Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 3 Dec 2024

What is the most excusive tropical Christmas flower?

What is the most excusive tropical Christmas flower?

🎄 What is the most excusive tropical Christmas flower?



🎅 A festive showstopper, Ruellia colorata, known as Colorama, is a rare and vibrant addition to exotic container plant collection. Its brilliant scarlet bracts color up for Christmas and stay bright carmine for several months.

🎅 Native to Brazil, this small plant grows 2-4 feet tall, displaying brilliant scarlet bracts and crimson flowers that stay bright for months, adding a touch of holiday cheer.

🎅 One of Colorama's most striking features is its photoperiodic response: the top leaves turn crimson red around Christmas time due to changes in daylight length, much like the beloved Poinsettia. After winter, these leaves return to green, keeping the plant lively and versatile year-round.
Photoperiodism is the process where plants respond to the length of day and night, triggering changes such as leaf coloration or flowering.

🎅 Its blooms are a magnet for butterflies and hummingbirds, making it a favorite for wildlife enthusiasts.

🎅 Colorama thrives in shady to semi-shady spots and requires regular watering to stay lush and healthy. It's perfect for USDA zones 9-11 but can also be grown in colder regions if protected from frost. For winter care in cooler climates, move it indoors or to a warm area to keep this stunning beauty happy and blooming.

🎅 When grown in pots, ensure good drainage, use rich organic soil, and place the plant in a bright location.

🎅 Prune twice a year to maintain its compact, bushy shape, and fertilize with a flowering fertilizer once established.

🛒 Get your own Exclusive Christmas Colorama

#Container_Garden #Shade_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 10 Jan 2026

How to grow Patchouli indoors

Patchouli - Pogostemon cablin

How to grow Patchouli indoors

Patchouli - Pogostemon cablin is easy to grow indoors if you give it what it likes. It is one of those plants that does double duty - it looks great and makes your home smell amazing. Those big, soft leaves release that deep, earthy scent just by being there.

☘️ Light and temperature



Patchouli loves bright shade. Think filtered light near a window, not harsh direct sun. Too much sun can burn the leaves, especially indoors. In lower light, it still grows well and keeps its fragrance. It is a tropical herb, so keep in warm - at room temperature.

☘️ Water and soil



This plant loves water. Use a well-draining soil mix and a pot with drainage holes, but do not let it dry out. Daily watering is usually fine in warm conditions. Good air circulation is important.
Growing patchouli is similar to growing herbs in containers - just be more generous with water than you would be with basil or oregano.

☘️ Containers and growth



Patchouli grows fast. Start in a 1-gallon pot, but plan to move it up to a 3-gallon container fairly quickly. More room means bigger leaves and a stronger scent.

☘️ Feeding



Feed regularly. You can use Sunshine Boosters Robusta with every watering, or apply Green Magic controlled-release fertilizer every 6 months and at each transplant. Patchouli responds quickly to feeding with lush growth.

☘️ Pruning and uses



Prune as the plant gets bigger to keep it full and bushy. Do not throw the leaves away - dry them for sachets or use fresh/dry leaves for tea.

☘️ Propagation



Patchouli roots very easily from cuttings. Snip a healthy stem, place it in water or moist soil, and it will root fast. It is one of the easiest plants to share with friends.

If you want a plant that grows fast, smells incredible, and actually does something useful indoors, patchouli is hard to beat.

🛒 Grow calming Patchouli Scent at home

📚 Learn more:

Patchouli Plant Facts

Botanical name: Pogostemon cablin, Pogostemon patchouli, Pogostemon heyneanous
Also known as: Patchouli, Pucha-pat
USDA Zone: 9 - 11
Highligths Groundcover and low-growing 2ft plantSmall plant 2-5 ftSemi-shadeFull sunWatering: Moderate. Water when top soil feels dryWatering: Regular. Let topsoil dry slightlyOrnamental foliageSpice or herb plantEthnomedical plant.
Plants marked as ethnomedical and/or described as medicinal, are not offered as medicine but rather as ornamentals or plant collectibles.
Ethnomedical statements / products have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. We urge all customers to consult a physician before using any supplements, herbals or medicines advertised here or elsewhere.Fragrant plant
Get personalized tips for your region

Patchouli - Pogostemon cablin in Plant Encyclopedia
Health Benefits of Pogostemon cablin (Patchouli, Pucha-Pat)
Patchouli: more than just a pretty scent
Archeologists found Patchouli perfume from Ancient Rome
Patchouli tea recipe

#Perfume_Plants #Remedies #Food_Forest #How_to

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 9 Jan 2026

Mango Tree for Zone 5: top 15 Condo Mango for growing in cold areas

Mango Tree for Zone 5

🥭 Mango Tree for Zone 5: top 15 Condo Mango for growing in cold areas



🥭 Can you grow a mango tree in Zone 5? Short answer - yes! The trick is - containers!
Mango trees are tropical plants but they do great in pots when you choose the right varieties.

