Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 15 Aug 2025

Climbing 10 feet for Vanilla Beans!

Vanilla Bean Orchid - Vanilla planifolia

⭐️ Climbing 10 feet… for Vanilla Beans!

⚡️ One of our Vanilla Bean Orchids at TopTropicals has big ambitions - it's already climbed 10 feet up a pine tree! We’re waiting (impatiently!) for those elegant yellow-green flowers, which will hopefully turn into vanilla beans.
⚡️ Vanilla Bean Orchid (Vanilla planifolia) is the plant behind that sweet, comforting vanilla flavor we all love. It starts off like any potted orchid, but soon sends out aerial roots and becomes a climber, wrapping itself around trees or trellises. In its natural habitat, it grows high into forest canopies, but in the garden it will happily scale any sturdy support you give it.
⚡️ Once established, it flowers and sets the long green pods we call vanilla beans. Growing your own is a lesson in patience - from flower to dried bean can take month - but nothing beats harvesting your own vanilla for the kitchen.

📚 Learn more:

📱How to produce your own vanilla: secrets of hand-pollination.

🛒 Climb toward your own beans

#Shade_Garden #Container_garden #Food_Forest

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Date: 12 Aug 2025

Six guava varieties that will keep you picking year-round

Tropical Guava - Psidium guajava

🍉 Six guava varieties that will keep you picking year-round

🍉 Everyone loves guava! Sweet, fragrant, and packed with flavor. At TopTropicals, we have a whole guava forest, with varieties for every space and taste: Tropical Guava - Psidium guajava.

🍉 Why we love Guava?

💋Fast-growing and sun-loving

💋Thrives with plenty of water but handle short droughts
💋Starts producing right away - no years of waiting
💋Abundant fruit harvests
💋Perfect for containers or small gardens

🍉 What are the best Guava varieties? Our favorites are:

💋Dwarf Guava - stays under 6 feet but produces full-sized fruit.
💋Honeymoon Variegated - leaves and fruit have variegated patterns, turning golden when ripe.
💋Barbie Pink - pear-shaped yellow fruit with thick pink flesh, low in pectin, perfect for fresh eating or juice. Larger than Ruby Supreme and cold-hardy for a tropical fruit.
💋Hong Kong (Hawaiian) - large, round fruit with smooth pink skin, sweet flavor, and few seeds. Very productive, with a spreading growth habit.
💋Kilo White - huge fruit (up to 1 kilo = 2 lbs) with soft white flesh and few seeds. Great container plant, fruits even when small.
💋Tikal - compact tree with yellow-skinned, pink-fleshed fruit. Fruits year-round and starts young. Great for beginners.

🍉 Health boost in every bite:

Guava is one of the richest sources of vitamin C – even more than oranges. It’s loaded with antioxidants, fiber, potassium, and lycopene, which support immunity, heart health, and digestion.

🍉 Whether you’ve got space for a tree in the yard or just a container on the patio, a guava will reward you with beauty, fragrance, and sweet fruit in no time.

🛒 Pick your guava variety

📚 Learn more:

How to grow a Guava Tree: Practical Guide to Growing Guava
More about #Guava

#Food_Forest #Guava #Discover

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Date: 20 Nov 2023

Growing Dreams and Happiness:
A Decade at Top Tropicals

By Kristi VanBenschoten,
Top Tropicals Manager

"The purpose of agriculture is not the production of food,
but the perfection of human beings"
- Masanoby Fukuoka -

Working with Top Tropicals for the past decade, I frequently hear heartwarming comments from customers like, "Oh, wow, this place is breathtaking," "You must adore working here," "Isn't it marvelous to be in harmony with nature every day?"

The truth is, yes, all these sentiments hold true, and I genuinely cherish every single one of these comments; however... If you were to inquire about my most cherished aspect of working here, I would have to say that my absolute favorite part is when a husband calls and says:

"My wife and I embarked on a honeymoon five years ago, and we stumbled upon this exotic wonder called Helicona Lobster Claw. My wife was captivated by it. I would love to surprise her with one for our upcoming anniversary. Do you happen to have them?.."

