One fruit on this tray always stumps people

• &🍉 Another day, another fruit tray from the garden! Even at the end of November, something is always ripening here in Florida. This tray turned out especially fun - a mix of familiar fruits and a couple that always make people guess twice!
• &🍉 Today’s harvest includes: sweet Persimmons, Star fruit, a few different dragon fruits: yellow Palora and white with red skin - this is Seoul Kitchen. There's also Cocoplum, which makes great drinks. And - ta-da! - the little showstopper of the day: Curly Locks Orchid Cactus fruit (Epiphyllum guatemalense Monstrosa). It looks wild, but it's edible and tastes like a tiny dragon fruit.
• &🍉 If you live in Florida or any warm climate, growing your own fruit is one of the best gifts you can give yourself. Tropical fruit trees are generous plants - they don’t wait for a season, they give you something month after month. Some days it’s a handful, some days it’s a whole tray, but there’s always a fresh treat waiting. Once you start growing your own food, you realize how easy and rewarding it is to fill your garden with flavor.
• &🍉 Every tray has a new surprise. Come along and see what the garden gives us next!

• &Can you name all the fruits on this tray?
• &Weird cactus looks like pasta with Dragon Fruit
• &Cocoplum: secret fruit in your hedge
• &Pitaya vs Dragon fruit - what is the difference and how to grow it?
• &How soon will Persimmon tree fruit?
• &10 best fruit trees to grow in Florida and Southern landscapes
• &Top 10 fast-fruiting trees

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🌸 An heirloom holiday cactus lost for decades: Thanksgiving-to-Easter bloomer

• &🌸 Schlumbergera x New Deal is not your regular Christmas cactus. This is a true heirloom, a variety that vanished from the trade for decades and originally appeared at a rare plant sale at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden back on November 8, 1932 - the same day F.D.R. won the presidency and launched the famous New Deal. The name stuck, and so did the plant’s reputation!
• &🌸 What makes New Deal special? First, the flowers. They are big - about an inch larger than standard holiday cactus blooms – and show up in brilliant violet-pink and white. Second, this variety blooms twice a year, which is why people call it a Thanksgiving-to-Easter cactus. It usually opens a full flush around Thanksgiving and Christmas, then surprises you with a second wave toward spring.
• &🌸 Despite its pedigree, New Deal is easy to grow. It handles normal houseplant conditions, stays compact, and rewards even casual care with heavy blooming.
• &🌸 The plants available today come from 3rd-generation cuttings of an original specimen that's still alive, making this one of the rarest and most authentic holiday cactus cultivars you can add to your collection. A living piece of history - and one of the most generous bloomers for the holiday season!

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🍴 Betel leaf bites: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

• &🟢Spread coconut, peanuts, lime bits, and palm sugar on a Piper betle leaf.
• &🟢Fold and chew for a refreshing, spicy-sweet treat.

Betel Leaf Bites (Quick and Fun Exotic Snack)

Ingredients

• 6 fresh betel leaves (Piper betle)
• 2 tbsp shredded coconut
• 2 tbsp roasted peanuts
• 2 tbsp palm sugar sauce or thick palm syrup
• 1 tbsp finely diced lime (with rind)
• 1 tbsp finely minced ginger (optional)
• 1 small chili, sliced (optional)

Instructions

1. Rinse the betel leaves and pat dry. Keep whole leaves for folding.
2. Place each leaf shiny side down. Add a pinch of shredded coconut, roasted peanuts, diced lime, and a small dollop of palm sugar sauce.
3. Add ginger or chili if you want extra heat.
4. Fold the leaf into a small triangular packet.
5. Serve freshly folded and enjoy the refreshing sweet-spicy-lime flavor.

📚 Learn more:

Betel Leaf Plant Facts

Botanical name: Piper betle
Also known as: Betel Leaf

USDA Zone: 9 - 11

Highligths

Make this plant work in your climate

• &Piper betle in Plant Encyclopedia
• &How to grow your own Pepper plants. Five most valuable Pipers
• &Plant Smarter: Grow Your Own Brain Boosters
• &10-minute recipe Bo La Lot with a leaf you’ve never cooked before

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⭐️ What will bloom for you in November: Gardenia nitida - Shooting Star

• ⭐️ It's end of November and let's see what's in bloom today.
Gardenia nitida - the Shooting Star Gardenia - is looking absolutely perfect right now. This is one of the most unusual gardenias you’ll ever run into. Native to tropical Africa, slow-growing, elegant, and honestly… it doesn’t even look like the regular gardenias people are used to.
• &⭐️ The leaves are the first giveaway. Instead of the thick, waxy look of common gardenias, this one has big, soft, diamond-shaped leaves that give the whole plant a delicate, almost tropical-orchid vibe. The shrubs grow into neat, rounded shapes, so they do great in containers or smaller garden spaces.
• &⭐️ And the blooms… they’re happening right now! Long, skinny white tubes that flare open into bright little starbursts. They show up in clusters, and when the sun hits them, they really do look like tiny shooting stars across the plant. The fragrance is sweet, rich, and drifting all over the walkway even before you get close.
• &⭐️ It blooms several times a year, but this moment - right now, heading into winter - is one of its best. If you like rare fragrant plants, this is one of those collector pieces you don’t see every day, especially looking this full and this fresh.

📚 Learn more:

Gardenia Plant Facts

Botanical name: Gardenia nitida, Gardenia posoqueria
Also known as: Gardenia

USDA Zone: 9 - 10

Highligths

Make this plant work in your climate

📱 Watch YouTube short videos:

• ✦ You thought you knew Gardenias, until you saw this one
• ✦ Shooting Star Gardenia: a rare scent from Africa

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  ⭐️ Stapelia gigantea, the Starfish Flower, is one of those plants you notice from across the yard and immediately walk over to investigate. The blooms are huge - often close to a foot across - and look exactly like soft, fuzzy starfish dropped right onto the plant. Pale yellow petals with fine maroon lines give it that wild, otherworldly look.
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  ⭐️ Yes, it has a scent - just enough to fool flies, which is exactly what the plant wants. They’re the pollinators, and this flower knows how to get their attention. For us humans, the real show is the size, shape, and texture. It’s a living prop straight out of a sci-fi movie.
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  ⭐️ Even without flowers, the plant itself looks cool: thick, 4-angled succulent stems that sprawl and stack into a low, sculptural mound. In the ground it can spread a couple feet wide, and in a pot it becomes the ultimate conversation piece. And despite looking like a cactus, it’s actually in the Milkweed family. When it’s happy and sets seed, the pods open to release silky little parachutes floating away on the breeze.
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  ⭐️ Strange, bold, and absolutely unforgettable - this is one plant nobody walks past without asking about it.

• &✦ Starfish flower: the bizarre bloom you cant stop staring at
• &✦ Starfish flower in bloom
  

📚 Learn more:

Zulu Giant Plant Facts

Botanical name: Stapelia gigantea
Also known as: Zulu Giant, Carrion Plant, Starfish Flower

USDA Zone: 9 - 10

Highligths

Make this plant work in your climate

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