Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 13 Jan 2025

What are these beautiful trees blooming right now?

Bauhinia blakeana - Hong Kong Orchid Tree, flowers

💌 What are these beautiful trees blooming right now?



🎈 If you happen to be in Florida during Winter months, you must have noticed Orchid trees in full bloom, and the most beautiful of them - Bauhinia blakeana - Hong Kong Orchid Tree.

📚 More from previous posts:


The best shade tree
The most beautiful of all orchid trees
📱

🛒 Order Hong Kong Orchid Tree

#Trees #Fun_Facts

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Date: 21 Oct 2025

Compact Bauhinias - everblooming container trees

Compact Bauhinias - everblooming container trees

Compact Bauhinias - everblooming container trees

🌈 Compact Bauhinias - everblooming container trees

📸 Pictures for the previous post, Bauhinias:

Bauhinia madagascariensis - Red Dwarf Orchid Tree. Blooms from winter through fall, up to 10 months a year. The most cold-hardy of all.
Bauhinia blakeana - Hong Kong Orchid Tree. A large tree in the ground, but compact in pots if trimmed. Grafted trees flower right away. Winter bloomer, cold hardy to light frost.
Bauhinia tomentosa - Yellow Orchid Tree. Flowers from Winter through Summer, cold hardy to light frost.
Bauhinia monandra - Napoleon's Plume Orchid Tree. Almost everblooming with the longest flowering period (less cold hardy than the first three).
Bauhinia acuminata - Dwarf White Orchid Tree. Blooms from summer through winter (also less cold hardy than the first three).

🛒 Explore Bauhinias (Orchid Trees)

#Container_Garden #Trees

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Date: 6 Jan 2017

6 easiest fruit trees and 5 spices to grow in containers indoors

Q: This is why I want to move so that I can grow absolutely anything I want from your catalogue. Prefered Puerto Rico. Right now I live in New York and there is absolutely nothing I can grow there.

A: Of course living in Puerto Rico brings more opportunities to grow tropical species. However, you can create your unique tropical paradise even living in New York. We have many customers from up North who successfully grow tropical species (and get them to flower and fruit) in greenhouses, and even indoors.
Here are a few suggestions of tropical fruit trees that adapt well for container/indoor culture - for both beginners and advanced gardeners.

Top 6 fruit trees great for indoors / container culture / beginners
1. Mango (Mangifera indica). Select from one of smaller mango varieties
2. Sugar Apple (Annona squamosa)
3. Guanabana, Soursop (Annona muricata)
4. Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum)
5. June Plum (Spondias cytherea)
6. Guava (Psidium guajava)

5 top spice plants (the spice will be with you right away, you don't have to wait for it to grow)
1. Allspice (Pimenta dioica)
2. Cinnamomon or Campor tree
3. Bay Leaf (Laurus nobilis)
4. Mint Tree (Satureja vimenea)
5. Vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifolia)

See a brief article of growing tropicals outside of tropics.

Don't forget to get some SUNSHINE boosters for your plant collection - for both successful indoor culture and cold protection!

See also our magazine Tropical Treasures) - Pushing the Limits of Tropical Gardening, with list of issues.

Date: 15 Jan 2024

Florida Starter Garden in Winter

Odontonema  Firespike

Photo above: Bauhinia blakeana - Hong Kong Orchid Tree

Q: We just moved to Florida and our yard is currently just plain grass. I want to add some beautiful tropical plants, but I'm not sure where to start. Can you suggest easy-to-care-for plants that look nice in winter, preferably with flowers? Considering it's Winter time and some trees look dormant... But I can't wait to start my tropical garden!

A: Florida residents are blessed to have mild winters, and many tropical and subtropical plants enjoy this climate year around. Just be mindful of your location's specific conditions (sun-shade, wet-dry, cold sensitive or hardy). Here are some recommendations for easy-to-grow, evergreen plants that love Florida and look great even in winter. They'll establish well during cooler months, add a splash of color to your garden with their flowers, and even treat you with fruit!

Winter flowers - will bloom now!

Clerodendrum Winter Starburst
Clerodendrum Blue Butterfly
Eranthemum Blue Sage
Odontonema Firespike
Pavonia - Brazilian Candles

Odontonema  Firespike

Photo above: Odontonema cuspidatum - Firespike

Fragrant Garden

Banana Magnolia
Jasminum sambac Little Duke Supreme
Vietnamese Gardenia
Nyctanthes - Parijat
Ylang Ylang vine

Gardenia  (Kailarsenia)  vietnamensis  -  Vietnamese  Gardenia

Photo above: Gardenia vietnamensis - Vietnamese Gardenia

Curious unusual trees

Hong Kong Orchid Tree
Candle Tree

Parmentiera  edulis  -  Candle  Tree,  Guahalote

Photo above: Parmentiera edulis - Candle Tree, Guahalote

Easy fruit

Noni Tree
Yellow Dragon Fruit Palora
Coffee Tree

Morinda  citrifolia  -  Noni  Tree

Photo above: Morinda citrifolia - Noni Tree

Great looking now:
for Shade and Indoor Garden

Calathea zebrina - Zebra Plant
Black Bat Head Lily
White Bat Head Lily
Medinilla
Vanilla Orchid
Reed Ground Orchid
Calathea Fuzzy Pheasant
Colocasia Mojito
Syngonium

Tacca  nivea  -  White  Bat  Head  Lily

Photo above: Tacca nivea - White Bat Head Lily

Date: 17 Feb 2025

What are the best plants for a bathroom oasis

🌳 What are the best plants for a bathroom oasis



👍 If you are lucky to have a large bathroom with a skylight, you can create your little tropical oasis!
Plants on the video are the easiest candidates that require minimum care:

Philodendrons
Calatheas
Monsteras
Aspidistra
Christmas Cactus
Peperomias
Vanilla Orchid
Ruellia makoyana - Monkey Flower

🛍 Shop indoor garden

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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