Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 25 Nov 2024

When Bamboo blooms with orchid flowers

Bamboo Orchid (Arundina graminifolia), Bird Ground Orchid

🔤 When Bamboo blooms with orchid flowers 👀
  • ⭐️ The Bamboo Orchid (Arundina graminifolia), or Bird Ground Orchid, is a showstopper with its elegant, pinkish-purple flowers perched on tall, cane-like stems that look strikingly like bamboo.
  • ⭐️ These towering plants can grow to hip height or even taller, bringing a bold, exotic vibe to your garden. Their resemblance to bamboo isn't just in the stems – the long, alternating leaves add to the illusion.
  • ⭐️ At the top of the canes, delicate flowers bloom one at a time, keeping the show going for weeks. Each flower, about 2-3 inches wide, features soft white petals and a vibrant purple-pink lip, reminiscent of the beautiful Cattleya orchids.
  • ⭐️ These blooms can appear almost year-round, with a peak in summer, adding a touch of tropical elegance to your landscape.
  • ⭐️ This stunning plant is perfect for those who want a unique and low-maintenance addition to their shade garden that always reaches for the sky!


📱 Ground orchids: all-summer colors for shady gardens

📚 Learn more from previous posts:



🛒Shop Ground Orchids

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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Date: 7 Jun 2025

This is what we plant for a compact colorful hedge solution

Thunbergia erecta - Kings Mantle

💜 This is what we plant for a compact colorful hedge solution

  • 💜 Thunbergia erecta - Kings Mantle - is currently in full bloom in our garden, showcasing its vibrant flowers that last almost year-round.
  • 💜 One of our favorite flowering shrubs, it's compact, easy-going, and perfect for adding a splash of color.
  • 💜 Available in blue, white, and even variegated lavender flowers, King's Mantle thrives in both sun and filtered light, with its dense, manageable habit making it ideal for low-growing hedges or garden specimens.
  • 💜 It attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, and with simple pruning, it stays under 4 feet while producing a profusion of blooms.
  • 💜 Hardy to 30°F and suitable for USDA Zones 9-11, it's also great for container gardening in colder regions.


🛒 Shop Thunbergias - colorful flowers for sun and shade

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#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants
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Date: 8 Jun 2025

Charming Elephant Ears: Alocasia vs Colocasia

Alocasia and Colocasia

🐘 Charming Elephant Ears: Alocasia vs. Colocasia - which one is better?



Alocasias and Colocasias, or Elephant Ears, are both remarkable and popular plants that can bring a tropical exotic touch to your garden, pond, or pool area. Why are they so popular - and which one should you choose?
  • 🍀 Why gardeners love Elephant Ears


  • ✔️ Tropical appeal: Bold, architectural foliage creates a lush, exotic atmosphere.
  • ✔️ Striking leaves: Huge heart- or arrow-shaped leaves in green, purple, black, or variegated tones.
  • ✔️ Versatile placement: Ideal for containers, garden beds, water features, or borders.
  • ✔️ Low maintenance: Thrive in part shade with moist soil and occasional fertilizer.
  • ✔️ Big impact: Some varieties reach over 6 ft tall, adding strong vertical structure.


🍀 Alocasia vs. Colocasia - what's the difference?

  • 🟢Leaf shape: Alocasia = upright, arrow-shaped; Colocasia = drooping, heart-shaped.
  • 🟢Leaf texture: Alocasia = glossy; Colocasia = more matte.
  • 🟢Stem color: Alocasia = green; Colocasia = often purplish.
  • 🟢Light and soil: Alocasia prefers bright, indirect light and good drainage; Colocasia loves shade and wet soil.
  • 🟢Cold tolerance: Colocasia is generally more cold-hardy and water-tolerant.


📚 Learn more:



🛒 Go big with giant leaves!

#Shade_Garden #Container_Garden

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Date: 5 Aug 2025

Blue lips smell like violets - Mazabuka, Sclerochiton harveyanus

Sclerochiton harveyanus - Mazabuka, Blue Lips

👄 Blue lips smell like violets
  • 💙 Sclerochiton harveyanus - Mazabuka, or Blue Lips blooms with quirky blue-to-purple flowers that really do look like lips. And in the tropical plant world, blue flowers are rare. And they are lightly violet-lavender-fragrant!
  • 💙 Even better? It's a total shade lover. No need for blazing sun - this beauty is happy to bloom in the cool, leafy spots of your garden.
  • 💙 Loved by bees and birds, and just the right mix of weird and wonderful.


🛒 Add Blue Lips to your shade garden

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#Perfume_Plants #Shade_Garden #Butterfly_Plants
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Date: 7 Aug 2025

What is the best purple flowering bush? Glory bush!

Tibouchina multiflora (grandifolia) - Glory bush, Quaresmeira

💜 What is the best purple flowering bush? Glory bush!

  • 🟣 Why everyone in Florida wants this fuzzy-leaf Tibouchina? Tibouchina multiflora (grandifolia), Glory bush, Quaresmeira
  • is one of those plants that stops people in their tracks.
  • 🟣 The leaves are huge, soft, and fuzzy - up to 10 inches wide, sometimes 12 in shade. They're as fun to touch as they are to look at!
  • 🟣 And when it blooms? You get bold spikes of purple flowers from August through winter, turning your garden into a purple paradise.
  • 🟣 But here's the twist: the older leaves can surprise you by turning shades of orange and red - a rare bonus of fall color in the tropics.
  • 🟣 It thrives in sun or shade, grows fast, and handles Florida’s winters without a fuss.

This isn’t just a flowering shrub. It’s a statement.

🛒
Make your garden pop with purple: explore Tibouchina plants

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Why this Tibouchina is so popular

#Hedges_with_benefits
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