Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 4 Nov 2025

The secret Brain Food growing in my backyard (and it tastes like green peas!)

Tropical Asparagus (Sauropus androgynus)

🏆 The secret Brain Food growing in my backyard (and it tastes like green peas!)

  • 🌿 Katuk, or Tropical Asparagus (Sauropus androgynus), is one of the most underrated edible plants you can grow. This leafy tropical shrub is a superfood in disguise. It grows fast, looks lush, and its tender young shoots taste just like green peas.
  • 🌿 Native to Southeast Asia, Katuk is a kitchen staple in places like Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand. The leaves and shoots are used in soups, stews, and stir-fries with egg or seafood. It’s not only delicious but also incredibly nutritious - rich in nutrients linked to improved memory and reduced cognitive aging: folate, lutein, and especially vitamin K, which is rare in plants.
  • 🌿 Katuk thrives in sun or partial shade, needs little care, and grows into a dense, bushy plant that gives you edible greens all year round. If you want something that feeds both your garden and your health, this one’s a winner!


🛒 Add Katuk Superfood to your Food Forest

Lean more:
🍴 Katuk egg stir-fry: Quick-n-Fun exotic recipes
✔️ Discover the health benefits of Katuk: a Superfood for your mind and body
📚 Tropical Asparagus, Katuk: Grow your own food
📱 How to cook with Katuk

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Discover

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Date: 19 Jan 2020

Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals. Cat of the Day: Sonya, the Co-Author

In our previous newsletter, you met our editor/photographer tandem - Tilda & Marina. Today we introduce our columnist assistant - Sonya. For the past decade, this True Norwegian Forest Cat has been a great helper and inspirational co-author for Alexandra, TopTropicals website writer and social media blogger.

Alex has been with TopTropicals since Day One (2003). In 2011, she got Sonya, a 3-month old kitten that someone kicked out: at that young age she already had quite a temper of a real Wild Cat. No one wanted to adopt her and Sonya was doomed to suffer a street life... So Alex invited her in the house... and it took her many months to teach Sonya some good manners! And Sonya turned into a beautiful and affectionate Purrrson as well as became the Boss in the house (what a surprise, duh) and Alexandra's dearest life companion. Sonya also discovered her talent in writing plant stories for TopTropicals, sitting on Alex's shoulder and whispering into her ear while she is typing Sonya's horticultural tips. And when Alex stares at monitors for more than 5 hours, Sonya lays on her keyboard saying: "Now get up and get some stretch lady! Let's go re-pot some plants for a change!"

We will be following up on Sonya's creative work, and you will hear from her again soon...

Check out and more Cat of the Day stories.

Sonya inspecting seedlings... and chilling with Alex

This Norwegian Forest Cat, when she was little, loved to climb up high... (2011)

Growing Tropics on a Windowsill...

Date: 29 Jun 2025

Pineapple Guava: fragrant fruit, beautiful blooms, and real health benefits

Pineapple Guava blooming

Pineapple Guava blooming

Pineapple guava fruit

Pineapple guava fruit

🍓 Pineapple Guava: fragrant fruit, beautiful blooms, and real health benefits
  • Feijoa sellowiana, also known as Pineapple Guava or Guavasteen, is an evergreen shrub or small tree that brings together beauty, fragrance, and edible rewards.
  • With its soft pink, edible flowers blooming in late spring and strongly scented fruit ripening in late summer to fall, it offers interest across multiple seasons.
  • The fruit is especially unique. When fresh fruit blended with a little sugar, many describe the flavor as forest strawberries with hints of mint or pineapple - some even say it reminds them of Juicy Fruit gum. The texture is smooth and slightly gritty, similar to a pear.
  • Nutritionally, Feijoa fruit is low in calories, high in fiber, and an excellent source of Vitamin C and antioxidants. You don’t need to guess when it's ready - the ripe fruit drops to the ground.
  • Pineapple Guava is easy to grow and adaptable. It tolerates drought, thrives in full sun or partial shade, and withstands heat as well as cold down to 10F. Whether planted in the ground or grown in a large patio container, it needs minimal care - just occasional watering and light feeding.
  • It also serves multiple purposes in the landscape: a dense, evergreen hedge for wind protection, a privacy screen, or a standalone ornamental that attracts birds and butterflies. It can be shaped into a small tree or kept compact depending on your space.
  • A beautiful, edible, and low-maintenance addition to the garden that earns its place year after year.


🛒Taste the fragrant forest-strawberry flavor - grow Pineapple Guava

📚 Learn more:


#Edible_Forest #Guava #Discover

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Date: 14 Sep 2022

PeopleCats Botanical Garden Grand Opening
Guided tour with Mark Hooten

PeopleCats  Botanical  Garden  at  TopTropicals

Top Tropicals Garden Center is pleased to invite you to visit our new PeopleCats Botanical Garden on the grounds of Top Tropicals in Ft Myers. It is named in honor of the relationship with our beloved Cats, who we treat like People. You'll see our Garden PeopleCats roaming the property. As a matter of fact, they rule the garden!
The Garden has many mature trees and plants so you can see what they look like before your purchase them in our Garden Center. And of course, our PeopleCats will be guiding you in the Gardens!

Peoplecats  -  cat  Marco  at  Top  Tropicals  gate

PeopleCats  Garden  -  Top  Tropicals  Ghost  light  in  the  forest  the  spirit  is  always  watching!

Photo above: blue light in the forest - TopTropicals Garden Ghost, the spirit is always watching!

Date: 19 Jan 2026

Brave iTembie in the forest

iTembie, the South African brave cat

iTembie, the South African brave cat

🐈 Brave iTembie in the forest



🐈📸 This is iTembie, the South African brave cat, who took the plane all alone to America.
TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden

#PeopleCats

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