Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 8 Oct 2025

Blue butterfly pea lemonade: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

Blue butterfly pea lemonade

Blue butterfly pea lemonade

🍴 Blue butterfly pea lemonade: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

  • 🔵Blue butterfly pea flowers (Clitoria ternatea) make an excellent lemonade!
  • 🔵Brew the flowers into a blue tea, add a bit of lemon juice.
  • 🔵Watch the color turn purple like magic!

Blue butterfly pea lemonade

Ingredients

  • 🔵 A handful of blue butterfly pea flowers (Clitoria ternatea)
  • 🔵 Hot water for brewing
  • 🔵 Fresh lemon juice
  • 🔵 Ice cubes and lemon slices for serving

Instructions

  • 🔵 Steep blue butterfly pea flowers in hot water to make deep blue tea.
  • 🔵 Cool and add a splash of lemon juice — watch the color turn purple like magic!
  • 🔵 Pour over ice and garnish with lemon slices.

🛒 Plant Clitoria vine for blue and purple exotic drinks

#Food_Forest #Recipes

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Date: 12 Oct 2025

You wont believe what glows in the shade: the rare blue ginger

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger

💎 You won't believe what glows in the shade: the rare blue ginger

  • 💎 If you ever spot a flash of electric blue in the tropical shade, you might think your eyes are playing tricks on you, but that vivid color belongs to a rare Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger.
  • 💎 Despite its name, this isn’t a true ginger at all. It’s actually related to Tradescantia, the same family as familiar houseplants like the Wandering Jew and Spiderwort. Native to Brazil, Blue Ginger thrives in warm, humid shade, making it a perfect choice for patios, screened porches, garden corners, or indoor collections.
  • 💎 Its glossy leaves and tall stems topped with clusters of sapphire-blue blooms create a tropical jewel effect. The flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies, adding life and motion to shady areas where few other plants bloom so brightly.
  • 💎 Give it rich, well-drained soil, steady moisture, and partial shade - and enjoy one of the rarest colors in the tropical plant world.


🛒 Get your own exotic Blue Ginger

📚 Learn more:


Is Sapphire Gem really a ginger?

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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Date: 13 Oct 2025

Sweet and crunchy fruit with a rose fragrance

🌹 Sweet and crunchy fruit with a rose fragrance


  • 🌹Syzygium jambos - Rose Apple - is a fragrant delight fruit! Also known as Malabar Plum or Pomme Rosa, the Rose Apple produces crisp, juicy fruits with a distinct rose scent, highly prized for jellies and confections.

  • 🌹This easy-to-grow plant is moderately cold-hardy and can tolerate poor soils.

  • 🌹 Rose Apple trees are versatile – they make attractive, wide-spreading shade trees and can also thrive as compact, bushy fruiting plants in containers. Watch the video:


📱

🛒 Enjoy rose-smelling fruit in your garden

📚 Learn more:


What fruit smells like roses?

Date: 16 Oct 2025

Stop watering your Monstera on a schedule - here is what it really wants!

Stop watering your Monstera on a schedule - here is what it really wants!

💦 Stop watering your Monstera on a schedule - here is what it really wants!


  • ☘️ Monstera might look like a big diva, but it's actually one of the easiest houseplants to keep happy, according to the gardening experts from Southern Living.

  • ☘️ The trick is not sticking to a strict watering schedule, but checking the soil. Water only when the top couple inches feel dry - usually every week or two in warm months and less in winter. Give it a good soak until water drains out the bottom, then let it dry again.

  • ☘️ Too much water is worse than too little – soggy soil means root rot. Signs of overwatering include yellow or droopy leaves, dark spots, or gnats buzzing around. Underwatering looks similar, but the soil will be bone dry. When in doubt, check the dirt!

  • ☘️ You can water from the top or let the pot sit in a shallow tray to soak from the bottom – just don’t let it sit in water. Bright, indirect light and a well-draining pot are your best friends. Keep that balance, and your Monstera will thrive for decades.


📸 In the photo: Rhaphidophora tetrasperma - Mini Monstera, Dwarf Monstera Ginny, a rare collectible for plant enthusiasts.

🛒 Shop Monstera plants

📚 Learn more:


#Food_Forest #Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #How_to

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Date: 18 Oct 2021

Flowering vine around garage trellis

Q: I want to grow flowering vines up and around my garage; however I want to make sure whatever I put will grow long enough to make it all the way around the top. I attached photo of my garage and where I mounted the bolts for the trellis. What plants do you recommend for doing something like this that will eventually grow long enough to complete the arch over the garage? Right now I have mandevillas there but I know they aren't the right species. I know bougainvilleas will work, but I was hoping to do something less thorny since it's near the walkway.

A: There are several vines that can fit your project. These are just a few suggestions:

1017 Aristolochia gigantea - Giant Pelican Flower
Camptosema grandiflora - Dwarf Red Jade Vine
Cissus rotundifolia - Arabian Wax Leaf (very fast glowing)
Clerodendrum speciosum - Red Bleeding Heart
Clitoria ternatea - Blue Butterfly Pea (very fast glowing)
Jasminum sambac Maid of Orleans
Senecio confusus - Mexican flame vine
Stictocardia beraviensis - Hawaiian Sunset Bell (very fast glowing)
Thunbergia alata var. aurea Sunlady
Thunbergia laurifolia - Blue Sky vine
Trachelospermum jasminoides - Confederate Jasmine
Urechites lutea - Yellow Mandevilla

Check out full list of flowering vines

Photo above: Clerodendrum speciosum - Red Bleeding Heart

Photo above: Senecio confusus - Mexican flame vine

Photo above: Clitoria ternatea - Blue Butterfly Pea

Photo above: Thunbergia laurifolia - Blue Sky vine