Happy Easter to all who celebrate today - especially across Eastern Europe and Orthodox communities around the world.
Smokey and Sunshine are taking a well-earned break with coffee, sweet Easter bread, and a table full of spring color. Wishing you a day filled with peace, renewal, and quiet joy. And of course - the perfect time to plant flowers and fruit and bring new life into your garden.
Why June Is the Most Important Month for Potted Tropical Plants
Cats Smokey and Sunshine planting tropical plants
Why June Is the Most Important Month for Potted Tropical Plants
For many tropical plants, June is the start of peak growing season. Days are longer, temperatures are warmer, and plants that spent winter indoors or in a greenhouse are suddenly growing at full speed.
A few simple tasks now can mean stronger growth, more flowers, and better fruit later in the season.
Smokey: Sunshine, why are you mixing fertilizer with coffee and donut crumbs? Sunshine: I'm testing a new growth formula. Smokey: Based on what research? Sunshine: Based on a highly controlled breakfast study. I call it Hibiscus Turbo Boost Deluxe.
✅ 1. Repot Before Plants Become Root-Bound
· If roots are circling the pot, growing through drainage holes, or the soil dries out unusually fast, it's time to move up one pot size. · Fresh potting mix provides new space, better drainage, and access to nutrients that older soil may no longer contain. Use professional soilless mix Abundance for best results. · Don't jump from a small pot to an oversized container. One size larger is usually enough.
✅ 2. Feed Hungry Summer Growth
· Tropical plants are no longer resting. They are actively producing roots, leaves, flowers, and fruit. · June is the perfect time to begin regular feeding. · A balanced fertilizer program helps support strong growth, while products such as Green Magic and Sunshine Boosters provide additional nutrients that fast-growing tropicals can quickly use during summer. · A well-fed plant grows faster, recovers from stress better, and flowers more heavily.
✅ 3. Acclimate Plants to Full Sun
One of the most common mistakes is moving a plant directly from indoors or a greenhouse into full summer sun. Leaves that developed in shade can burn within hours.
Start with bright shade or morning sun, then gradually increase exposure over one to two weeks. Even sun-loving plants benefit from a transition period.
✅ 4. Prune for Shape and Strength
June is an excellent time to remove weak, damaged, or overly long branches.
Light pruning encourages branching and creates a fuller, stronger plant.
For fruit trees, selective trimming can also help maintain a manageable size for container growing.
✅ 5. Check for Pests Before They Multiply
· Warm weather brings rapid plant growth - and rapid pest growth. · Inspect new leaves, stems, and undersides of foliage for aphids, scale, spider mites, mealybugs, and whiteflies. · Treat problems early before populations explode during the heat of summer. We recommend Sunshine NoBug all-natural pesticide.
✅ 6. Add Stakes, Trellises, and Supports
· Many tropical plants can double or triple their size during summer. · Climbing plants, vanilla orchids, passion fruit, dragon fruit, mandevilla, and many vining species appreciate support before they become tangled. · Installing stakes or trellises now is much easier than trying to do it later.
✅ 7. Water for Active Growth
· A tropical plant that needed water once a week in spring may need it every day during summer. · Higher temperatures mean faster growth, greater water use, and more nutrient uptake. · Check containers frequently, especially during hot or windy weather. Water thoroughly and allow excess water to drain away.
✅ 8. Refresh Mulch and Clean Up Pots
· Remove weeds, old leaves, and debris from containers. · A thin layer of mulch helps moderate soil temperatures and slows moisture loss during the hottest months. · Clean pots also reduce hiding places for pests and disease.
