Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 23 May 2024

Index of TopTropicals Telegram Channel

Index of TopTropicals Telegram Channel

🗂 Index of TopTropicals Telegram Channel



Follow these tags to find your interests:

#Butterfly_Plants - Butterfly attracting plants.

#Container_Garden - Plants suitable for container garden and indoor culture.

#Fertilizers - All the truth about fertilizers, plant food supplements, and our recommendations for different types of plants.

🥭 #Food_Forest - Fruit trees, Spice plants, and Edibles.
Including: #Avocado, #Mango, #Papaya, #Guava, #Jackfruit, #Loquat

📖 #Fun_Facts - interesting plant facts and legends.

🌳 #Hedges_with_benefits - Practical approach to your landscape and how to properly select showy and useful plants for your yard.

♍️ #Horoscope - Plant Horoscopes and Cat Horoscopes. Did you know that cats also have their Zodiac signs?

🛠 #How_to - Q&A about growing plants, tropical garden lifehacks.

👀 #Nature_Wonders - Unusual, amusing, outrageous, bizarre plants...

🐈
#PeopleCats - our Favorite PeopleCats (and some PeopleDogs, too).

🌸 #Perfume_Plants - Fragrant plants and perfume trees.

✍️ #Quotes - Interesting quotes.

#Recipes - Exotic recipes for tropical fruit and edibles.

💊
#Remedies - Medicinal plants.

☁️ #Shade_Garden - Plants suitable for low light conditions.

🌼 #Tree
s - Spectacular flowering tropical trees.

🏆 #Win - Contests, Sweepstakes, and other specials.

Join an

Date: 18 Feb 2025

What cactus vine produces gooseberries

Perescia  aculeata,  Barbados  Gooseberry  fruit

Q: I've heard about a tropical gooseberry suitable for making jams but don't know its exact name. Do you have it? Gooseberry jam is my husband's favorite, but I can't find gooseberries here in Florida - too hot, maybe?

A: Yes, we do have the plant you're looking for! We've just made some delicious jam from this tropical gooseberry, and it tastes just like the northern varieties but even more flavorful! Florida's winter is the perfect season for this wonderful fruit. Right now, our plant is growing quickly and vigorously over our fence, and it's covered with fruit. Just a couple of months earlier it was full of fragrant, beautiful white flowers!

The plant in question is Perescia aculeata, commonly known as Barbados Gooseberry. It's a unique cactus with both edible leaves and fruit, making it a tropical treasure that offers beauty as well as culinary delights.

The fruit is yellow with a juicy, subacid pulp that tastes remarkably similar to traditional gooseberries. You can enjoy the fruits fresh, stewed, or transformed into jams and jellies.

The young leaves are also edible, adding a nutritious boost to your meals.

This fast-growing vining cactus prefers well-drained soil that remains moist during the summer and drier in winter, and it can be effectively grown in containers on a trellis.

Watch a short video of Barbados Gooseberry fruiting.

Perescia  aculeata,  Barbados  Gooseberry  jam

Perescia  aculeata,  Barbados  Gooseberry  flowers

Date: 6 Apr 2025

Why grow Grumichama? Benefits of Brazilian Eugenia Tree - Cherry of the Tropics

Grumichama (Eugenia brasiliensis), Brazilian Cherry, fruit

Grumichama (Eugenia brasiliensis), Brazilian Cherry, fruit

Grumichama (Eugenia brasiliensis), Brazilian Cherry, flowers

Grumichama (Eugenia brasiliensis), Brazilian Cherry, flowers

🍒 Why grow Grumichama? Benefits of Brazilian Eugenia Tree - Cherry of the Tropics

  • 🍒 Did you know you can grow a tropical cherry right in your backyard? Grumichama (Eugenia brasiliensis), also known as the Brazilian Cherry, is a compact, evergreen fruit tree that's as beautiful as it is delicious.
  • 🍒 With glossy green leaves and reddish new growth, it’s an ornamental gem. In spring, it produces white flowers that quickly turn into dark purple, cherry-like fruits - ready to harvest just four weeks after flowering!
  • 🍒 The fruits have soft, melting flesh with a flavor similar to northern cherries. Enjoy them fresh, dried, made into jams, or even in baked goods and herbal teas. This is our favorite fresh cherry @TopTropicals!
  • 🍒 Grumichama plant grows into a small tree or bush in tropical and subtropical climates. It tolerates light frost.
  • 🍒 Fruits in small spaces or containers (5–10 gallon pots)
  • 🍒 Perfect for edible landscaping and home orchards. Loaded with fiber and antioxidants.
  • 🍒 Whether in the ground or in a pot, Grumichama is easy to grow, stunning year-round, and gives you a sweet, juicy reward.


