Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 18 Feb 2026

🔥 Blazing into the 2026 with hot jasmines

Sunshine the orange tabby wearing a red, white, and blue wristband sits
laughing on a jasmine-covered horse topiary during the 2026 Year of the
Horse, while Smokey the tuxedo cat trims the greenery at
sunset.

Sunshine: I'm blazing into the 2026 Year of the Horse! Call me Mister Fahrenheit. Don't stop me now! 'Cause I'm having a good time — I'm a shooting star, leaping through the sky like a tiger, defying the laws of gravity!
Smokey: It's jasmine, Tiger. A shrub. Not Wembley. Calm down.

💮 2026 Year of the Horse - and the Plant I Trust Most

By Tatiana Anderson, Horticulture Expert at Top Tropicals

Every new year carries its own energy.

2026 is the Year of the Horse - a year of movement, fire, momentum, and bold decisions. It is not a quiet year. It pushes us forward.

When fellow gardeners ask me what to grow in a year like this, my answer is simple:
Grow something that balances strength with grace.

For me, that plant is Jasmine Sambac.

In many cultures, Sambac represents devotion, purity, and deep affection. In the Philippines it is the national flower - Sampaguita - woven into garlands for weddings and sacred ceremonies. In Hawaii, it becomes leis - a symbol of welcome and connection - Pikake. In India, it perfumes temples and homes.

This is not just a fragrant shrub.
It is a plant tied to love, loyalty, and continuity.

The Horse runs forward.
Jasmine anchors the heart.

In a fiery year like 2026, I believe we need both.

And that is why I always return to Jasminum sambac.

🛒 Explore Jasmine varieties

Jasmine Sambac thrives in hot, sunny locations

✅ Why Jasmine Sambac?

Over the years I have grown thousands of plants, but very few have the staying power of Jasmine Sambac.

It is not just fragrant. It is intensely, unmistakably fragrant. One open flower can perfume an entire patio. In the evening, the scent becomes deeper and richer.

But what makes Sambac truly special is its adaptability.

It can grow as a compact patio shrub, a flowering hedge, or a climbing vine. It performs beautifully in containers. It tolerates both full sun and partial shade. The more light you give it, the more flowers it rewards you with.

And unlike many tropicals, Sambac does not bloom just once. With proper care, it flowers in cycles throughout the warm season.

For gardeners, that combination is rare: beauty, perfume, flexibility, and repeat bloom.

That is why it has remained one of the most wanted fragrant plants in cultivation.

✍️ More About Jasmines from Blog

🛒 Explore Jasmine plants

Date: 4 May 2026

🎉 Work First. Celebrate Anyway. That Is the Plan.

Sunshine cat holding large mango tacos in a garden nursery while Smokey
works on laptop with margarita and donuts on
table

Smokey: Work first. Celebrations later.
Sunshine: I am celebrating efficient workflow.
Smokey: Impressive. Somehow your workflow smells like tacos.
Sunshine: I assembled mango tacos. Join my festivities.

Cinco de Mayo has a way of sneaking up the right way. The weather settles, the evenings stretch a little longer, and suddenly everything moves outside - plants, people, and whatever happens to be for lunch. It is the kind of day where you stay out longer than planned, something cold is sweating on the table, and dinner becomes whatever sounds good.

This year, it was mango tacos. Not a recipe we planned - just a few ripe mangoes that needed a purpose and the kind of lazy inspiration that shows up around 5pm in the garden. Nothing complicated. Just something warm from the pan and a quick assembly that somehow feels like a celebration.

It's funny how a good meal can send you down a rabbit hole. One bite of something fresh and you start wondering where it came from, whether you could grow it yourself, and how much better it might taste if you did.

That is really the point. A small shift from planning to picking, where the line between the garden and the kitchen starts to blur. If you are growing fruit, or thinking about it, this is your reminder: the best meals usually start about ten feet from your back door.

🛒 Start with one plant - Shop Fruit Trees

Date: 20 Sep 2025

How to make lots of Insulin Ginger plants quickly and get more health benefits

Costus igneus (Chamaecostus cuspidatus) - Fiery Costus or Spiral Flag

💚 How to make lots of Insulin Ginger plants quickly and get more health benefits

Costus igneus (Chamaecostus cuspidatus) - Fiery Costus or Spiral Flag is believed to help lower blood glucose levels naturally and managing diabetes.
Have you heard of Insulin Ginger? Everyone wants to have it in the garden!
Gardeners in India grow it not just for its pretty spiral leaves, but for what those leaves do. People with diabetes often chew them fresh or brew them into tea, saying it helps keep their blood sugar under control.
Researchers have found something interesting: the leaves contain an insulin-like compound, along with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. In animal studies, extracts from the plant lowered blood sugar, protected the liver and kidneys, and even made the body more sensitive to insulin.
The way folks use it is simple. You can chew a leaf right off the plant, steep dried leaves for tea, or find it in powders and capsules. It's one of those plants that shows how tradition and science sometimes meet in the garden.
Its lush, turmeric-like leaves spiral around upright stems, with a glossy dark green top and a striking light purple underside. In warm months, it produces bright orange, cone-like flowers that stand out beautifully in the garden.
Beyond its beauty and natural insulin effects, the insulin plant is credited with aiding digestion, reducing cholesterol, boosting energy, improving skin health, supporting weight loss, relieving stress, and promoting heart wellness. A real botanical multitasker!