✅ The Bottom Line
June is when potted tropical plants shift into high gear. Repot if needed, fertilize regularly, inspect for pests, provide support, and keep up with watering. A little attention now often produces the biggest growth, best blooms, and heaviest fruiting of the entire year. 🛒 Get fresh soilless mix and real food for your plants
Sunshine: Smokey, I have a date in one hour. Smokey: Congratulations. Try not to order donuts. Sunshine: I will try really hard. She is very smart. I need to sound intelligent. Smokey: Then don't open your mouth. Your IQ will appear much higher. Sunshine: You were on Jeopardy. Give me some random facts to impress her with my knowledge. Smokey: I lost in the first round. Sunshine: You still know more than me. Smokey: Everyone knows more than you, Sunshine. How random? Sunshine: Smart random. Not weird random. Smokey: Those are the same category, Sunshine. Sunshine: Just give me the facts. Smokey: Avocados don't ripen on the tree. They mature there, then ripen after picking. Sunshine: That sounds like personal growth. Smokey: Plants warn each other about insects using chemical signals. Sunshine: Romantic. Mysterious. Slightly terrifying. Smokey: Bananas are technically berries. Sunshine: Perfect. I'll say that and then stare thoughtfully at my coffee. Smokey: Don't say everything you know in the first five minutes. Sunshine: What if she asks about dessert? Smokey: Then you'll be fine. Sunshine: What if she doesn't? Smokey: Lead with the banana thing. And please — not your ridiculous pants. Sunshine: They are a statement. Smokey: Yes. The statement is do not approach me
🍓The Strawberry Moon Rises: A Gardener's
Excuse to Go Outside
Sunshine: Look at my strawberry-glazed donut. Same as the
Strawberry Moon. I have been waiting for this all month. They say moon
gardening is useful. Let's go planting! Smokey: Science hasn't found much evidence for it. Sunshine: Then what's the point? Smokey: If the moon gets people into the garden, that's
good enough for me.
On the evening of Monday, June 29, 2026, the full Strawberry Moon will rise
low in the southeastern sky. Whether you follow a lunar calendar or not,
it's a good excuse to spend a little time outside on a summer evening.
🌛 What Is the Strawberry Moon, Exactly?
Many of the familiar full moon names come from Native American
traditions and reflect seasonal events in nature. June's full moon was named
for the
season when wild strawberries ripen across much of North America, not for
any
color in the sky. Despite the name, the moon won't glow pink or red. If it
looks warm or golden, that's simply because any full moon takes on an amber
tint when it hangs low near the horizon, the same atmospheric effect that
paints
sunsets orange. The "strawberry" is about the harvest, not the hue.
This year, the Strawberry Moon rises on the evening of June 29 and will
appear low in the southeastern sky, making it a particularly beautiful moon
to watch as dusk settles in.
🌓 Moon Gardening, an Old and Honest Tradition
For generations, gardeners across Europe and beyond timed their
planting, pruning, and harvesting to the phases of the moon. Plant root
crops during
a waning moon, some traditions say, and leafy crops during a waxing one.
Prune during certain phases to slow regrowth, harvest herbs at others for
better
potency. These calendars were passed down through generations of careful
observers who paid close attention to their land and their results, and many
still follow them today.
Modern science has found little evidence that lunar gravity or moonlight
significantly affects plant growth. Yet the tradition persists, and plenty
of growers still find real value in the rhythm it brings to the gardening
year.
💡What We Know For Sure
Here's the practical truth, and it's the same one Smokey arrived at
after thinking it over. Whether or not the moon influences your plants, the
act
of walking through your garden definitely does. A moon-phase calendar that
gets you outside to check on your plants, pull a few weeds, prune back
something
leggy, top off the mulch, or water a thirsty pot is helping your garden,
regardless of what's happening overhead.
The benefit isn't necessarily lunar. It's attention.
A garden rarely thrives because of a single grand effort. It thrives
because of dozens of small ones: a little pruning, a little watering, a few
weeds pulled before they become many.
Gardens reward the gardeners who show up, and if a full moon is your
reminder to show up, that's a perfectly good reason to keep watching the
sky.
📅 Beyond the Harvest
Not everything in a garden needs to produce a yield to be worthwhile.
Marking the seasons the way our ancestors did, a strawberry moon in June, a
harvest moon in fall, a snow moon in February, gives us small, recurring
reasons
to notice what's changing around us. It's a rhythm, not a requirement.
Think of the Strawberry Moon as a good excuse to take a walk through the
garden.
The Strawberry Moon doesn't have to improve anything to be worth
celebrating. It only needs to get you outside on a warm June evening, which,
honestly, isn't a high bar to clear.
