look forward to seeing you back in the garden soon!

Check out Event Mementos

Persephone  the  cat  at  Garden  Event