Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 9 Jul 2025

Do you see Musical Notes in this flower?

Clerodendrum incisum - Musical Note, Morning Kiss Clerodendrum

🎶 Do you see Musical Notes in this flower?
  • 🎶 Our garden’s putting on a concert - Clerodendrum incisum is in full bloom, and these quirky little musical notes are ready to jazz up your space!
  • 🎶 Musical Note, or Morning Kiss Clerodendrum blooms at Top Tropicals garden most of the year, several times - during the warm period, from Spring to late Fall.


ℹ️ The unopened flowers resemble musical notes, giving the plant its name.

🛒 Bring home the bloom that sings

📚 Learn more about Music Notes:


#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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Date: 21 Jul 2025

Five best fragrant plants for summer plantings

Brunfelsia isola - Lavender Lady of the Night

☀️ Five best fragrant plants for summer plantings

  • ☀️ Summer heat? No problem. These fragrant plants thrive in it - and will make your garden smell like vacation every day.
  • ☀️ Brunfelsia - Lady of the Night - releases its sweet scent after sunset, filling warm evenings with a dreamy, tropical perfume.
  • ☀️ Gardenia - Queen of Scent - classic creamy blooms with a rich, unmistakable fragrance that perfumes the air even in peak summer.
  • ☀️ Jasminum sambac - the most popular and the most fragrant Jasmine for both indoor or outdoor culture. Varieties: Arabian Nights, Belle of India, Mangalore Malli, Grand Duke, Grand Duke Supreme, Gundu Malli, Maid of Orleans, Mali Chat, Mysore Mulli, Little Duke Supreme - Baby Duke.
  • ☀️ Nyctanthes arbor-tristis - Parijat. Small tree or shrub from India with highly perfumed flowers, one of the most desired fragrant plants. Mythology says the plant came to earth with God Krishna, shedding flowers like tears before dawn.
  • ☀️ Plumeria - tropical icon known for its heavenly scent and stunning flowers - blooms all summer and keeps your garden smelling like vacation!


🛒 Shop fragrant plants

🎥 Brunfelsia isola, or Lavender Lady of the Night, are a "marble" twist of cream and purple, changing hue unpredictably. They are deliciously fragrant at night.

📚 More fragrant garden ideas:


Six most desired perfume plants

#Perfume_Plants #Discover

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Date: 21 Aug 2025

One bite, your whole day of vitamin C: Barbados Cherry that outdoes oranges!

Malpighia glabra - Barbados Cherry, Acerola

🍒 One bite, your whole day of vitamin C: Barbados Cherry that outdoes oranges!

  • 🍒 Malpighia glabra - Barbados Cherry, or Acerola has 65 times more vitamin C than an orange! Just a single berry-sized fruit can provide your entire daily vitamin C needs, along with vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, carotenoids, and bioflavonoids. In short, this little cherry is one of the most powerful antioxidant fruits in the world.
  • 🍒 But it isn’t just about nutrition. Barbados Cherry is a compact, fast-growing shrub or small tree that starts fruiting young, often within its first year. It produces crops several times a year, and the bright red cherries are as beautiful as they are useful. The fruit is tangy-sweet and makes excellent juices, smoothies, jams, and jellies. It also freezes well without losing its vitamin content.
  • 🍒 Gardeners love this plant not only for its fruit but also for how easy it is to grow. Unlike many tropicals, it tolerates alkaline soils, is drought-resistant once established, and can handle light freezes. That makes it a surprisingly tough choice for a tropical fruit tree. Birds enjoy the fruit too, so planting one is also a gift to your local wildlife.
  • 🍒 It's also a beauty in the garden, covered in pretty pink flowers and bright red fruit, often both at the same time.
  • 🍒 If you are short on space, the dwarf variety Nana is a perfect choice. With tiny leaves, compact growth, and smaller fruit, it works well in containers, borders, or even as a bonsai. It's both ornamental and productive.
  • 🍒 Whether you want a reliable vitamin boost, a wildlife-friendly garden addition, or just a cheerful little tree with bright red fruit, Barbados Cherry has you covered.


