Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 4 Jun 2021

Tahitian Gardenia

Q: I am interested in your Tahitian Gardenia and I would love to try and grow this plant in a large container/fabric pot. The soil here where I live is terrible as it's hard rock, clay, and sand! So I'm not sure if amending the soil would help to plant in the ground? Can you tell me if this will do okay in a container or best in ground? I live here in Las Vegas, NV (zone 9a). Any information would be great to help me make a this decision, I love the selection of cool tropical plants you offer! Also my daughter does Tahitian/Polynesian dance and this would be a cool "topping on the cake" if she could have a live Tiare flower in her performances.

A: Tahitian Gardenia will be doing best if grown in container in your area. In its natural habitat, it grows full sun but also it enjoys mild weather conditions and high air humidity. All gardenias prefer acidic soils. In your area, if planted in the ground, it may be exposed to some harsh conditions: too high temperatures, too hot sun, dry air, and as you mentioned - heavy clay and sandy soil. You can enjoy this plant grown in container, which can be moved as needed away from too much sun during summer months. Use well-drained potting mix. Use plastic pot, do not use fabric or clay pots - soil will dry out too quickly.
Also remember to fertilize this plant on regular basis with a liquid fertilizer SUNSHINE Pikake - Fragrant Flower Booster.
Grow gardenia in full sun or semi-shade during the hottest months. You may spray it with pure water if the air too dry and hot. Enjoy your Tropical Beauty and good luck!

Date: 25 Sep 2022

Guava, the easiest container fruit tree

Grow Your Own Food

Guava is one of the most popular and well-known tropical fruit because it is so tasty, sweet, juicy and flavorful! Many people are familiar with it because of the large number of products made from this aromatic fruit. But very few people know that Guava tree culture is very easy and this plant can fruit in a pot right away. Guava tree start blooming and producing fruit as small as 1 gal pot size. It can be kept in compact shape, responds well to pruning, stays bushy and grows very fast. It is a perfect container fruit tree or a specimen for a tropical garden of any size.
Upon ripening, the fruit becomes soft and juicy. It may be eaten fresh, made into a juice or nectar contain fruit pulp, or made into preserves, jam, jelly, or paste. A distinctive, savory-fresh aroma of fruit is thermo-stable, thus survives processing. The guava is an excellent source of vitamins C and A.
The plant is relatively cold hardy. Our young trees, 3 months after being planted in the ground were exposed to a short period of freeze last winter (mid-20's) but they grew back without significant damage. Try to keep Guava cold-protected for the first winter, then it will be much hardier once established.
Guavas are fast growers and heavy feeders, and benefit from regular applications of fertilizer. Make sure to get some Sunshine Boosters fertilizer: Sunshine C-Cibus - Crop Booster, and feed them your round.

Shop guavas

Date: 23 Jun 2024

The best tropical fruit tree for container growing, and the fastest to fruit:

Rollinia (Rollinia deliciosa) - the biggest Annona fruit

Sugar Apple (Annona squamosa)

Guanabana (Annona muricata)

Pineapple Annona Golden (Annona costaricana)

Custard Apple (Annona reticulata)

Mountain Soursop or Hedgehog (Annona montana)

🏆 The best tropical fruit tree for container growing, and the fastest to fruit: Annona.

🍏 Annonas (Annona sp) are very much loved tropical fruit. The fruit has smooth, creamy flesh, just like a natural custard - hence one of the common names - "Custard Apple". Growing an Annona tree is a rewarding experience, its a small compact tree that will let you enjoy its creamy and exotic fruit right away.

The best tropical tree suited for container growing, due to its small height. It can be maintained within 6-8 ft tall.

The fastest fruiting tree: 2-3-4 years from seed to fruit, depending on species.

Most species are deciduous: drop leaves during winter-spring.

Thrives in frost-free climate. Some species are cold hardier than others. Container culture is a good way to cold protect these beautiful small trees.

