Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 15 Jul 2025

Why everyones falling for the Hog Plum - the tropical fruit tree that does it all!

Hog Plum tree (Spondias purpurea)

🍅 Why everyone's falling for the Hog Plum - the tropical fruit tree that does it all!



♦️The Hog Plum tree (Spondias purpurea), that you saw blooming in March, set the fruit by May and now in July - it's finally ripening at TopTropicals garden, and wow, what a crop!

♦️Also known as Jocote, Spanish Plum, or Purple Mombin, this fast-growing tropical tree is a superstar in the garden. It explodes with bright flowers right on bare branches in spring, then follows up with juicy, plum-like fruits that smell amazing and taste even better.

♦️The fruits are super versatile - eat them fresh, cook them down with sugar, pickle them green, or even make a spread like apple butter. You can even cook the young leaves for a tangy side dish.

♦️It grows fast, fruits early, and does great in all kinds of soil. Want a living fence that feeds you? This is it.

♦️And it's not just tasty - Hog Plum is packed with vitamin C, fiber, and antioxidants. It’s refreshing, great for digestion, and may even help with blood pressure and blood sugar.

♦️ If mango is king, Hog Plum is definitely next in line!

🛒 Sweet fruit, right this way!

📚 Learn more:


Hog Plum health benefits
This is how the flowers of a Hog Plum look like
The Hog Plum tree fruit
What fruit tree is full of fruit year around

#Food_Forest

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Date: 23 Jul 2025

Five best fruit trees to plant in Summer

James Coconuts and Bob introducing Five best fruit trees

🌳 Five best fruit trees to plant in Summer



☀️ Summer might be scorching, but it’s actually a great time to plant fruit trees that love the heat. If you've got sunshine and a little space, these five tropical picks will reward you with fresh, homegrown fruit - some you’ll never find in a store!

1.🥭 Mango - the King of all fruit, a must have in every garden. Fiberlress varieties only! You can't buy those in the store.

2. Avocado - a must have super-fruit in everyone's diet, grow your own!

3.🐲 Dragon fruit - heat tolerant easy plant with low water needs, sweet fruit-bearing cactus

4. 🍉 Guava - by far the most flavorful tropical fruit, great for Summer drinks

5. 🍐 Black Sapote - fast growing, heat- and flood-tolerant, fruit tastes like chocolate pudding

📚 Learn more from previous posts:
🟡10 best fruit trees to grow in Florida and Southern landscapes
🟡Top 10 fast-fruiting trees
🟡Top 10 fruit you'll ever need for your health benefits

🛒 Explore the finest rare tropical fruit trees

#Food_Forest #Discover

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Date: 29 Jul 2025

Strawberry Guava for best Margaritas - the easiest fruit tree youll ever grow!

Strawberry Guava, Cattley Guava - Psidium littorale

🍓 Strawberry Guava for best Margaritas - the easiest fruit tree you'll ever grow!



🍓 If you're looking for a cold-hardy tropical fruit tree that thrives on neglect, you’ve found it: Strawberry Guava, or Cattley Guava (Psidium littorale). It's our favorite Guava at Top Tropicals!

🍓 This fast-growing, evergreen small tree or dense bush doesn’t mind poor soil, limestone, or salt. It’s hardy to the low 20s F, drought-tolerant once established, and can even handle short-term flooding. Great as a hedge, windbreak, or container specimen, it also adds beauty year-round with glossy green leaves, peeling reddish bark, and soft red new growth.

🍓 You’ll get round, tangy-sweet fruit from spring through fall - perfect for snacking, jams, or jellies, juices, and adding to all kinds of drinks, especially Margaritas and Mojitos! 🍸

🍓 The red and yellow types are both tasty, with the yellow often a bit larger and sweeter. The sweetest and the most flavorful Cattley Guava variety is Hawaiian Gold - Psidium littorale var. Lucidum. This one is our favorite for eating out of hand!

🍓 Cattley Guava is productive, low-maintenance, and ornamental - one of the easiest tropical fruit trees to grow in poor or alkaline soils.

🛒 Add a sweet guava hedge to your yard

📚 Learn more:


Favorite Guava fruit for eating fresh
Top 10 fast-fruiting trees: #2. Cattley and Tropical guava
How to always have lots of Guava Juice

#Food_Forest #Guava

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Date: 3 Aug 2025

Caught on camera: found this on the Flower of Caipora

Ruellia affinis - Flower of Caipora

🌺 Caught on camera: found this on the Flower of Caipora.

🍁 Ruellia affinis, the Flower of Caipora - is a rare tropical gem from the forests of Brazil, with tropical red blooms when you need them most!

🍁 This isn't your typical Ruellia. It's a climbing, vining shrub that puts out blazing red flowers in winter when most plants are taking a nap especially during Fall-Winter holidays.

🍁 You can let it vine up a trellis or pinch it back to make a bushy, compact shape. Either way, those scarlet blooms will pop once the older stems mature.

🍁 Just give it light shade, warmth, and moisture - and it'll reward your patience with color when you least expect it!

🛒 Limited! Get Flower of Caipora, hard-to-find tropical bloomer

📸 What's on the plant? Anyone knows the name of this Moth?

#Shade_Garden #Container_Garden

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Date: 12 Aug 2025

Six guava varieties that will keep you picking year-round

Tropical Guava - Psidium guajava

🍉 Six guava varieties that will keep you picking year-round



🍉 Everyone loves guava! Sweet, fragrant, and packed with flavor. At TopTropicals, we have a whole guava forest, with varieties for every space and taste: Tropical Guava - Psidium guajava.

🍉 Why we love Guava?


💋Fast-growing and sun-loving
💋Thrives with plenty of water but handle short droughts
💋Starts producing right away - no years of waiting
💋Abundant fruit harvests
💋Perfect for containers or small gardens

🍉 What are the best Guava varieties? Our favorites are:


💋Dwarf Guava - stays under 6 feet but produces full-sized fruit.
💋Honeymoon Variegated - leaves and fruit have variegated patterns, turning golden when ripe.
💋Barbie Pink - pear-shaped yellow fruit with thick pink flesh, low in pectin, perfect for fresh eating or juice. Larger than Ruby Supreme and cold-hardy for a tropical fruit.
💋Hong Kong (Hawaiian) - large, round fruit with smooth pink skin, sweet flavor, and few seeds. Very productive, with a spreading growth habit.
💋Kilo White - huge fruit (up to 1 kilo = 2 lbs) with soft white flesh and few seeds. Great container plant, fruits even when small.
💋Tikal - compact tree with yellow-skinned, pink-fleshed fruit. Fruits year-round and starts young. Great for beginners.

🍉 Health boost in every bite:


Guava is one of the richest sources of vitamin C – even more than oranges. It’s loaded with antioxidants, fiber, potassium, and lycopene, which support immunity, heart health, and digestion.

🍉 Whether you’ve got space for a tree in the yard or just a container on the patio, a guava will reward you with beauty, fragrance, and sweet fruit in no time.

🛒 Pick your guava variety

📚 Learn more:


How to grow a Guava Tree: Practical Guide to Growing Guava
More about #Guava

#Food_Forest #Guava #Discover

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