Date: 18 Feb 2025
What cactus vine produces gooseberries
Q: I've heard about a tropical gooseberry suitable for making jams but don't know its exact name. Do you have it? Gooseberry jam is my husband's favorite, but I can't find gooseberries here in Florida - too hot, maybe?
A: Yes, we do have the plant you're looking for! We've just made some delicious jam from this tropical gooseberry, and it tastes just like the northern varieties but even more flavorful! Florida's winter is the perfect season for this wonderful fruit. Right now, our plant is growing quickly and vigorously over our fence, and it's covered with fruit. Just a couple of months earlier it was full of fragrant, beautiful white flowers!
The plant in question is Perescia aculeata, commonly known as Barbados Gooseberry. It's a unique cactus with both edible leaves and fruit, making it a tropical treasure that offers beauty as well as culinary delights.
The fruit is yellow with a juicy, subacid pulp that tastes remarkably similar to traditional gooseberries. You can enjoy the fruits fresh, stewed, or transformed into jams and jellies.
The young leaves are also edible, adding a nutritious boost to your meals.
This fast-growing vining cactus prefers well-drained soil that remains moist during the summer and drier in winter, and it can be effectively grown in containers on a trellis.
Watch a short video of Barbados Gooseberry fruiting.
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
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Date: 3 Aug 2025
Caught on camera: found this on the Flower of Caipora
Ruellia affinis - 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
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Date: 30 Sep 2025
Can you name all the fruits on this tray? One of them will stump you!
Papaya, Avocado, Egyptian guava and Cas guava, Barbados cherry, Peanut butter fruit
Can you name all the fruits on this tray? One of them will stump you!
- 🥭 This morning I walked the garden and came back with a tray of fruits! That’s the joy of living in Florida with your own tropical garden: something new is always in season.
- 🥭 On today’s tray: Papaya, Avocado, Egyptian guava and Cas guava, Barbados cherry… And this little red one? Peanut butter fruit!
- 🥭 At Top Tropicals, you’ll find every tropical fruit tree you can imagine. What fruits are you harvesting from your garden right now?
🛒 Explore rare tropical fruit
📚 Learn more:
- 10 best fruit trees to grow in Florida and Southern landscapes
- Five best fruit trees to plant in Summer
- Top 10 fast-fruiting trees
#Food_Forest #Discover
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Date: 15 Dec 2016
SUNSHINE in a Bottle
SUNSHINE-H - plant booster for house plants specially formulated for plants grown indoors:
- protect from insects and improve disease resistance,
- improve tolerance of indoor plants to low light, and low humidity conditions;
- maintain healthy dormancy of seasonal species and help to rapidly break dormancy in Spring.
Directions:Mix with distilled water as follows: 2.5 ml to 1 gal. Spray traditional house plants - once in 2 weeks, tropical plants overwintering indoors, including woody ornamentals and potted fruit trees - once a week, leafy herbaceous perennials - once a month.
SUNSHINE in a Bottle - effective plant stimulant from new line of plant boosters, the representative of a new generation of agricultural chemicals. Developed by TT Laboratories LLC and designed specifically for applications on tropical plants. Can be used as well on seeds, seedlings, and small vegetable plants (completely organic and safe). It is proved to be a magic growth promoter, improves cold hardiness and heat tolerance of tropical plants.
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See page about SUNSHINE.
Order SUNSHINE boosters