Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 5 Jan 2021

People of TopTropicals. Dog of the Year: Tilda, the Assistant Photographer

Today is a sad day. Our Editor and Photographer assistant Tilda left us for her last trip to Eternity... to the Dog's Paradise. For many years, Tilda has been helping Top Tropicals Editor and Plant Expert Marina Rybka to take pictures of beautiful plants from all over the world. We can often see Tilda's tail, paws, ears or eyes in many photos of our plant catalog. With Marina's and Tilda's help, our catalog today has 4900 tropical plant profiles with 53989 photos!
Tilda, you will always stay with us. You will follow us in every shot you made with your Mom. Thank you for being there for Marina and her TopTropicals. Thank you for making life of tropical gardeners happier! You made the difference. We love you forever.

TopTropicals PeopleCat Club and Zoo

Thank you for supporting us in helping PeopleCat Community!
Make your kind donation today and receive a surprise gift from us! Every little bit helps. Thank you and God bless you and your pets!

Date: 29 Jan 2020

Meet People of TopTropicals. Pea Cock of the Day: the Orchid Guard

Recently we started to reveal the secret about who works behind the scenes on TopTropicals project; you have already met our editors and their assistants: Marina with Tilda, and Alex with Sonya. Today's story is about a Magic Peacock who works in orchid greenhouse of Eleanor Wilks - our photographer and tropical plant journalist in New Zealand and Australia. The watermark EleNZ you see on pictures of Australian flora - is Eleanor's!
Today Eleanor is sharing with us pictures of this amazing bird that helps her around her Orchidarium.
This young Pea Cock showed up one day in her backyard from nowhere and set up his living quarters in a tree. She asked around: no one was missing a peacock... so she took the Pea in and now he is in charge of her orchid collection. After a day of a hard work, Pea comes home to the back porch, waiting for Eleanor to sing him a good-night lullaby. Pea won't go to sleep until everyone in the house is ready for bed and the lights turned off. What a responsible house guard!

Check out and more Cat of the Day stories.

Date: 19 Jan 2020

Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat of the Day: Sonya, the Co-Author

In our previous newsletter, you met our editor/photographer tandem - Tilda & Marina. Today we introduce our columnist assistant - Sonya. For the past decade, this True Norwegian Forest Cat has been a great helper and inspirational co-author for Alexandra, TopTropicals website writer and social media blogger.

Alex has been with TopTropicals since Day One (2003). In 2011, she got Sonya, a 3-month old kitten that someone kicked out: at that young age she already had quite a temper of a real Wild Cat. No one wanted to adopt her and Sonya was doomed to suffer a street life... So Alex invited her in the house... and it took her many months to teach Sonya some good manners! And Sonya turned into a beautiful and affectionate Purrrson as well as became the Boss in the house (what a surprise, duh) and Alexandra's dearest life companion. Sonya also discovered her talent in writing plant stories for TopTropicals, sitting on Alex's shoulder and whispering into her ear while she is typing Sonya's horticultural tips. And when Alex stares at monitors for more than 5 hours, Sonya lays on her keyboard saying: "Now get up and get some stretch lady! Let's go re-pot some plants for a change!"

We will be following up on Sonya's creative work, and you will hear from her again soon...

Check out and more Cat of the Day stories.

Sonya inspecting seedlings... and chilling with Alex

This Norwegian Forest Cat, when she was little, loved to climb up high... (2011)

Growing Tropics on a Windowsill...

Date: 25 Apr 2024

Top Tropicals is now in Telegram!

Cat  texting  telegram

Welcome to our new Telegram Channel!
We finally did it, and excited to connect with all of you on this amazing platform. After using Telegram for a few years for both business and personal communications, we realized it is a winner of the modern Social Media!

In Top Tropicals Telegram Channel you will find much more than on our website or Newsletter: Fun Plant Facts, Nature Wonders, Amazing Plant Videos, Gardening How-to Tips, Exotic Recipes, Contests, Sweepstakes, Give-aways and so much more. Plus, of course, your favorite PeopleCats!

Telegram is a messaging app with a focus on speed and security, it's super-fast, simple and free. You can use Telegram on all your devices at the same time - your messages sync seamlessly across any number of your phones, tablets or computers. It's perfect for sharing your comments, photos, videos, even making calls.

You can watch news, browse your interest, message to friends and colleagues, save your files, create groups, make phone calls, and the most amazing thing - Telegram works where nothing else works, no WiFi or cell service! It proved to be more reliable than any other apps and (surprise!) even works in airplane without wifi connection - proved!

The platform has its own cloud and offers limitless storage. And the last and not least - it's ad-free! Telegram is free and will stay free - no ads, no subscription fees, forever. It's a clean, clear and easy to use for all ages and applications. Try it yourself and discover how easy and pain-free it is!

Telegram is for everyone who wants fast and reliable messaging and calls.
See you in Telegram!

Date: 18 Apr 2024

How to water a new Mango tree?

Mango  tree  in  the  ground  with  fruit

Q: I got a large mango tree from your garden center recently, planted in the ground, but noticed the corners of the leaves turning brown. It was full of little fruit when I planted it but now they are falling off... I wonder how much should I water the mango tree? We have lawn sprinkler system that runs daily, is this enough?

A: Generally speaking, never rely solely on your sprinkler system when planting a new tree, especially during the first week or even several weeks if you have no rain. By rain, we mean a nice downpour. Here in Florida, we usually have a hot and dry spring, and while springtime is great for starting new trees, additional hose-watering becomes essential for establishing them during the first months.

Dry leaves are a signal of under-watering. Make sure to hand water your mango tree every day for at least the first week after planting. Even if you have an individual sprinkler for the tree, ensure that the soil around the rootball receives enough water, not only around the trunk. Surprisingly, the bigger the tree, the more it may suffer from a lack of water, and sprinkler watering does not saturate the large root system, sometimes only reaching around the trunk. Big tree means lots of leaves and branches - they all get thirsty!

Mangos are pretty drought-tolerant trees, but only once established. They even benefit from hot, drier air (means less leaf fungus). However, young trees require regular irrigation until they start growing new leaves and branches.

Note that fertilizing your Mango tree is especially important during the spring and summer seasons - the period of active growth. This ensures that the tree takes the best advantage of nutrients with a faster metabolism encouraged by high temperatures. Give your tree a chance to build up lots of energy for the cooler winter as well as for the next flowering and crop season. To ensure a strong tree and reliable crop with no fruit drop, apply Sunshine Mango Tango liquid fertilizer with every watering and watch your mango tree become a Champ!

Sunshine  Mango  Tango  liquid  fertilizer  with  mango  fruit