Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 13 Sep 2025

🌸 Meet the Most Colorful Ground Orchids

Collage  of  ground  orchids  –  Phaius  tankervilleae  (Nun  Orchid), 
 Spathoglottis  varieties  (purple,  yellow,  white,  pink),  Arundina  graminifolia
    (Bamboo  Orchid),  and  Epidendrum  species  (orange,  pink,  red  Reed 
 Orchids)

Ground Orchids – Spathoglottis, Phaius, Arundina, Epidendrum

  1. Chinese Nun Ground Orchid (Phaius tankervilleae)
  2. Yokohama Ground orchid Kate (Bletilla striata x formosana)
  3. Tropical Punch, Sorbet Ground Orchid (Spathoglottis plicata)
  4. Bamboo Orchid (Arundina graminifolia)
  5. Snow Angel, Coconut Cloud Ground Orchid (Spathoglottis alba)
  6. Orange Reed Ground Orchid (Epidendrum radicans Sunrise)
  7. Lemon Kiss, Sorbet Ground Orchid (Spathoglottis chrysanta)
  8. Pink Reed Ground Orchid, Violet Queen (Epidendrum radicans Fuchsia)
  9. Lavender Reed Ground Orchid (Epidendrum elongatum x radicans)
  10. Red Raspberry Reed Ground Orchid (Epidendrum radicans Red Glow)

Orchids have a mystique that sets them apart — elegant, exotic, almost unreal in their perfection. But let’s be honest, not everyone has luck with the fancy ones that cling to trees or need greenhouse tricks.

Ground orchids are different. They grow in regular garden soil, bloom in sun or shade, and come in all sorts of shapes and colors. They’re the orchids you don’t have to fuss over.

Nun Orchid (Phaius tankervilleae) – Ever wonder why it’s called the Nun Orchid? The flowers really do look like the white veil and brown habit nuns used to wear. The plants send up spikes 3–4 ft tall with 10–20 fragrant blooms that open one after another for weeks. I like them best tucked under trees where they just keep spreading year after year.

Spathoglottis – The nonstop bloomer – If you want flowers that just don’t quit, this one’s it. Spathoglottis clumps up and throws spikes of purple, pink, or yellow that last for weeks, then keep coming back through the summer. In warm spots they’ll bloom almost year-round. Honestly, it’s one of the easiest orchids you’ll ever grow.

💲 Special Offer – 20% off Ground Orchids!

Get 20% OFF ground orchids with code

ORCHID2025

Min order $100. Excluding S/H, valid online only, cannot be combined with other offers.

Hurry, offer expires September 17, 2025!

Shop ground orchids

Date: 3 Jul 2025

Coral-blooming bonsai with a bottle-shaped trunk - perfect container plant

🔥 Coral-blooming bonsai with a bottle-shaped trunk - perfect container plant


  • Jatropha podagrica - Gout Plant - is a one-of-a-kind tropical showpiece with a knobby, swollen caudex, massive umbrella-like leaves, and bright coral-red flowers that pop like underwater treasures.

  • Compact and only 2-3 feet tall, it's perfect for containers, bonsai lovers, and small gardens craving something bold and unusual. It thrives in partial shade, grows giant leaves in low light, and needs little water to stay happy. Easy-care and eye-catching, it's more than a plant it’s a conversation starter.


🛒 Get your Gout plant - the plant with a personality

📚 Learn more:


Attention grabber: swollen trunk, giant leaves, and flowers just like corals

#Container_Garden #Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 13 Apr 2025

Why do the Chinese drink tea?

Why do the Chinese drink tea?

🌱 Why do the Chinese drink tea?


  • 🍃 It actually has to do with the Chinese theory of the five elements - wood, metal, fire, water, and earth:

木 金 火 水 土

  • 🍃 Tea comes from a plant - Camellia sinensis - the Tea Leaf Tree - that is used to make all true teas: green, black, white, and oolong. The Tea Tree contains the element of wood (木) 🌳

  • 🍃 When it's roasted in a cast-iron pan, it gains the element of metal (金)

  • 🍃 Then it's dried over fire, adding the element of fire (火) 🔥

  • 🍃 When it's brewed with boiling water, the element of water enters (水) 💦

  • 🍃 Finally, tea is poured into a clay vessel, symbolizing the element of earth (土) 🍯

  • 🍃 In this way, all five elements - wood, metal, fire, water, and earth - come together in a single cup.

  • 🍃 The plant grows slowly and can thrive in containers or frost-free gardens with sun to semi-shade.