🎥 In this video, we’ll show you how to multiply Insulin Ginger fast, so you’ll have plenty of plants for yourself and even extras to share with friends and family.

✅ Don’t forget to use Green Magic fertilizer for the best results. Gingers absolutely love this plant food - they thrive on it and respond better than any other plant, with vigorous growth, lush foliage and loads of leaves you’ll need for all the benefits.

🛒 Grow your own sugar-fighter - the Insulin Ginger

📚 Learn more:

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Shade_Garden #Discover

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 25 Feb 2024

Avocado pollinating and crops

Photo above: Avocado Joey - very buttery fruit, cold hardy variety.

Q: I bought an anise leaf-scented avocado from you, and it is finally quite large and doing great. I live in California, the coldest temperatures we seem to get in some winters is around 25 to 28F, and it never lasts long. The tree might get a bit of frost nipping on the new growth, but it has done very well. It has flowered profusely for the last two years but hasn't set any fruit. What variety you might recommend to help with pollinating?

A: We are glad your avocado is doing great. Anise is one of our favorite varieties, with the wonderful smell of leaves and tasty fruit.

Cold hardiness and flower quality

It is true that cold damage may affect avocado production, especially in setting fruit. To improve the tree's cold hardiness, make sure to provide balanced plant food, especially during the season of active growth. For our avocado trees, we use Sunshine C-Cibus year-round.

If you prefer to use dry (granulated, slow-release) fertilizers, make sure they contain micronutrients, or apply Sunshine Superfood microelement complex once a month.

To improve flower quality (including the ability to set fruit), we recommend a special micronutrient supplement called Sunshine Honey. It contains Boron and Molybdenum - elements that are responsible for setting fruit and for developing fruit (meaning not dropping at the early stage of development).

Cross-pollination and crop

In general, every avocado tree is self-fertile, meaning it can produce some fruit with its own pollen and doesn't necessarily require a second tree for pollination. So even if you don't do anything, sooner or later your tree will set fruit. However, it is also true that the amount of fruit and crop reliability depends on pollination factors. One type of avocado classification is by flowering and pollination behavior - type A or B.

When both types of trees are grown in proximity to each other, their overlapping flowering patterns significantly enhance the chances of cross-pollination. This can lead to improved fruit set and higher yield, making it especially important for commercial production and, to a lesser extent, for home growers.

Therefore, it's advisable to plant different varieties of avocado in your garden - the more, the merrier! The greater the diversity of avocado trees with overlapping flowering periods, the better your crop is likely to be. If you're growing an avocado tree without other avocados nearby, it becomes helpful to have more than one tree with different flowering patterns (A and B) to increase yield in your garden.

Anise Avocado is type B. So to increase your crop, you may consider planting type A variety from the list: Bernecker, Black Prince, Catalina, Choquette, Day, Donnie, Fantastic, Florida Hass, Lila, Loretta, Lula, Mexicola, Mexicola Grande, Red Russell, Reed, Russell, Simmonds, Ulala , Waldin .

To learn more about avocado types, fruit characteristics, cold hardiness and much more, refer to our Avocado Variety Guide - a page with very convenient interactive chart allowing you to quickly sort types of avocado by requirements of your choice (just click on column header to sort data). You may also buy a Book or download a PDF.

Avocado Variety Guide Page

Shop Avocado Trees

Photo above: 15 gal Avocado trees for local pick up. Delivery and installation available!

See 15 gal Avocado varieties available

Date: 6 Jan 2024

Sunshine Boosters
Winter use... and discount!

Do you remember that Sunshine Boosters fertilizers can be applied year-round?

As natural fertilizers, their scientifically created formulas provide perfectly balanced nutrition for your plants throughout the year. Follow the instructions on the labels and apply Sunshine Boosters with every watering. Give your plants extra boost during winter months! The fertilizer amount is balanced, adjusting proportionally to the water amount, which is tailored to the plant's winter needs. Unlike dry fertilizers, Sunshine Boosters can be used all year without fear of burning plants with excessive nutrient lockup.

Take advantage of the winter sale and stock up on this perfect plant food. You'll need plenty by Spring when your plants begin active growth! Use the code below for 20% off all Sunshine Boosters products. Hurry up, the sale will end in a few days!

SBOOSTERS20

Min order $20, excluding S/H. Exp. 1-12-24

Shop Sunshine Boosters

In the photo above: This picture was taken on Christmas Eve, December 24, 2023. The little garden by our B-farm office, irrigated automatically with Sunshine Boosters using the Robuster injector, is thriving in spite of cool nights. Look at this crazy banana, it is taller than the building, we honestly have never seen a banana of that size! The solution we are using there is Sunshine Robusta; now available for pick up in 2.5 gal jugs!

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