Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 27 Dec 2025

Stop planting shade plants until you see this one!

Megaskepasma erythrochlamys - Brazilian plume or Red Cloak

Stop planting shade plants until you see this one!

  • 🚩Megaskepasma erythrochlamys - Brazilian plume or Red Cloak is one of my favorite winter colors in the garden. It comes from a plant most people overlook.
    • It keeps pushing bold red flower spikes when many plants slow down.
  • 🚩It handles sun or shade, attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, and even surprises people with light cold tolerance. Big leaves, strong structure, and steady color make it a solid choice for beds, fences, or large containers.
  • 🚩If your garden needs color that does not quit when the season changes, this one earns its space.


🛒 Get the winter bloomer most gardens are missing

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Plant Facts

Megaskepasma erythrochlamys
Brazilian Plume, Brazilian Red Cloak
USDA Zone: 9-11
Large shrub 5-10 ft tallSemi-shadeFull sunRegular waterPink flowersPlant attracts butterflies, hummingbirdsSubtropical plant. Mature plant cold hardy at least to 30s F for a short time
  • ✦ Megaskepasma_erythrochlamys in Plant Encyclopedia
  • ✦ Turn up the color in your garden with the bold everblooming Brazilian plume

    • #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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    Date: 24 Dec 2025

    I wait all year for this vine to bloom!

    New Guinea Creeper, Tecomanthe dendrophila

    🌸 I wait all year for this vine to bloom!



    It's this time of the year when beautiful Tecomanthe is opening her majestic blooms!
    The New Guinea Creeper (Tecomanthe dendrophila) is a stunning, non-aggressive vine that will captivate with its vibrant blooms and lush foliage.
    • 🌸 New Guinea Creeper, Tecomanthe dendrophila, is one of those plants that changes the whole garden when it blooms. Winter doesn’t have to be boring! In early winter through spring, it covers itself in large trumpet-shaped flowers with deep pink tubes and creamy white tips. The display lasts weeks, not days!
    • 🌸 Unlike many flowering vines, this one is well-behaved. It climbs without taking over, stays glossy and evergreen year-round, and works beautifully on trellises, arbors, or strong supports. Butterflies love it, and people always stop to ask what it is.
    • 🌸 A true winter show stopper for warm climates or containers!


    🛒     Your garden needs New Guinea Creeper

    📚 Learn more:

    Plant Facts

    Tecomanthe dendrophila
    New Guinea Creeper vine
    USDA Zone: 9-11
    Vine or creeper plantSemi-shadeFull sunModerate waterWhite, off-white flowersPink flowersPlant attracts butterflies, hummingbirdsSubtropical plant. Mature plant cold hardy at least to 30s F for a short time
  • Tecomanthe dendrophila in Plant Encyclopedia
  • How to grow New Guinea Creeper Tecomanthe

    • #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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    Date: 21 Dec 2025

    Everyone wants Red Jade vine - this is the one that lives! How to grow Red Jade outside the Tropics

    Camptosema grandiflorum - Dwarf Red Jade Vine, Cuitelo, or Rooster's Crest

    ❤️‍ Everyone wants Red Jade vine - this is the one that lives! How to grow Red Jade outside the Tropics.

    • 🔥 Camptosema grandiflorum (grandiflora) - Dwarf Red Jade Vine, Cuitelo, or Rooster's Crest - this Brazilian superstar brings cascading chains of bright red blooms.
    • 🔥 Love the stunning, fiery blooms of the famous Red Jade Vine (Mucuna benettii) but live outside the tropics? Its cousin - Dwarf Red Jade Vine - delivers the same jaw-dropping, flame-red flower chains as the famous tropical Red Jade vines - but without the extreme fuss.
    • 🔥 This vine is native to Brazil, where it grows at higher elevations. That is the secret. It is noticeably more cold tolerant than Mucuna benettii and can handle short dips to around 28F with little or no damage. It is also more forgiving with watering and can tolerate brief dry spells once established.
    • 🔥 Bloom time is late fall through winter, exactly when most gardens slow down. The flowers are long, heavy, and hang best from a pergola, arbor, or fence where they can cascade freely. Butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds find it fast.
    • 🔥 Despite the word "dwarf," this is a vigorous vine. It grows quickly, needs strong support, and rewards good care with a massive display. Give it sun to light shade, water when the soil feels slightly dry, avoid soggy roots, and prune after flowering. Mulch helps keep roots cool.
    • 🔥 It can even be grown in a large container with solid support.
    • 🔥 If you have ever wanted the iconic Red Jade look but live in a place with real winters or surprise cold nights - this is the smarter choice.


