Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 18 Feb 2025

What cactus vine produces gooseberries?

Perescia aculeata - Barbados Gooseberry

🐰 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:


What is Barbados Gooseberry?
A vine, a cactus, a tasty fruit, and a pretty flower

🛍Plant Barbados Gooseberry

#Food_Forest #Hedges_with_benefits

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Date: 4 Dec 2024

Is Sapphire Gem really a ginger?

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger, Sapphire Gem

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger, Sapphire Gem

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger, Sapphire Gem

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger, Sapphire Gem

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger, Sapphire Gem

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger, Sapphire Gem

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger, Sapphire Gem

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger, Sapphire Gem

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger, Sapphire Gem

Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger, Sapphire Gem

💎 Is Sapphire Gem really a ginger?

  • 💎 Despite its name, Blue Ginger is not a true ginger but a member of the Commelinaceae family, closely related to the well-known Tradescantia houseplants.
  • 💎 Dichorisandra thyrsiflora - Blue Ginger, Sapphire Gem is a clump-forming perennial enchants with its deep sapphire-blue blooms - a rare and striking color for the tropics.
  • 💎 Growing 2-5 feet tall, it features dark green stems with leopard-like spots at the leaf axils and shiny, horizontally held foliage.
  • 💎 Native to Brazil and Peru, Blue Ginger thrives in semi-shade or partial shade with moist, well-draining soil, making it an ideal addition to shade gardens, patios, or indoor collections.
  • 💎 Its vibrant blue, lavender, or purple flowers attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and other pollinators, creating a lively display.
  • 💎 In warm climates it remains evergreen and can tolerate brief dips into the low 30s. In cooler regions, it grows beautifully in pots and can be overwintered indoors in a cool, bright location. For best results, keep the soil moist but not waterlogged, maintain good air circulation, and fertilize moderately during the growing season.
  • 💎 In warm environment, the plant is evergreen and doesn't go dormant (unlike true gingers). Close relative - Dichorisandra pendula - Weeping Blue Ginger


🛒 Plant exotic Blue Ginger

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden

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Date: 24 Aug 2024

How you react

How you react
🎶 "It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters." - Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher.

😶 Sleep tight with no worries. Good night...

Share your cats in comments!
📸 🐈🐈🐈👇

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#Quotes


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Date: 16 Aug 2024

Life is like a game of hide and seek

🍂 "Life is like a game of hide and seek. The more you try to hide, the more you’ll be found."

😶 Good night...

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📸 🐈🐈🐈👇

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Date: 30 Jul 2024

A cat will do what it pleases

😆 "A cat will do what it pleases, when it pleases, and you can't force it to do otherwise. This is because it’s a cat." - Philip Brown
Sound on 📢

😶 Good night...

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