Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 31 Aug 2025

us Happy Labor Day!

Two  cats  celebrating  Labor  Day  with  a  backyard  BBQ  in  a  fruit  garden, 
 tuxedo  cat  grilling,  orange  cat  smiling  with  an  American 
 flag.

Labor Day cats Smokey & Sunny enjoy BBQ in fruit garden

Labor Day is a good reminder that gardening is work, but it is the kind of work that gives back. Digging, hauling, trimming, watering — it all counts as labor, and it all makes life better. Take a little time this weekend to enjoy what has already grown, even if the next project is waiting right around the corner.

Celebrate the holiday with blooms and savings — 15% off orders $100+ this Labor Day, excluding S&H. Expires Exp. 09-03-2025

LABORDAY25

Start shopping

Date: 4 Sep 2025

📅 Do not miss: September 6 - Fall Plant Market!

September  6,  2025  -  Fall  Plant  Market  at  Top  Tropicals

Saturday, September 6, 2025: 9 am - 4 pm

Fall is just around the corner, but Florida is still full of sunshine and growing energy! It’s one of the best times to plant - cooler days are coming, but there are still months of warmth ahead for your garden to thrive. Our nursery is bursting with big, healthy plants that grew all summer long - loaded with blooms, fruit, and lush foliage, ready to shine in your yard.
Come stroll the gardens with our PeopleCats, enjoy the most beautiful season for planting, and let us help you find the perfect picks for your space. Bring your friends and family for a weekend of fun, color, and fresh ideas - this is your moment to plant, grow, and enjoy!

Explore the Event

Event Highlights:

30% OFF online prices
FREE plant with any purchase (including Guava)
Gift bags for first 25 customers with $50+ order
Special deals on select plants
Exciting raffle prizes
Green Magic fertilizer FREE samples
The LAST PERFORMANCE of the Famous Hand Pan Lady! (She is moving from Florida)
See her previous performance at Top Tropicals - here and here.

Event discounts valid at both locations:

Ft Myers Garden Center: 13890 Orange River, Ft Myers, FL
Sebring B-Farm: 9100 McRoy Rd, Sebring, FL

to confirm attendance
RSVP on Facebook!

Date: 10 Feb 2019

Featured plant. Capsicum frutescens - Wiri Wiri Pepper

TopTropicals.com

Capsicum frutescens - Wiri Wiri Pepper

A variety from Guyana, the Wiri Wiri pepper is the illustrious gem; hard sought and rarely found. This plant produces good yields of small 1/2"berry shaped hot peppers. Peppers grow upright, are very hot, and turn from green, to orange, to red when mature. What makes it so much different than any other hot pepper grown in the garden or bought at the store?
Hot? Yes, it is important that hot peppers are, but the people who really know, know that it is not just about heat, it is about flavor! And that is exactly what makes this little red gem so special. Guyanese dinners will only take one of those meals for you to never forget! The secret of their food is the flavor, and one of the cornerstone ingredients in many of their dishes is the Wiri pepper. The Guyanese population claim that it is not just a key ingredient to their diet, but also to why they are so good looking, live so long and have such great skin.

Read more about this plant...

Date: 21 Jan 2019

Garden-burned Calories in 30 minutes

TopTropicals.com

This is interesting! According to Harvard Medical School research, gardening activities are compared with some serious workout! Calories burned in 30 minutes by:

Walking 178
Bowling 133
Gymnastics 178
Dancing 244

Planting seedlings, shrubs 178
Planting trees 200
Gardening-weeding 205
Digging, spading dirt 222

So what are you waiting for? Start losing weight now by planting a tree and dancing!

Date: 16 Jan 2019

Fascinating Spekboom (Portulacaria afra, or Baby Jade)

By Mark Hooten, the Garden Doc
...I love this plant! I first grew it in the 1960s when I was just a kid. I found it growing as a fantastic four-foot tall houseplant in a big sunny window in a schoolmate's home and was happily given a cutting. When I inquired about this most unusual plant, my friend's mother explained that she had brought a piece of it with her when she came from South Africa many years earlier. She told me that in Africa, it is a favorite food for both Elephants and Rhinoceros and that it was grown all over her families farm for feeding both animals and people. Being a little kid in Illinois, I found this especially fascinating...
Continue reading...