...Or when a bereaved wife sends an email, expressing:

"My beloved husband recently departed, and he held a deep affection for Gardenias. I wish to plant one in our front yard as a living tribute to his memory. Could you kindly recommend one?..."

Or, it could be the heartwarming scene of a new father visiting with his young son, exclaiming:

"I have a dream of creating a bountiful food forest for my children with fruit and other edibles. I want them to experience the enchantment of watching food grow and to impart the wisdom of cultivating it. Can you guide me in this endeavor?"

Or the passionate plant collector who has spent years on a quest to acquire that one elusive specimen, the final piece of their adored collection. We spare no effort in locating it, and when we succeed, it fills me with an indescribable joy!

You see, here at Top Tropicals, we don't merely sell plants; we trade in precious memories, lofty aspirations, and vivid visions for a brighter future. We deal in dreams. These dreams are nurtured in pots with a touch of fertile soil and an abundance of love. This is the essence of what makes Top Tropicals so special to me:

We Grow Happinessâ€¦

Explore Top Tropicals

Date: 19 Nov 2020

Chorisia speciosa - Exotic Pink Silk Floss Tree

by Onika Amell, tropical plant expert

When I stumbled upon my first Pink Silk Floss tree at the Naples Botanical Garden in Florida, it stopped me in my tracks. It was in full bloom and one of the most beautiful flowering trees I had ever laid my eyes upon. This tree has so much wow factor. Not only are the flowers of this native from the Amazon Rain Forest in South America spectacular, but the trunk, seeds and attractive, umbrella-like crown makes it exceptionally unique and interesting. This tree will stand out in any garden....

CONTINUE READING >>

Date: 11 Jul 2024

Five most popular Avocado varieties

Food Forest

"What is the best variety of Avocado?"
"Do you have the one with small black fruit and bumpy skin?"
"I have avocado with very large green fruit, what variety is it?"

These are frequently asked questions we get from our customers. This basic "classification" by black/green doesn't encompass all the wonderful qualities avocados have to offer. There are numerous hybrids in cultivation, and once you plant your first tree and taste the REAL fruit (not from the grocery store), you'll be eager to explore other varieties. While it's true that avocado fruit can vary in "butter" content, most superior varieties are equally delicious. First comes first -

The most popular Avocado varieties this year are:

1. Brogdon - red-purple pear-shaped fruit, 7-15 oz. Skin is very thin, yellow buttery flesh. Fruit ripens in late summer-fall. Very cold hardy.

2. Hass - probably the most popular, but this tree prefers drier climate (Florida is humid, so we plant adaptable Florida Hass here). The fruit is dark-colored with a rough and bumpy skin, turns black when ripe.

3. Fuerte - a dwarf and a very cold hardy variety. Everybody's favorite "Condo Avocado": perfect for container culture and small yards. The mature tree in the ground is under 15 ft; 6-7 ft in containers.

4. Oro Negro - Oro Negro means "black gold" in Spanish, which is an incredibly appropriate name for this fruit. This Monroe hybrid (with big size fruit) is crossed with a Mexican type which would explain the black skin. The flesh is rich and buttery with a creamy texture.

5. Winter Mexican - one of most cold hardy varieties, Guatemalan x Mexican origin. Mature trees may withstand temperatures in the mid 20s. Oblong fruit, 12-18 oz, thick green skin. Very vigorous tree, bears heavily and regularly in December-January.

Learn more: Avocado Variety Guide - check this out for interactive chart of Avocado varieties and sort them by flower type A or B, tree habit, fruit shape and quality, cold hardiness, origin, season and more!

Check Avocado variety Guide

Photo above: Avocado Hass

Photo above: Avocado Fuerte

Photo above: Avocado Oro-Negro

Photo above: Avocado Winter-Mexican

Shop Avocado varieties

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