Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 28 Sep 2016

Helping plants to survive winter:
SUNSHINE BOOSTERS - FROM SUNSHINE STATE

A magic plant hormone so wanted by gardeners, is finally here! When people purchase plants and trees either on-line, or from their local nursery, expectation and anticipation for their new find is high. Many times, however, disappointment is encountered due to a variety of reasons. These reasons include changes in light, temperature, water, soil conditions and transportation; just to name a few. So how can the stress on newly transported and transplanted plants be mitigated? Easy! There are plant stimulators able to reduce the shock encountered.

One such plant stimulator, produced at TT Laboratories is SUNSHINE, a revolutionary, broad spectrum, plant stress reliever. Extracted initially from plant pollen, SUNSHINE can bring back and keep the vigor to stressed plants in both the home and garden. Sunshine is indeed a plant stimulator on the cutting edge of plant care technology. Reasonably priced, and easy to use, SUNSHINE will be your plants' best friend, next to yourself, of course.

SUNSHINE will help your plants:
- recover from stress
- dramatically increase growth rate
- get profuse flowering and fruiting
- improve disease resistance, cold hardiness, and heat resistance
- promote seed germination and root cuttings easily

Great for indoor plants and improving cold tolerance!

Line of products:
SUNSHINE-E - general plant booster, growth stimulator and immune booster
SUNSHINE-BC - Bonsai and Caudex developer
SUNSHINE-S - seeds and cuttings pre-treatment
SUNSHINE-T - Thermo-protection for overwintering tropical plants
SUNSHINE-Micro - ultimate micro-element mix from TT Laboratories

On the photo: Tomato seedlings, with and without Sunshine-E treatment; 1 week after treatment, 09-01-2016. Continue reading...

Order online

Date: 26 Mar 2026

🌈 Adeniums: More Than Just Plants

Smokey and Sunshine in a luxury greenhouse admiring sculptural adenium
plants with thick caudex trunks and colorful blooms.

Sunshine: What are they called? Adeniums? They’re not plants. They’re art. Look at those sculptured butts.

Smokey: Caudex. Water and nutrient storage for future use.

Sunshine: I need a caudex too. For coffee and my donuts

Smokey: You already have one. Have you looked in the mirror lately?.

🌱 Shape, Color, and Why Each Adenium Feels Unique

Adeniums can stop you in a strange way. It is not only the flowers, although they help. It is the whole plant. The swollen base, the curves, the way no two look quite the same. Some are thick and heavy, some more refined, almost like they were shaped on purpose. After a bit, you stop seeing them as regular plants and start treating them more like objects you want to keep and look at.

That is usually how a collection starts. One plant, then another that feels different, and then you want contrast. Light next to dark, soft next to bold, one with a wide base next to a taller form. It is not really about having many. It is about how they look together. And over time, each one changes a little, so the collection never stays the same.

Adeniums display a wide diversity of colors and forms, from red and pink to yellow and purple. Through multi-grafting, several varieties can even grow and bloom on a single plant.

A world of colors in every bloom - how many can you resist? Warning: Highly collectible! No two are the same - and that’s exactly why one is never enough. Rare, unique, unforgettable - build your collection, one stunning bloom at a time.

Free Shipping on Adeniums

Add bold color and unique forms to your collection with no extra shipping cost.

🛒 Explore Exotic Adenium varieties

Date: 16 Jun 2023

10 tips how to care of tropical garden
during hot Summer

Q: Do you have any special recommendations how to take care of plants during hot season, to reduce heat strees?

A: Tropical plants prefer temperatures of 70-90F, except for heat-adapted desert plants. High temperatures above 90F can cause slowed metabolism and signs of stress like wilting, yellowing, and leaf drop. Hot and humid conditions attract pests and fungal diseases. To keep your plants stress-free and healthy, during Summer:

1. Monitor temperature and signs of stress.
2. Provide shade to regulate heat exposure: use shade cloth or simply a sheet of fabric as needed to protect lush foliage from burns.
3. Choose heat-tolerant plant varieties.
4. Plant in groups and levels, with trees protecting smaller shade loving plants (see companion planting).
5. Water deeply in the morning or evening to prevent evaporation.
6. Mulch to conserve moisture and regulate soil temperature.
7. Air: ensure good air circulation.
8. Trim damaged foliage and crowded branches.
9. Fertilize: use appropriate fertilization to improve plant heat tolerance. Remember, plants need lots of food during active growth period.
10. Remove weeds, pests, and diseases promptly.

See more articles on plant care

In the photo: Tibouchina multiflora (grandifolia) - Glory bush, Quaresmeira, one of the most impressive flowering plants for tropical gardens, with impressive, large velvet leaves and beautiful purple flowers. It blooms in both sun or shade!

Date: 2 Jun 2022

Plant Horoscope - Gemini

What is your lucky Zodiac plant?

By Alex Butova, the Witch of Herbs and Cats

... Gemini are very fond of plants, especially flowers. They are able to devote their lives to favorite plants, selecting new varieties, planting gardens, parks and arboretums. In addition, the planet-ruler Mercury gives them with business ability - Gemini are excellent flower merchants of any level: from flower growers who sell their plants to everyone, to wholesalers who supply their delicate fragrant goods around the world. In their house, Gemini do not keep too many plants, they have enough of those that grow outside in their nursery and garden. However, among those who nevertheless became piece of the family (exactly this way Gemini perceive their house plants), preference is given to graceful forms, pubescent and curly, like Farfugium, Monstrous epyphyllum, often carved leaves (Monstera) and plants with aroma. All these properties not only improve the physical well-being of Gemini, but also helps save the spiritual and mental balance of their contradictory but all while tender and romantic nature. Gemini don't care about common spices, they love unusual plants and especially those with a sweet scent. Their favorite aroma is rose and similar, like fragrances of Clerodendrums, Jasmines, Gardenias, Plumeria, and Brunfelsia. At critical moments sweet scents awaken them into the life!..

SEE GEMINI LUCKY PLANTS

Date: 6 Oct 2021

Top Tropicals Top House Plants

Photo above: Clerodendrum indoor garden of Ludmila Ezhova, St Petersburg, Russia.

Enjoy the Tropics Year round!
Bring them inside...

Q: I just discovered your amazing website and spent hours browsing your beautiful tropical plants! I wish I could have them all! But it's getting cold here (I live in Chicago area), too late? Can you recommend something of a small size, colorful, that I can easily overwinter indoors? Thanks for bringing this beauty into our lives!

A: Don't get discouraged even in colder climates. Yes, you can grow tropical plants indoors! Remember that all traditional houseplants are in fact tropical plants that grow in tropics in a wild habitat. Humans didn't invent them as indoor plants, they originally collected them from the rain forests and jungles! Most of tropical plants, including trees and fruit trees, can be grown in containers and even indoors. It's just a matter of space limitations and amount of time you are willing to spend caring of your exotic babies. Many gardeners up North are very successful with their tropical plant collections.
Below are a few suggestions of compact growing, easy species for your indoor collection. Enjoy the Tropics Year round!

See more plants well-suitable for indoor culture and our specials at the end of this newsletter.

Photo above: small tropical indoor garden of Julia Nikolayeva, St Petersburg, Russia.

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