A Strawberry Moon Collection, Just for
Fun
Sunshine immediately concluded that any moon named after strawberries
deserved a few strawberry-themed plants. We couldn't argue with that logic,
so
we pulled together a few Top Tropicals favorites that fit the theme.
🍓 Strawberry Tree
The Strawberry Tree (Muntingia calabura) often carries flowers and
fruit at the same time. Sweet red berries, delicate white blossoms, and lush
foliage make this fast-growing tropical tree both ornamental and productive
throughout much of the year.
A rare yellow-fruited
form of Muntingia calabura (Strawberry Tree), displaying
sweet golden berries, delicate white flowers, and immature green fruit all
at the same time. This unusual selection offers the same fast growth and
continuous fruiting as the red type, but with attractive yellow fruit that
is
seldom seen in cultivation.
Strawberry Tree (Muntingia calabura), also known as Jamaican
Cherry, grows quickly and produces dainty white flowers resembling
strawberry
flowers, followed by an abundance of small cotton-candy-sweet berries that
birds, wildlife, gardeners and their kids all appreciate.
Strawberry Guava (Psidium littorale) brings glossy foliage and
sweet, perfumed fruit that tastes something like its namesake crossed with a
guava.
Strawberry Guava (Psidium littorale, or cattleianum) often
carries fruit in multiple stages of ripening at once, creating a colorful
display
of green, golden, and ruby-red berries. The sweet, aromatic fruit is prized
for fresh eating and attracts birds and wildlife to the garden.
🍓 Strawberry Dragon Fruit
Dragon Fruit Vietnamese Jaina Strawberry White (Hylocereus
undatus
) produces bright pink fruit with refreshing white flesh and a flavor often
described as a blend of strawberry, melon, and kiwi. Its enormous
night-blooming flowers are every bit as impressive as the fruit, turning
this vigorous
climbing cactus into a spectacular summer showpiece.
Vietnamese Jaina Strawberry White Dragon Fruit is prized for its
refreshing
white flesh and mild sweet flavor with hints of strawberry, melon, and kiwi.
The vivid pink skin and striking black-speckled interior make it as
beautiful
on the table as it is delicious to eat.
🍓 Strawberry Ginger
Coral Ginger Borneo Strawberry Pink (Riedelia coralina) is one of
the rarest gingers in cultivation, producing unusual strawberry-pink flower
spikes that seem almost too exotic to be real. The edible blooms have a
pleasant spicy fragrance and flavor, making this New Guinea treasure as
interesting
to taste as it is to admire.
Whether you came for the moon or the plants, we hope you discovered
something interesting.
They just happen to share a name with the moon overhead this June, and that
felt like reason enough to give them a little spotlight.
Riedelia coralina, known as Coral
Ginger or Borneo Strawberry Pink, produces one of the most
unusual flower displays in the ginger family. Its striking strawberry-pink
blooms
rise above lush foliage, creating a tropical focal point rarely seen outside
specialized collections.
🍓🌱 How to Grow Them
If you live in a frost-free climate (USDA Zones 10+), simply plant these
strawberry gems in the ground and enjoy. Strawberry Guava can tolerate
occasional frosts down to about 28F once established.
Not so lucky? Many gardeners successfully grow Strawberry Guava, Strawberry
Dragon Fruit, and Strawberry Tree in containers, moving them indoors or to a
protected location during winter. You don't need a tropical climate to enjoy
tropical fruit.
🏡 See You Outside
Whether you believe in moon gardening or not, June 29 is a good night to
step outside, find an open view of the southeastern sky, and watch the
Strawberry Moon rise. Bring a cup of tea, walk the garden beds while there's
still
light, pull a few weeds, and let the evening settle in around you.
And that may be the real lesson of the Strawberry Moon.
Sunshine: The Strawberry Moon is out. Time for
gardening. Smokey: What does the moon calendar recommend? Sunshine: I have no idea. I left it on the kitchen table.
Both hands are full. Smokey: Of course they are. Coffee and donuts. Let's start
with the weeds.
A Strawberry Moon Collection, Just for
Fun