❤️ 6 top most popular Annonas:

▪️ Rollinia (Rollinia deliciosa) - the biggest Annona fruit and the most showy
▪️ Sugar Apple (Annona squamosa) - the most popular
▪️ Guanabana (Annona muricata) - the most cold sensitive but the fruit is so tasty!
▪️ Pineapple Annona Golden (Annona costaricana) - cold hardy and easy to grow
▪️ Custard Apple (Annona reticulata) - with red flesh
▪️ Mountain Soursop or Hedgehog (Annona montana) - mentioned earlier, cold hardy

📚 Learn more:
Horoscope for Guanabana tree
Hedgehog Mountain Soursop - Annona montana
How to grow and hand-pollinate Guanabana Tree indoors (PDF)

🛒 Shop Annona varieties

#Food_Forest

🏵 TopTropicals

Date: 5 Jun 2024

Top 10 Dwarf Condo Mango - great for container culture

Mango Cogshall

Mango Ice Cream

Mango Julie

Mango Okrung

Mango Pickering

Mango Nam Doc Mai

Mango Mallika

Mango Carrie

Mango Diamond

Mango Keitt

🥭 Top 10 Dwarf "Condo" Mango - great for container culture.

🟠 1. Cogshall - an ultra compact grower up to just eight feet tall, will still produce a good size crop. Very colorful and has a mild, sweet flavor. Fungus resistant.
🟠 2. Ice Cream - far and away the most popular of the "condo mangoes." Flavored like the name. Maintained at a height of just six feet (!) making it ideal for container growing.
🟠 3. Julie - the most popular variety in Jamaica and many other Caribbean islands because of its rich, sweet, coconut/pineapple-like flavor. Great for containers, but keep in mind it's very cold sensitive, don't plant it in the ground if you get freeze in winter.
🟠 4. Okrung - Thai compact cultivar, served in Thailand in combination with sticky rice. One of the most popular varieties in Thailand. The fruit is very sweet, with the highest sugar content.
🟠 5. Pickering - great for pot culture. It has a bushy, compact growth habit, maintained in a container at just six feet (!). The fruit has a firm flesh with a fantastic coconut/mango flavor.
🟠 6. Nam Doc Mai - The most popular variety for pot culture. Everyone loves it. Eaten green or ripe, a Thailand favorite.
🟠 7. Mallika - condo mango native to India. Among the best of the new generation of Indian dessert mangos. Intensely sweet, rich and highly aromatic flavor with hints of citrus and melon.
🟠 8. Carrie - the flavor is by far the most outstanding. It has absolutely no fiber and extremely rich in flavor, sweet, aromatic and a pure pleasure to eat. You will savor every mouthful! Its compact size makes it an excellent dooryard tree.
🟠 9. Diamond - It has a great taste very similar to Nam Doc Mai. Very compact, of a dwarf habit, great condo mango.
🟠 10. Keitt - the best all-around late mango. Very productive, good-flavored, and disease resistant. Has a very long and late season. The compact tree is semi dwarf that bears 4-5 pound goliath fruit!

📝 See also earlier post: 5 most Favorite Mango Varieties

🛒 Shop Mango Trees

#Food_Forest

🏵 TopTropicals

Date: 26 May 2025

The biggest in the world Vanilla dilloniana monster grew even bigger! 2025 update

Vanilla dilloniana in 100 gal container

Vanilla dilloniana flowers

👹 The biggest in the world Vanilla dilloniana monster grew even bigger! 2025 update.

⭐️ Vanilla dillioniana - The Biggest Vanilla Orchid grown in 100 gal pot by Robert Riefer's "Intelligent Design" in 2017 video got so big that Robert had to step it up again - in a giant 250 gal pool on wheels! Here are some photos of this world-famous Vanilla plant in full bloom.
⭐️The Mother plant originated in 1927, awarded in 2011 with CHM certificate of Horticultural Merit by American Orchid Society.
⭐️ Leafless Vanilla Orchid is an amazing exotic vanilla that forms a multi-branched, leafless vine reaching lengths up to 15 ft. The light green flowers are similar to Vanilla barbellata but the petals and sepals are longer and the fluted lip is a deep reddish-purple with a yellow crest.
⭐️ Vanilla dilloniana is a very rare species and considered vulnerable, endangered across its range.
⭐️ The plants we have for you at Top Tropicals are grown from cuttings of this very plant - in very limited quantities, don't miss the chance to get the offspring of this legendary plant!

🛒 Get your own super rare Leafless Vanilla dilloniana - propagated from this exact historical plant!

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Nature_Wonders

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