Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 10 Aug 2025

Tuxedo  cat  planting  tropical  tree  with  Sunshine  Boosters  bag,  orange  cat  waving  to  kitten  with  backpack  by  school  bus  in  sunny  garden 
 scene.

🌺 Back to School and Back to Planting – Cats in the Garden

Back to School, Back to Planting – Why August Works for Tropicals

Planting Season Isn't Over Yet

August is still a good month for planting tropicals in warm climates. The soil stays warm enough to push root growth, and late-summer weather gives plants time to settle in before winter. In drier areas, regular watering will keep them moving along just fine.

Tropicals in warm climates aren't usually harmed by cooler Winter weather, but as days get shorter, growth may slow down. This is why planting in late Summer-Fall lets roots grow during this last warm stretch, so the plant enters winter already established.

By spring, those roots are ready to drive new shoots, flowers, and fruit. There's no lost time to transplant shock - plants can get straight to blooming and fruiting earlier in the season.

August Planting FAQ

How can heat be prevented from harming new tropicals?

Water in the morning so plants start the day hydrated. Warm soil is good for root growth, but don't let it dry out.

How should new plants be protected from strong sun?

For the first couple of weeks, use a shade cloth or even a white bed sheet to soften midday sun and prevent leaf scorch.

What fertilizer works best for planting in summer heat?

Controlled-release types are best. We use professional grade Green Magic. You may pair it with Sunshine Boosters for steady, gentle feeding through the warm months.

Which tropicals grow best when planted in August?

Most tropical plants do well when planted in warm end-of-summer conditions, including Mango, Avocado, Guava, Jackfruit, Annona, Bananas, Orchid Trees, Jasmines, Allamanda and most of flowering trees, shrubs and vines.

Can tropical trees planted in August produce fruit next year?

Many can, especially fast growers, since they have established roots by the time spring growth begins.

How can tropicals be kept healthy when planting in August?

Mulch around the base to help prevent soil from drying out too quickly. Water deeply in the morning to help plants handle the heat.

Shop Flowering trees

Shop Fruit trees and edibles

Date: 24 Nov 2025

One fruit on this tray always stumps people

Tropical fruit on a tray

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!


🛒 Explore rare tropical fruit

📚 Learn more:
#Food_Forest #Discover

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 29 Nov 2025

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

Gardenia nitida - Shooting Star

Gardenia nitida - Shooting Star

Gardenia nitida - Shooting Star

Gardenia nitida - Shooting Star

⭐️ 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.


🛒 Get the Shooting Star to light up your garden in Winter

📚 Learn more:

Plant Facts

Gardenia nitida, Gardenia posoqueria
Gardenia
USDA Zone: 9-11
Large shrub 5-10 ft tallFull sunRegular waterWhite, off-white flowersPlant attracts butterflies, hummingbirdsFragrant plant

More about Gardenia nitida from Plant Encyclopedia

📱 Watch YouTube short videos:


#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 20 Feb 2026

What tropical plants survived Floridas historic freeze without protection

Florida historic freeze

What tropical plants survived Florida's historic freeze without protection

In the first week of February 2026, arctic air pushed deep into Florida. For many areas, this was the coldest event in over a century.
We received one question over and over: How did your gardens do?
Top Tropicals Farm in Sebring, Florida is up and running - and this freeze became a real-world hardiness test for tropical and subtropical plants. Below is our initial field report after inspecting established plantings.

📊 Weather data - February 1-6, 2026


Sebring, Florida - 132 years of recorded observations
This was not a light frost. It was prolonged, windy, penetrating hard freeze.


🌡 Minimum temperature: 25F
❄️ Wind chill: 14F
⏳ Duration: 3 nights of 8-10 hour hard freeze
☀️ Daytime temperatures: around 50F for 7 days
🌀 Wind: sustained 20 mph, gusts 40-50 mph
  • Cold protection



    In-ground trees: selected plants covered with frost cloth, especially mango and young avocado trees.
    Tender container plants: moved into greenhouses with propane heat above 34F.
    Hardy container plants: frost cloth and wind protection only - no plastic
    Nutrition support: plants fertilized regularly during the growing season with Green Magic and Sunshine Boosters to maintain vigor and hardiness.

