Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 17 Jul 2024

Use your yard instead of being used by your yard!

Exotic tropical fruit and edibles - Food Forest

Exotic tropical fruit and edibles - Food Forest

🥭 Use your yard instead of being used by your yard!



Tired of mowing a boring lawn? Get some colors in your yard and grow edible landscape!

Select useful, functional plants:
🌺 Spectacular Eye Candies
🌳 Hedges with Benefits
Butterfly Attractors
🍒 Food Forest
👉#Food_Forest

Pick the right plants with TopTropicals free expert help.
At TopTropicals, we have 25 years experience growing rare tropical fruit trees and flowering plants.

Plants are the best therapists.
You can Grow Happiness - we can help.

💥 Still not a subscriber? Join TopTropicals community and you will know everything about tropical plants!

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Date: 27 Apr 2024

Top Tropicals is now in Telegram!

Top Tropicals is now in Telegram!
🌴 Top Tropicals is now in Telegram!

TopTropicals.com - the World's leading authority on tropical plants - is now in Telegram. If you grow a tropical garden or indoor collection of rare plants, this is your channel!

Join to get exclusive updates on tropical gardening:

Fun Facts and Nature Wonders
🌺 How to make your plants flower and stay happy
🥭 How to get the biggest fruit crop
🏆 Sweepstakes and Contests
Butterfly and Container Garden
Food Forest
⚜️ Perfume Plants
🍲 Exotic Recipes and Remedies
...and of course, your favorite -
🐾 PeopleCats in the Garden!

JOIN and share with friends! 👇

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We Grow Happiness

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: 7 Jul 2024

Why is it called Passion flower and Passion fruit?

Passion flower - Passiflora

Passion flower - Passiflora

Passion fruit - Passiflora

Passion fruit - Passiflora

Passion fruit - Passiflora

Passion fruit - Passiflora

☸️ The truth about Passion flower and Passion fruit.
  • Passion vines, passion flowers, and passion fruits - these are all Passiflora - fascinating plants with a rich history. These vines come from tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas.
  • Medicinal: Various parts of the passion vine have been used in traditional medicine to treat ailments such as anxiety, insomnia, and hypertension.
  • Host for Butterflies: Passion vines serve as host plants for several butterfly species.
  • Passion of Christ: the passion flower's complex structure with five sepals, five petals often used to symbolize the Passion of Christ in Christian tradition. Spanish Christian missionaries in South America saw the flower's structure as a representation of Christ's crucifixion, which led to the name Passion Flower.
  • Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis) - Maracuya - is highly nutritious, rich in vitamins A and C, fiber, and antioxidants.
  • Delicious pulp: the fruit is popular in many cuisines around the world, used in beverages, desserts.
  • Two main types of passion fruit: the purple sweeter variety (Passiflora edulis) and the yellow variety larger and more acidic (Passiflora x flavicarpa).
  • Fast growing vine in no time: known for their rapid growth, Passifloras need strong support as they can quickly cover large areas.


📚 Learn more: The Passion Fruit – Juicy Maracuya

🛒 Shop Passiflora plants

#Food_Forest #Hedges_with_benefits

🏵 TopTropicals

Date: 25 Jan 2026

Collecting clerodendrums: big color, little effort

Clerodendrum collage

Clerodendrum collage

🎨 Collecting clerodendrums: big color, little effort

  • 🎨 Collector hook


    If you love plants that look rare, unusual, and a little dramatic - but do not want high-maintenance divas - Clerodendrums belong in your collection.
    Clerodendrums are a surprisingly diverse group of plants, ranging from flowering vines to shrubs and even small trees. What they all share is bold, colorful blooms and an easygoing nature that makes them far less fussy than they appear. This combination of exotic looks and forgiving care is exactly why collectors gravitate toward them.
    Many clerodendrums bloom repeatedly through the year in warm climates, and several tolerate lower light better than most flowering plants. That makes them flexible - happy in the garden, in containers, on patios, or even indoors near a bright window. Their flowers come in striking combinations of red, white, blue, pink, and purple, often with unusual shapes that stop people mid-walk.
  • 🎨 Why clerodendrums earn collector status


  • ✦ Uncommon, eye-catching flowers
  • ✦ Long or repeat bloom cycles in many varieties
  • ✦ Vines, shrubs, and small trees in one genus
  • ✦ Excellent performance in containers
  • ✦ More tolerant of lower light than expected


🎨 Clerodendrum care made simple



Give clerodendrums bright filtered light to partial sun, regular watering with good drainage, and light feeding during active growth. A little pruning keeps them tidy and encourages fresh blooms. That is it. No complicated routines, no constant fixing.

For collectors who want maximum visual payoff without constant effort, clerodendrums deliver exactly what the title promises - big color, very little work.

🛒 Start your Clerodendrum collection

📚 Learn more:
#Butterfly_Plants #Shade_Garden #How_to #Hedges_with_benefits #Container_Garden

Plant Facts

Clerodendrum bungei
Cashmere (Cashmir) bouquet, Glory Bower, Clerodendron
USDA Zone: 9-11
Large shrub 5-10 ft tallSemi-shadeFull sunRegular waterRed, crimson, vinous flowersPink flowersPlant attracts butterflies, hummingbirdsDeciduous plantFragrant plantSubtropical plant. Mature plant cold hardy at least to 30s F for a short time
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