Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 13 Aug 2025

🌸 Orchid Tree - Bauhinia: Winter Blooms & Year-Round Beauty

Collage showing Bauhinia blakeana with magenta flowers, Bauhinia variegata var. candida with white blooms, and Bauhinia monandra with pink speckled flowers; all suitable for gardens, with some varieties adapted to container growing if trimmed.
Bauhinia blakeana, Bauhinia variegata var. candida, and Bauhinia monandra – Orchid Trees in Bloom

Sometimes a plant stops you midwalk. Flowers so bright they almost glow, leaves shaped like butterflies — that’s a Bauhinia, the Orchid Tree. These fast growers bring color when many gardens are quiet, with some blooming in the heart of winter.

🌟 Why Grow Bauhinia?

  • Exotic blooms in colors from white to deep magenta
  • Distinctive leaves — nature’s own butterfly design
  • Many varieties flower in the cooler season
  • Fast growth, easy shaping, more blooms after pruning
  • Varieties for large yards, small gardens, and sunny patios
  • Tolerant of heat, drought, and poor soils

Bauhinia Care Tips

🌞 Outdoor

Full sun for best flowering, well-draining soil, deep watering once established. Light pruning after bloom keeps shape and encourages more flowers. Protect young plants from frost. During the growing season (Spring - Fall), apply a balanced fertilizer - like top-dress slow release fertilizer or controlled-release Green Magic. Liquid fertilizer Sunshine Boosters Megaflor can be used year around - to promote vigorous growth and abundant blooms.

🏡 Indoor / Patio

Bright sun (south window or outdoors in warm months), large pot with drainage, even moisture during growth, and a bloom-booster feed in season. Feed regularly with a balanced fertilizer controlled-release Green Magic. Liquid fertilizer Sunshine Boosters Megaflor can be used year around - to promote vigorous growth and abundant blooms. Bring indoors before frost.

🍂 Seasonal Note – Bauhinias are Deciduous

Bauhinias drop their leaves in winter — even in warm climates. This is normal and part of their rest cycle. Bare branches in the cool season will leaf out again in spring, often just as flowers begin.

📝 Quick choice guide

Shop Bauhinas

Watch videos about flowering trees

Date: 19 Dec 2025

13 festive shrubs with bright flowers that bring color to your Winter Garden when everything else is dormant

13 festive shrubs for Winter Garden

13 festive shrubs for Winter Garden

💐 13 festive shrubs with bright flowers that bring color to your Winter Garden when everything else is dormant



Southern Living points to colorful berries as winter garden standbys. Tropical plants take it a step further, filling the cool season with real flowers, not just fruit. From vivid reds to electric blues, these plants prove winter does not have to be dull.

    • 🌈 1. Gloxinia sylvatica - Bolivian Sunset


    This plant waits for cool weather, then suddenly lights up the shade with fire-red blooms. Flowers appear almost overnight and continue through fall and winter. It rests in summer, returns in fall, spreads gently, and makes an easy, festive ground cover that is perfect for sharing.

👉 Learn more

    • 🌈 2. Pereskia aculeata - Barbados gooseberry


    An unusual vine that surprises in cool weather with delicate, star-shaped blooms followed by tasty fruit. It flowers steadily from fall through winter, adding light, airy color to fences and trellises when most vines are quiet.

👉 Learn more

    • 🌈 3. Mansoa alliacea - garlic vine


    Best known for its garlicky scent, this vine really shines in winter. Cooler temperatures bring clusters of lavender-purple flowers that brighten fences and trellises with very little effort.

👉 Learn more

    • 🌈 4. Dombeya wallichii - tropical hydrangea


    Large pink pompom blooms hang from bare branches in winter, creating a true holiday look. Lightly fragrant and impossible to miss, it brings hydrangea-style drama to the cool season.

👉 Learn more

    • 🌈 5. Brunfelsia pauciflora Compacta - dwarf yesterday-today-tomorrow


    Compact and cheerful, this shrub opens purple flowers that fade to lavender and white. The color shift makes it look like several plants blooming at once, perfect for pots or small garden spaces.