    However, the plants listed below had no protection at all.
    All were established trees 2-3 years in the ground.
  • The plants below had NO PROTECTION, established trees 2-3 years old



✅ Survived with no damage
:
  • 🍑 Tropical Fruit Trees and Edibles:


    Citrus
    Loquats
    Mulberries
    Macadamia Nut
    Jaboticabas
    Pomegranates
    Avocado - cold hardy varieties
    Feijoa - Pineapple Guava
    Psidium littorale - Cattley Guavas
    Eugenias (Grumichama, Rio Grande, Surinam and more)
    Olive trees
    Bay Leaf (Laurus nobilis)
    Fig trees (Ficus carica)
    Prunus sp - Peaches, Plums, Nectarines
    Persimmons
    Rubus (Blackberries) including Tropical Mysore Raspberry
    Elderberry (Sambucus)
    Yerba Mate - Ilex paraguariensis
    Opuntia - Nopal Cactus, Prickly Pear


🌸 Flowering Trees and Shrubs:


Beaucarnea recurvata - Pony Tail
Callistemon - Bottlebrush
Yucca
Tabebuias
Magnolia figo and Little Gem
Calliandra tweedii - Red Powderpuff
Sophora tomentosa
Galphimia gracillis - Thriallis
Acacia trees
Osmanthus fragrans
Abutilon trees
Erythrina - several species
Monkey Ear tree - Enterolobium cyclocarpum
Bauhinia Orchid Trees - several species
Pseudobombax ellipticum - Shaving Brush Tree
Bulnesia arborea- Vera Wood
Caesalpinia mexicana, Mexican Bird of Paradise
Sansevieria - Snake Plant
Foxtail fern - Asparagus densiflorus
Lonicera - several varieties
Jacaranda tree
Eucalyptus
Plumbago Imperial Blue
Philodendron bipinnatum
Gardenias
Gingers (dormant rhizomes)

✳️ Minimal leaf damage only:
(These plants showed light cosmetic damage but no structural injury)

🍑 Tropical Fruit Trees and Edibles:


Glycosmis pentaphylla - Gin Berry
Black sapote tree
Tamarind tree
Syzygiums: Rose Apple and Java Plum

🌸 Flowering Trees and Shrubs:


Pandora vine
Jasminum - several species
Stenocarpus sinuatus - Firewheel Tree
Xanthostemon
Quisqualis indica
Schotia tree
Eranthemum pulchellum - Blue Sage
Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower

🏡 What this means for Florida gardeners


This freeze was a stress test few gardens are prepared for. Yet many species handled 25F, wind, and multi-night freeze conditions without protection.
Choosing proven survivors, planting in smart microclimates, and maintaining strong plant health during the growing season makes a measurable difference.
More updates will follow as full recovery continues - but these early results already help define a stronger plant palette for future winters.

🛒 Explore cold tolerant tropical plants and cold hardy Avocados

📚 Learn more:



🎥 These Avocados survived 3 nights of 25F hard freeze, Florida Record Freeze

#Discover #How_to

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 6 Jan 2017

6 easiest fruit trees and 5 spices to grow in containers indoors

Q: This is why I want to move so that I can grow absolutely anything I want from your catalogue. Prefered Puerto Rico. Right now I live in New York and there is absolutely nothing I can grow there.

A: Of course living in Puerto Rico brings more opportunities to grow tropical species. However, you can create your unique tropical paradise even living in New York. We have many customers from up North who successfully grow tropical species (and get them to flower and fruit) in greenhouses, and even indoors.
Here are a few suggestions of tropical fruit trees that adapt well for container/indoor culture - for both beginners and advanced gardeners.

Top 6 fruit trees great for indoors / container culture / beginners
1. Mango (Mangifera indica). Select from one of smaller mango varieties
2. Sugar Apple (Annona squamosa)
3. Guanabana, Soursop (Annona muricata)
4. Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum)
5. June Plum (Spondias cytherea)
6. Guava (Psidium guajava)

5 top spice plants (the spice will be with you right away, you don't have to wait for it to grow)
1. Allspice (Pimenta dioica)
2. Cinnamomon or Campor tree
3. Bay Leaf (Laurus nobilis)
4. Mint Tree (Satureja vimenea)
5. Vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifolia)

See a brief article of growing tropicals outside of tropics.

Don't forget to get some SUNSHINE boosters for your plant collection - for both successful indoor culture and cold protection!

See also our magazine Tropical Treasures) - Pushing the Limits of Tropical Gardening, with list of issues.