🛒 Grow your own tea

📚 Learn more from previous posts:


Tea facts
How to grow your own tea?
Where does the tea come from?
Instructions how to make tea from tea leaves (PDF)

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Fun_facts

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 5 Mar 2023

Cat Zodiac
Pisces Cats 2/19-3/20

By Alex Butova, the Witch of Herbs and Cats

Cat  is  swinging  in  a  hammock

Watch TikTok video: Philemon and Bob are dreamers, not doers. Typical Pisces cats! Philemon was born 2/20, and Bob 3/13. They can swing in their hammock all day long!

The astrological sign of a cat can be determined by either their date of birth or adoption...More >>

Pisces Cats possess a remarkable ability to escape reality and enter alternate dimensions they can spend hours watching fish swim by... They explore the world with great curiosity... These cats are dreamers, not doers... Bright flowers with subtle scents should adorn their space, delectable grass can be chewed, and foliage creates shade and coolness for sweet dreams...
CONTINUE READING >>

Orange  cat  chewing  lemon  grass

Cat  catching  a  Gekko  behind  the  screen

Watch TikTok video: Bob is trying to get a Gekko behind the screen (followed by Philemon's advice) and falls on Philemon's head...

Pisces  lucky  Zodiac  plant

Date: 21 Jul 2024

What is the most beautiful ginger? 5 most spectacular Ginger species

Hedychium flavum x coronarium - Yellow Butterfly Ginger

Hedychium flavum x coronarium - Yellow Butterfly Ginger

Costus arabicus (amazonicus) variegata - Variegated Spiral Ginger

Costus arabicus (amazonicus) variegata - Variegated Spiral Ginger

Zingiber Zerumbet - Pine Cone Ginger, Shampoo Ginger

Zingiber Zerumbet - Pine Cone Ginger, Shampoo Ginger

Costus vargasii - Spiral Ginger Raspberry Yogurt

Costus vargasii - Spiral Ginger Raspberry Yogurt

Costus fissiligulatus - African Princess, Cameroon Costus

Costus fissiligulatus - African Princess, Cameroon Costus

🎋 What is the most beautiful ginger? 5 most spectacular Ginger species.



Ginger is famous for its culinary and medicinal uses, and many species are also strikingly beautiful, making them perfect centerpieces for tropical gardens or potted plant collections, especially in shaded spots. Here are a few of our favorite cultivars.
  • 🍭 Hedychium flavum x coronarium - Yellow Butterfly Ginger, Nardo Ginger Lily - rare hybrid of White Butterfly ginger we mentioned earlier, it is more vigorous and tall than its parent. With attractive long green leaves with a slight fuzziness, this ginger has open long spikes of pastel yellow flowers with a beautiful heady aroma. Exquisitely fragrant!
  • 🍭 Costus arabicus (amazonicus) variegata - Variegated Spiral Ginger - is a show stopper! Very popular in Hawaii and Florida. Spiraling stems rise with a strong white variegation and topped with green and white cone like flowers. Vigorous grower, it prefers shade, moist soil and lots of water.
  • 🍭 Zingiber Zerumbet - Pine Cone Ginger, Shampoo Ginger - is probably the most popular one. All parts of this ginger are spicy fragrant. The cone shaped flowers are long lasting and useful for cut flower arrangements. It is in fact used as a shampoo in Asia and Hawaii, and as an ingredient in several commercial shampoos! Pinecone ginger is considered a "canoe plant", that is, a plant introduced throughout the Pacific by the ancient Polynesian settlers.
  • 🍭 Costus vargasii - Spiral Ginger Raspberry Yogurt - The name refers to the colorful raspberry colored stem, but that's not the only colorful thing about it: the leaves are dark green, long and glossy with velvety deep purple undersides. The inflorescence is a vivid red with tight bracts and bold yellow flowers. The butterflies love to drink the nectar from the flowers. Large vigorous ginger, growing up to 5-6 ft tall.
  • 🍭 Costus fissiligulatus - African Princess, Cameroon Costus - from Gabon in West Africa. It has a dazzling pink trumpet flower with a yellow throat. It is very floriferous with an inflorescence of numerous flower buds on a shortish plant of 3-4 ft that stands very erect. It is an easy grower


📚 More gingers in previous posts:


Alpinia formosana x zerumbet Variegata - Variegated Ginger
Costus spicatus x woodsonii - Red Button Ginger, French Kiss
Hedychium coronarium - Butterfly Ginger
Kaempferia angustifolia - Laos Silver Stripe

What is your favorite Ginger? Share in comments👇

🛒 Shop Gingers

#Shade_Garden #Container_Garden #Food_Forest

🏵 TopTropicals