📚 Learn more about Eugenia cherries:


Ten best fruit trees to grow in Florida and Southern landscapes. # 3: Tropical Cherries: Eugenias.

🛒 Plant Grumichama and bring a little bit of Brazil to your garden

#Food_Forest #Fun_Facts #Discover

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 18 Apr 2025

Want a Fence Covered in Royal Blooms?

Petrea volubilis, Queen's Wreath, Sandpaper vine

👑 Want a Fence Covered in Royal Blooms?
  • 😈 Petrea volubilis, also known as Queen's Wreath or Sandpaper vine, started blooming in our garden again in April. This tropical wisteria that steals the show is a twining vine with large, rough leaves - just like a sandpaper!
  • 😈 Petrea is the ultimate tropical climber - fast-growing, bold, and breathtaking. Its rough, sandpaper-like leaves are just the beginning... the real magic is in the massive cascading clusters of royal purple flowers that can stretch over a foot long!
  • 😈 There's also a rare white variety - Petrea glandulosa Alba - White Queen's Wreath. It features the same cascading form as the purple type, but with elegant snow-white, pinwheel-like flowers that create a soft, striking contrast in the garden.
  • 😈 Often called Tropical Wisteria, Petrea thrives in warm, humid climates and puts on a non-stop floral display. Each bloom lasts a few days, but the blue calyxes remain, giving the illusion of continuous flowering.
  • 😈 These flowers draw in butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds, turning your garden into a buzzing paradise.
  • 😈 Let it climb a trellis, fence, or arbor and watch it become the centerpiece of your yard - fast!


🛒 Add the Queen's Wreath to your garden and grow your own royal display! 👑

📚 Learn more:


The Royal Snow White that everyone loves
Purple Sandpaper Vine

#Butterfly_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits

🏵 TopTropicals

Date: 2 Apr 2025

TROPICAL FRUIT HEALTH BENEFITS GUIDE, Part 2:

TROPICAL FRUIT

TROPICAL FRUIT

🍑 What fruit and edibles can help with health issues and VITAMIN deficiencies

...Continued from previous post ⤴️

7. 💅 Beauty Enhancer

(Vitamin B7 - Biotin):

Banana, Avocado, Aloe Vera, Clitoria (Butterfly Pea), Patchouli.

8.Blood Builder
(Vitamin B9 - Folate):

Avocado, Guava, Papaya, Moringa, Chaya (Maya Spinach Tree), Mulberry.

9. Immunity Booster
(Vitamin C - Ascorbic Acid):
Guava, Pineapple, Carambola, Mango, Dragon Fruit, Loquat, Longevity Spinach (Gynura), Moringa, Allspice, Camphor Tree, Bay Leaf, Yerba Mate, Cherry, Peach, Passion fruit, Mulberry, Eugenia, Cinnamon, Piper sarmentosum (Vietnamese Pepper), Wiriwiri and Biquinho Pepper.

10. Skin Shield
(Vitamin E - Tocopherol):

Avocado, Sapote, Dragon Fruit, Moringa, Patchouli, Aloe, Annatto, Camphor Tree.

11. ❣️Clot Controller
(Vitamin K - Phylloquinol):

Moringa, Sauropus (Katuk), Chaya.

12. 🍲 Digestive Aid
(Enzymes):

Pineapple, Papaya, Ginger, Turmeric, Mango, Lemongrass, Cinnamon, Black Pepper, Bay Leaf, Betel Leaf, Peach, Eugenia, Jackfruit, Lippia dulcis, Allspice, Lippia alba (Poleo), Wiri wiri and Biquinho Pepper, Passion fruit.

📚 Learn more in our next posts about specific benefits of each fruit or plant...

🛒 Explore tropical fruit trees with benefits

#Food_Forest #Discover #Remedies #Bananas

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals