🐲 What does a dragon taste like? Does Dragon Fruit come from a monster cactus? Learn why you need to grow your own. 🌵

• 🔴 You may have tried a Dragon fruit from the store l, but do you know how it grows? On a cactus tree!
• 🔴 Names: varieties of Hylocereus and Selenicereus - these fruit bearing cactus plants are also called Dragon Fruit or Pitaya.
• 🔴 Commercially grown fruit sold in a grocery store may be tasteless. You need to grow your own good variety to have tasty, sweet, flavorful fruit!
• 🔴 Dragon fruit comes in many varieties. Colors of flesh differ: white, pink, dark red and even purple. The outside of the fruit can be red/pink or yellow.
• 🔴 In commercial groves, Pitayas grow like cactus trees, over a strong support - big "umbrella frames" ☂️
• 🔴 It is an easy plant, with low water needs, takes both sun and semi-shade.
• 🔴 Our favorite variety is Yellow Dragon Fruit Palora, (Selenicereus megalanthus). It is the sweetest and has the most flavor of all. We shared some recipes earlier.
• 🔴 Can be grown in container with a wooden trellis. And the flower is beautiful, too!

📚 Learn more about Dragon Fruit
🍹 Recipe: What to do with a Dragon fruit?

🛒Grow your own Tasty Dragon Fruits

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Nature_Wonders

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💎 Smell the Little Gem

🕊 Get up close with the Magnolia grandiflora - Southern Magnolia - its huge, creamy white petals look like sculpted wax, and the scent is fresh, lemony, and unforgettable!

📚 Learn more:

• · How big is the Little Gem?
• · Southern Magnolia from the time of the dinosaurs
• · Tropical Magnolias
• · Plants with scents as heady as incense: Enchanted Magnolias - Joy in your life

🛒 Plant the Iconic Southern Magnolia

#Perfume_Plants #Trees

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Truth about Blackberry Jam: it comes from Gardenia!

• 
  Randia formosa - Blackberry Jam Fruit, Jasmin de Rosa is a curious small evergreen tree from South America that combines features of a fragrant flower and delicious dessert fruit which tastes like fresh Blackberry jam. Fragrant white flowers are similar to Gardenia.
• 
  This relatively hardy tropical can be grown in a container as well as in the ground. It's very сompact (4-5 ft), perfect for container culture, will fruit in a container.
• 
  Kids love the fruit! Many claim that it is even better than Blackberry preserves.
• 
  Large tubular white flowers attract nocturnal moths. Since the plant is closely related to the gardenia (Rubiaceae plant family), its flowers are sweetly fragrant.
• 
  Produces as many as 25-30 fruits at a time. Since it blooms for a few months from Summer through Winter, fruiting and flowering can be enjoyed even when other plants are dormant.

📚 Article about Blackberry Jam Fruit formosa

🛒 Order Blackberry Jam tree

#Food_Forest #Container_Garden

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Just in time for spring: Nun Orchid blooms for months! 🌹

• 🌷 What a wonderful treat after a long cold winter: Nun Orchid (Phaius tankervillea) is putting on a full show right now in the garden - and it’s been going strong since February.
• 🌷 These plants were already loaded with buds before our Record 25F Florida Freeze, so I moved the two pots into the garage to protect them. Totally worth it - they came through beautifully and didn’t miss a beat.
• 🌷 Now they’re in full bloom and should keep going well into April. This is one of those rare orchids that just keeps going.
• 🌷 Unlike most orchids, Nun Orchid grows in regular soil. Big lush leaves, tall flower spikes, and it’s perfectly happy in filtered light - great for patios, containers, or a shady spot in your garden.

What’s blooming in your yard today?

🛒 Plant beautiful Nun Orchid

📚 Learn more:

• 💋 Phaius tankervilleae – Chinese Ground Orchid in Plant Encyclopedia
• 💋 Why is it called Nun Orchid
• 💋 How to grow Ground orchids
• 💋 When Bamboo blooms with orchid flowers
• 💋 The prettiest flower for shade
• 💋 Ground orchids: all-summer colors
• 💋 Why do we love Ground Orchids
• 💋 Epidendrum radicans - Orange Reed Ground Orchid, Sunrise
• 💋 Terrestrial orchids
• 💋 What orchids can be grown in the ground

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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Easter morning with Smokey and Sunshine

Happy Easter to all who celebrate today - especially across Eastern Europe and Orthodox communities around the world.

Smokey and Sunshine are taking a well-earned break with coffee, sweet Easter bread, and a table full of spring color. Wishing you a day filled with peace, renewal, and quiet joy. And of course - the perfect time to plant flowers and fruit and bring new life into your garden.

🛒 Shop tropical flowers and plants

#PeopleCats

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