😂 What is the most popular Christmas plant?

• Every one knows Christmas Orchid Cactus - Schlumbergera. But this rare variety is exceptional - it is called New Deal.
This remarkable Christmas cactus hybrid has spectacular, large-flowers and blooms twice a season.
• New Deal is completely lost to the trade today, but we have it at Top Tropicals for the first time after it was originally offered for purchase at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden over 90 years ago while having a special rare plant sale on the day of the famous presidential election on November 8, 1932 when F.D.R. was historically voted in as the next American president.
• The plants we are offering are all 3rd generation vegetative propagation from an original specimen (still alive btw). Its name New Deal - is identical to President Franklin D. Roosevel main campaign slogan
• Not only is New Deal an exceptionally obscure, heirloom cultivar especially easy to grow under average house plant conditions,
• It reliably produces almost an overabundance of brilliant violet-pink and white flowers which are easily an inch larger than any other variety.

📚 Learn more:

🐰 What cactus vine produces gooseberries? Barbados Gooseberry!

• 🙂 Perescia aculeata - Barbados Gooseberry - unique cactus with edible leaves and edible fruit, fast-growing vine. It is a tropical treasure that combines beauty with edible delights.
• 🙂 The fruit is yellow with a juicy, subacid pulp, and has a flavor that closely resembles a gooseberry. The fruits can be enjoyed fresh, stewed, or made into jams and jellies.
• 🙂 The young leaves are also edible, making them a nutritious addition to your meals.
• 🙂 A fast growing vining cactus, the Barbados Gooseberry prefers good drainage but likes its soil to remain moist during the summer, while being kept drier in the winter.
• 🙂 Can be grown in container on a trellis.

📚 Learn more from previous posts:

🌵 Stop! Don't touch! Just smell that magic fragrance... 😭

• 💠 Easter Lily Cactus (Echinopsis sp) is native to Brazil and Argentina. It is a globular cactus that produces splendid night-blooming, white fragrant flowers up to 10"long!
• 💠 Big, white or pink, fragrant blooms.
• 💠 Flowers open at night or early morning, creating a magical experience.
• 💠 Blooms last only a day or two, making each one special.
• 💠 Cool shapes: unique, spiny, ribbed bodies come in different forms and sizes.
• 💠 Easy Care: low-maintenance, very little water, lots of sunlight, and well-draining soil. Adapted to survive in harsh, dry environments, it can take both drought (obviously - cactus) and rainy seasons (like we have in Florida).
• 💠 Great for water-saving gardens and container culture.
• 💠 Many species and hybrids to collect, with a range of colors and forms.

Botanical bedhead: curly, crazy, and full of surprises

• This wild-looking jungle cactus doesn't grow straight - it spirals, twirls, and twists! Meet Epiphyllum guatemalense Monstrosa - Orchid Cactus, or Curly Locks.
• A natural mutation of Epiphyllum guatemalense, Curly Locks creates a tangled cascade of curly stems that look like botanical noodles!
• Perfect for hanging baskets, it blooms fragrant, orchid-like flowers at night and produces juicy, edible pink fruit.
• It's self-pollinating and thrives in bright, indirect light. Let it get root-bound to encourage blooms, and water moderately.
• A must-have oddity for cactus lovers and collectors!

📚 More about exotic epiphytic cacti:

• 🔴 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!