📚 Learn more from previous posts:

🛒 Add this vitamin C tree to your garden

#Food_Forest #Discover #Remedies

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Date: 30 Sep 2025

Can you name all the fruits on this tray? One of them will stump you!

Papaya, Avocado, Egyptian guava and Cas guava, Barbados cherry, Peanut butter fruit

Can you name all the fruits on this tray? One of them will stump you!

  • 🥭 This morning I walked the garden and came back with a tray of fruits! That’s the joy of living in Florida with your own tropical garden: something new is always in season.
  • 🥭 On today’s tray: Papaya, Avocado, Egyptian guava and Cas guava, Barbados cherry… And this little red one? Peanut butter fruit!
  • 🥭 At Top Tropicals, you’ll find every tropical fruit tree you can imagine. What fruits are you harvesting from your garden right now?


🛒 Explore rare tropical fruit

📚 Learn more:
#Food_Forest #Discover

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Date: 1 Oct 2025

Ten shrubs you need to have for winter colors

Garlic Vine, Dombeya - Tropical Hydrangea, Brunfelsia Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow, Fountain Clerodendrum, Tibouchina grandifolia - Glory bush, Chinese hat, Barleria - Philippine violet, Thunbergia - Kings Mantle, Eranthemum - Blue Sage or Lead Flower, Petrea vine - Queens wreath

🌷 Ten shrubs you need to have for winter colors



Many snowbirds ask what to plant when they’re here just for the season. The answer is simple: go for trees and shrubs that bloom in winter. Fall is the perfect time to get them in the ground so your garden will be bursting with flowers once the cool season arrives. In our earlier video, we shared 8 best flowering trees that will bloom for you in Winter. Now, here are the shrubs that will complete your colorful winter garden.
  • 🌷 1. Mansoa alliacea - Garlic Vine
  • Known for its garlicky scent, it also puts on clusters of lavender to purple flowers in cool weather. Reliable and eye-catching, often trained on fences or trellises. 👉plant it
  • 🌷 2. Dombeya wallichii - Tropical Hydrangea
  • Large pink pompom clusters hang like lanterns from the branches. Sweetly fragrant and showy, it creates a hydrangea effect right in winter. 👉plant it
  • 🌷 3. Brunfelsia pauciflora Compacta - Dwarf Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow
  • Small and manageable, it opens purple flowers that fade to lavender and then white, giving the look of three colors at once. A cheerful winter bloomer for pots or borders. 👉plant it
  • 🌷 4. Clerodendrum minahassae - Fountain Clerodendrum
  • This shrub lives up to its name with cascades of long white flower sprays, blooming heavily in the cooler months and brightening shaded corners. 👉plant it
  • 🌷 5. Tibouchina multiflora (grandifolia) - Glory bush, Quaresmeira
  • Covered in clusters of soft, fuzzy purple blooms, this shrub adds tropical flair during the cooler months. Its velvety leaves are ornamental year-round. 👉plant it
  • 🌷 6. Holmskioldia sanguinea - Red Chinese hat
  • Cup-shaped bracts form red “hats” around small flowers. This shrub stands out with unique form and long-lasting blooms. 👉plant it
  • 🌷 7. Barleria cristata - Philippine violet
  • A hardy shrub with masses of purple-violet blooms in the cool season. It flowers when many plants are quiet, adding dependable winter color. 👉plant it
  • 🌷 8. Thunbergia erecta - King’s Mantle
  • A compact shrub with velvety purple blooms and bright yellow throats. It’s neat, easy to manage, and flowers generously in winter. 👉plant it
  • 🌷 9. Eranthemum pulchellum - Blue Sage, Lead Flower
  • Few shrubs can match its electric-blue spikes of flowers in winter. Compact and low-care, it brings a rare color to the cool season garden. 👉plant it
  • 🌷 10. Petrea volubilis (racemosa) - Queen’s wreath
A woody vine-shrub that bursts into cascading sprays of lavender stars. It flowers heavily in winter, resembling wisteria in the tropics. 👉plant it
🛒 Explore Winter bloomers

📚 Learn more:


#Hedges_with_benefits #Discover

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