👉 Learn more

    • 🌈 6. Clerodendrums


    Long, cascading sprays of white flowers of Clerodendrum minahassae - fountain clerodendrum - spill from the plant during the cooler months. It brightens shaded areas and adds movement when the garden slows down. Most clerodendrums bloom through Winter!

👉 Learn more

    • 🌈 7. Tibouchina multiflora - glory bush


    Soft, fuzzy purple blooms cover this shrub in winter, backed by velvety leaves that look good year-round. It adds strong color and texture during the cool season.

👉 Learn more

    • 🌈 8. Holmskioldia sanguinea - Chinese hat


    Bright red, orange or yellow, hat-shaped bracts surround small flowers and hold their color through the cool months. The shape alone makes this shrub a standout in winter.

👉 Learn more

    • 🌈 9. Barleria cristata - Philippine violet


    This tough shrub blooms heavily in winter with rich purple flowers. It delivers dependable color when many plants take a break. There is a golden variety too!

👉 Learn more

    • 🌈 10. Eranthemum pulchellum - blue sage, lead flower


    Few plants offer true blue in winter. Electric-blue flower spikes appear in cool weather, adding rare color with minimal care.

👉 Learn more

    • 🌈 11. Petrea volubilis - queen's wreath


    In winter, this woody vine erupts into cascading sprays of lavender star-shaped flowers. It creates a wisteria-like effect right when the garden needs it most.

👉 Learn more

    • 🌈 12. Tabebuia varieties - dwarf golden and dwarf pink


    These trees save their show for winter, blooming on bare branches. Golden forms glow yellow, while pink varieties cover themselves in soft trumpet-shaped flowers.

👉 Learn more

🌈 13. Bauhinia trees - pink butterfly and Hong Kong orchid trees


Butterfly-shaped blooms open on leafless branches, giving bauhinias their signature winter elegance. The Hong Kong orchid tree stands out with especially large, vivid flowers.

🛒 Explore Winter bloomers

📚 Learn more:


#Hedges_with_benefits #Discover

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 11 Jan 2021

Tropical gardener beginning-of-year checklist

Final pre-Spring check of whatever we had forgotten! For a gardener, the year ahead is a chance to do things you want, as a way to achieve the things you need to do. If your number one New Year's resolution is to garden more (a want-to item), you also will be exercising more (a need-to). Or if you plant a new edible garden (want, want, want), you will end up checking off "eat more leafy vegetables and fruits" from your to-do list!

12 steps to get ready for 2021 season:

1 - Spray fruit trees and houseplants with insecticide and micro-elements
2 - Continue spraying SUNSHINE-Epi to improve plant hardiness
3 - Protect tender plants during cold spells and especially from freeze
4 - Reduce watering during cooler months, keeping the root zone on a dry side
5 - To give your plants a kick start, fertilize with liquid SUNSHINE Boosters fertilizers - they are safe to be used year round
6 - Plant fruit trees: winter planting is beneficial to avoid heat stress for roots
7 - Plant Butterfly and Hummingbird Attractants
8 - Plant bulbs, vegetables and herbs. Use eco-safe, natural SUNSHINE boosters for all your edibles.
9 - Plan your summer garden and order seeds early
10 - Start tropical plants from seeds (indoors for cooler climates)
11 - Start ordering tropical plants and beneficial soil mix to get them established after shipping in pots
12 - Clean and oil garden tools

Date: 3 Oct 2025

Plant for birds: feast for wildlife and people from a tiny vine!

Passiflora suberosa - Corkystem Passion Vine

Plant for birds: feast for wildlife and people from a tiny vine!

