🥭 Ice Cream mango: tiny tree, big flavor!
Mango Rainbow🌈

• 🟡Ice Cream is the king of condo mangoes - and for good reason! This tiny tree stays under six feet and still gives you a full size fruit that tastes like mango sorbet.
• 🟡The fruit may be small and green, but inside? Bright yellow flesh that's rich, sweet, and unbelievably smooth.
• 🟡It is the perfect pick for containers, patios, or small spaces. If you want big flavor from a little tree, Ice Cream mango is the one.

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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🍒 Cocoplum: secret fruit in your hedge

• 🍒 Most people think Cocoplum is just a boring hedge plant: Bahamas Cocoplum (Chrysobalanus icaco). Thick, green, easy to trim - great for privacy. But hidden in all that greenery? Super-sweet plum-like fruit that are edible and very tasty! They look like small plums and come in pink, purple, or white when ripe.
• 🍒 Cocoplum is native to Florida and has been quietly feeding people for generations, long before it became a landscaping go-to. The fruit is mild, a little sweet, and great for snacking or making into jam.
• 🍒 Cocoplum isn't just a tasty surprise - it comes with some health perks too:

Rich in antioxidants - especially anthocyanins, which give the purple fruit its color and help fight free radicals in the body.

• Good source of fiber - helps with digestion and keeping you full.
• Contains vitamin C - supports your immune system and skin health.
• Low in calories - great for snacking without guilt.
• So when you bite into a Cocoplum, you're not just tasting Florida - you're getting a little wellness boost too.

🍯 Quick Cocoplum Jam:

• 🔸2 cups ripe Cocoplums
• 🔸1 cup sugar
• 🔸1 cup water*
• 🔸1 tbsp lemon juice
• 🔸Mash it all up, cook on low 20-30 minutes until thick. Cool and enjoy!

*To make a delicious summer drink, add 10 cups of water and just get to boil. Let sit 2 hrs, mash up, drain fruit and cool to enjoy.

So next time you walk by a Cocoplum hedge, check for fruit. There might be a free snack waiting for you!

🛒 Get your edible hedge Cocoplum: privacy with perks

#Food_Forest #Recipes

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➕ Lily’s fresh start: from bullied to beloved!

Remember Josephine's adorable kittens? You've met her famous son - dashing Philemon, now say hello to his sister, Lily - Lilimon!

Lily spent three happy years at our Ft Myers Garden Center, living the good life... until one day her siblings, brother Loki (aka Charlie Jr) and sister Sushi, decided to form a "no Lily allowed" club and started picking on her. Can you believe it? Sweet, gentle Lily - bullied!

But Lily’s no pushover. She packed her paws, waved her tail goodbye, and set off for our TopTropicals Bfarm in Sebring. And guess what? She's already mingling with the other #PeopleCats and making new friends. Now she’s settling in, and proving that fresh starts can come with purrs and sunshine.

Stay tuned - this story is just getting interesting!

🐈📸 Cat Lilimon at her new home at Top Tropicals Bfarm. 

#PeopleCats

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👻 The mystery of the White Bat Lily - the plant with wings and whiskers

• Here's a cool shot of the White Bat Head Lily (Tacca nivea) - its dramatic white bracts that flare like wings and those wild, trailing whiskers are impossible to ignore. And it is in full bloom again at Top Tropicals - in the middle of August.
• This plant that pulls off gothic elegance with two crisp, wing‑like white bracts hovering over a cluster of deep maroon‑black "bat‑face" flowers, complete with long, draping whiskers. Beneath it all lie crinkled, olive‑green leaves that only add to its moody charm.
• This tropical understory native thrives in humid, shaded spaces - whether that's a greenhouse or a mossy, misty corner indoors. It's an evergreen perennial, endlessly intriguing. When it does bloom, the dark little flowers eventually yield heavy berries - just one more twist in its curious tale.

Looking to grow one? You'll need:

✔️High humidity, indirect light, and good air circulation

• ✔️Rich, orchid‑style soil (think adding bark, peat, perlite to your potting mix)
• ✔️Consistently moist - but not waterlogged - conditions
• ✔️And to be patient: flowering often requires a couple of leaves before it even sets stems

• It's not just a plant - it's a conversation starter, a living gothic sculpture that grows. Maybe a bit finicky? Sure. Totally worth it? Absolutely!

🛒 Add White Bat Head Lily to your collection

Tacca colors: Black, White, Green:

Tacca nivea - White Tacca - the rarest and the most wanted
Tacca chantrieri - Black Tacca
Tacca leontopetaloides - Green Tacca

📚 Learn more:

Spooky Bat Head Devil Flower

#Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden #Container_Garden

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🚁 Helicopter flower Madhavi - the Spring Herald that clings to a Mango Tree

• 🍥 Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower: during TopTropicals plant trip to Thailand, this was one of the first discoveries that caught our attention. We were suddenly stopped by an incredible, sweet perfume drifting through the air. Following the scent, we found its source - a dense, vigorous vine covered in unusual, eye-catching flowers.
• 🍥 Helicopter Flower? The name comes from its funny three-winged seed pods that spin like little helicopters. But the real show happens when it blooms. Clusters of pink-white-and-yellow flowers appear in profusion, with frilly petals and a fruity perfume that can stop you in your tracks. Best of all, it flowers in winter and early spring, just when most other plants are quiet, so it fills the air with fragrance at a time you need it most.
• 🍥 Hiptage is easy-going and adaptable. It can be trimmed as a shrub, trained into a small tree, or let go as a climber, but be ready to give it space and strong support if you let it vine. It's fast-growing, tolerant of different soils, and happy in either sun or part shade. You can even keep it in a container and trim it into a rounded bush. It's pretty cold hardy too - can take some light frost.
• 🍥 In India, the Helicopter Flower is called Madhavi - the Spring Herald, and often paired with mango trees in stories and gardens - the sturdy mango holding up this vigorous fragrant vine, symbolizing love, devotion, and the union of strength with beauty. Planting the two together makes for a striking, symbolic pair!
• 🍥 For gardeners, it's the rare combination of beauty, fragrance, adaptability, and a good story to tell. A plant that not only perfumes your garden but also brings a touch of legend to it.
• 🍥 Used medicinally in India.

🛒 Bring Perfume Spring Herald to your garden

#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits

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