🥭 Compact types stay short, respond well to pruning, and produce in containers.
You can grow them on a patio, balcony, even move them indoors in your condo for winter. That is why they are called condo mangoes!
During warm months, they live outside.
When cold weather hits, they come inside.

🥭 With good light, proper watering, fertilizing, and some patience, these trees can reward you with real mangoes. Not a farm harvest, but enough to enjoy and share.

🏆 Most popular Condo Mango varieties:


Baptiste
Carrie
Cogshall
Diamond
Fairchild
Ice Cream
Julie
Keitt
Lancetilla
Lemon Meringue
Mallika
Nam Doc Mai
Okrung
Pickering
Venus

🛒 Discover Condo Mango

📚 Learn more:
What are the Condo Mangos - a practical guide
Top 10 Dwarf "Condo" Mango, great for container culture
Best tropical fruit and edibles to grow in Zone 5 and anywhere outside the Tropics

#Food_Forest #How_to #Discover #Mango

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 10 Jan 2017

New Video: Coffee plant

Top Tropicals Showcase: Coffee plant.

Check out this video: Top Tropicals Showcase: Coffee plant

Most people drink coffee every day but not all of them realize where this delicious drink comes from. It comes from a Coffee tree!
Coffee is the best gift plant and perfect container fruit tree. It grows into a beautiful dark green shrub or small tree. Coffee tree prefers filtered light which makes this plant a perfect house plant.
The white, fragrant, star-shaped flowers are clustered and resemble gardenias to which they are related. The whole fruit is edible, it is a small fleshy berry changing in color from green to yellow to red. The seeds are the actual "coffee beans" as they called, and can easily be dried, roasted and ground at home. The most common coffee is Coffea arabica; related species are Coffea robusta (Robusta Coffee) and Coffea liberica (Liberian Coffee).

Get a Coffee tree and it will keep you happy with the favorite beverage at all times!
Enjoy this video and your morning coffee.



Stay updated with TopTropicals Videos by subscribing to our channel at YouTube.com/TopTropicals and get our latest video news of what's fruiting and blooming!

Date: 31 Aug 2016

Hardy avocados

Q: I intend to gift three avocados, at least one type A and one type B, to a friend who lives in an area where the temperature never goes below 25F. The idea is to give them a ripening season as long as possible. Which combinations do you suggest, and which are the A and B?

A: When talking about "A" type and "B" type in Avocados, it is referring to the flowers. An avocado will produce both male and female flowers on the same plant. "A" type means that the flowers are female in the morning and male at afternoon. "B" type means that the flowers are male in the morning and female in the afternoon. If you plant to start a commercial growth, then it's important to create a proper mix of both types. However, in hot and humid climate a single tree produces flowers of both types, so it is not necessary to have both A- and B- types planted together in backyard. Even a single tree produces enough fruits for home gardener.

It is also important to know that while there are more cold hardy avocados, it refers to a full grown established tree. They will still need protection from the cold until they are bigger and more established. One can not expect a small tree, which was planted in June, to survive the first winter. It'll take few years until the tree is "harden" enough.

Wurtz Avocado: Fruits from May to Sept. Dwarf hybrid. It is very compact and slow growing, reaching only about 8-12 feet at maturity. Distinctive weeping growth habit. Suited for planters, containers, patios, greenhouse use. Great for dooryard or container growing. The tree can handle temperatures to 25(F) degrees. Production is good and it is a consistent bearer.

Day Avocado: Fruits July to Sept. Day avocado is green, smooth skin and is shaped like a club. The fruit is of very good quality and has a nice buttery consistency. The slender tree is relatively cold tolerant and produces July through September.

Fuerte Avocado: Fruits Nov to June. Relatively cold hardy variety. Green fruit, elongated,flavor excellent, buttery. Vigorous compact tree with decidedly alternate year bearing habit. Ripens November to June.

These three will provide you with fruit ripening during the whole warm season. For the most cold hardy avocado varieties, see this info sheet.