  • Passiflora suberosa - Corkystem Passion Flower: did you know this Florida native passion vine is more than just a butterfly host? Birds love it too - they’ll happily snack on the little fruits and sing you thank-you songs all day long!
  • And yes, the fruit is edible for people as well! The berries are small, but they make a fun and exotic treat.
  • The plants has a tiny flower and a tiny fruit – both only about half an inch – but together they create a mighty native habitat.
  • It's a triple win: butterflies, birds, and people can all enjoy something from this charming little plant. Plus, it’s the larval host for Gulf Fritillary, Zebra Longwing, and Julia butterflies, and its tiny greenish flowers provide nectar all year long. Fast-growing, easy, and full of life – a real gem for any Florida garden.
  • This vine is delicate and compact, perfect for a medium trellis or climbing a small tree. Unlike the big, aggressive passion vines that can cover a whole fence, this one stays manageable.
  • This Passion vine is not just charming and wildlife-friendly, it’s also tough as nails. Cold hardy and easy to grow, this native vine takes whatever Florida throws at it – heavy rains, long droughts and heat, poor sandy soils, even total neglect – and still thrives. A perfect choice if you want beauty, wildlife, and resilience all in one little plant.


🛒 Plant this small and tough vine with food and wildlife benefits

📚 Learn more:


#Food_Forest #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants #How_to

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 18 Apr 2025

Want Constant Blooms? Plant Clerodendrums

Your Shortcut to a Colorful Garden

Cat with Bleeding Heart Clerodendrum

Q: Q: I live in Florida, and while everything is green, I want more color in my garden and patio. What low-maintenance perennials can add nonstop blooms without constant care? I'm tired of annuals that don't last. Do such plants even exist?

A: Yes, they do - and your perfect solution is Clerodendrums. These colorful tropical perennials grow fast, bloom for most of the year, and thrive in both sun and shade. They're easy to care for, relatively cold-tolerant, and come in many shapes: shrubs, vines, and even small trees. Ideal for both garden beds and containers.

Why Grow Clerodendrums?

Clerodendrum philippinum - Cashmere Bouquet

Clerodendrums are tough, reliable, and visually striking plants:
- Fast-growing with a compact habit
- Available in many forms: shrubs, vines, and small trees
- Colorful flowers, many of them are sweetly fragrant!
- Thrive in sun or shade; cold tolerant; not picky about soil
- Bloom repeatedly or continuously
- Excellent for pots, patios, or indoors

Clerodendrums as Shrubs

Clerodendrum ugandense and mastacanthum

- Clerodendrum bungei - Glory Bower: fragrant pink blooms, spreads quickly
- Clerodendrum incisum - Musical Note: unique buds shaped like musical notes
- Clerodendrum inerme - Wild Jasmine: salt-tolerant, good for seaside areas
- Clerodendrum mastacanthum - Pink Butterfly Bush: long-blooming, eye-catching pink
- Clerodendrum paniculatum - Pagoda Flower: layered red-orange towers of flowers
- Clerodendrum philippinum - Cashmere Bouquet: double fragrant flowers, shade-tolerant
- Clerodendrum ugandense - Blue Butterfly: delicate blue blooms that attract pollinators

Clerodendrums as Vines

Clerodendrum thomsoniae - Bleeding Heart

- Clerodendrum thomsoniae - Bleeding Heart: classic red-and-white contrast, climbs easily
- Clerodendrum speciosum - Red Bleeding Heart: vivid magenta blooms, great on trellises

Clerodendrums as Small Trees

Clerodendrum quadriloculare - Winter Starburst

- Clerodendrum minahassae - Fountain Clerodendrum: upright, white flower sprays
- Clerodendrum sahelangii - Champagne Clerodendrum: cascading white blooms
- Clerodendrum quadriloculare - Winter Starburst: purple leaves, late winter blooms
- Clerodendrum schmitii - Chains of Glory: dangling flower clusters, unusual look
- Clerodendrum wallichii - Bridal Veil: long white flowers, graceful arching branches

Bloom Faster - Shop Now

Clerodendrum minahasse

◂ Previous pageNext page ▸Most recent entry ▴Blog table of contents