    🛒 Plant the Red Jade Vine that grows outside the Tropics

    📚 Learn more:

    Plant Facts

    Camptosema grandiflorum
    Crista-De-Galo, Dwarf Red Jade Vine, Brazilian Red Jade Vine
    USDA Zone: 9-11
    Vine or creeper plantSemi-shadeShadeRegular waterRed, crimson, vinous flowersPlant attracts butterflies, hummingbirdsSubtropical plant. Mature plant cold hardy at least to 30s F for a short timeSeaside, salt tolerant plant
  • Camptosema grandiflorum - Dwarf Red Jade Vine in Plant Encyclopedia
  • Cold-hardy Dwarf Red Jade Vine
  • Camptosema grandiflora, Dwarf Red Jade Vine - my favorite plant

    • #Nature_Wonders #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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    Date: 9 Dec 2025

    What blooms for you in December: Calliandra tweedii With Love

    Calliandra tweedii "With Love" in a pot

    Calliandra tweedii "With Love" in a pot

    Calliandra tweedii "With Love" plant in the ground

    Calliandra tweedii "With Love" plant in the ground

    Calliandra tweedii "With Love" flowers

    Calliandra tweedii "With Love" flowers

    Calliandra tweedii "With Love" flower close up

    Calliandra tweedii "With Love" flower close up

    💥 What blooms for you in December: Calliandra tweedii "With Love"

    • 💥 December just started and so did Calliandra tweedii "With Love" - right by TopTropicals Bfarm office. This plant always knows how to kick off winter around here. First week of December… boom, the red tassels pop open, and then it keeps going all the way through winter and into spring.
    • 💥 Calliandras are famous for being spectacular winter bloomers, but in our garden they seem to ignore the calendar and flower pretty much year-round. "With Love" grows as a many-stemmed dense shrub, kind of like a small fountain. Branches rise right from the ground, covered in tiny leaflets that gently fold at night or when you touch them.
    • 💥 And the flowers - that’s the whole show! Fine, feathery, glowing-red tassels that look almost electric in the morning sun. The bush by the office is covered in them right now - bright scarlet puffs against fresh green foliage. Most calliandras lean more pink, but this one stays true red. It makes a fantastic hedge, a bold specimen shrub, and honestly a great bonsai because of the branching structure.
    • 💥 If you want something cheerful, easy, and blooming exactly when most gardens look quiet, With Love delivers every single year.


    🛒 Plant Calliandra tweedii "With Love" - Red Tassel Flower
    Shop Calliandras - Powderpuffs

    📚 Learn more:

    Plant Facts

    Calliandra tweedii, Inga pulcherrima
    Red Tassel Flower
    USDA Zone: 9-11
    Large shrub 5-10 ft tallSemi-shadeModerate waterRed, crimson, vinous flowersSubtropical plant. Mature plant cold hardy at least to 30s F for a short time
  • ✦ Calliandra tweedii in Plant Encyclopedia
  • ✦ Red Tassel Flower blooms through March

    • #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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    Date: 27 Nov 2025

    It opens overnight, wakes up just for Thanksgiving!

    Gloxinia sylvatica - Bolivian Sunset

    🔥 It opens overnight, wakes up just for Thanksgiving!

    • 🔥 Gloxinia sylvatica - Bolivian Sunset, is one of those plants that waits for the perfect cool morning and then explodes in red.
    • 🔥 The blooms really do show up overnight - bright fire-red, glowing even in deep shade. and blooms all through fall and winter. In Summer it sleeps, then flowers come back in Fall.
    • 🔥 It's an easy, water-loving, shade-loving plant that makes a showy holiday ground cover. It stays low, spreads from rhizomes. And if you like sharing plants, this one gives you plenty of starts to pass around during the holidays. Perfect timing, perfect color, perfect seasonal surprise!


    🛒 Plant Bolivian Sunset - the Winter Wonder that turns on like a light switch!

    📚 Learn more:


    Low growing show stopper blooms like a winter fire

    #Butterfly_Plants #Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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