Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 1 Mar 2025

March 1, 2025 - SATURDAY - Spring Plant Market

March 1, 2025 - SATURDAY - Spring Plant Market

🛍 March 1, 2025 - SATURDAY - Spring Plant Market



🟢 Spring into Green at Our Spring Plant Market! Join us today, March 1, for a vibrant celebration of nature!

Bring your friends and family to explore a tropical oasis where our friendly #PeopleCats are ready to help you find the perfect plants to brighten your space.

🗓 Highlights of the event include:



- 30% OFF online prices (*excluding 15 gallon material and rare plants)
- Exciting raffle prizes
- Special discounts on selected plants
- Complimentary gift bags for the first 25 ccustomers with an order $50+
- Life Music: the Famous Hand Pan Lady! (see her previous performance at Top Tropicals)

🆓 Free plant with any purchase as a token of our appreciation

📍 Event discounts and specials valid at both locations:


Ft Myers Garden Center: 13890 Orange River, Ft Myers, FL
Sebring Farm: 9100 McRoy Rd, Sebring, FL

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Date: 11 Mar 2025

What trees are fruiting and blooming right now?

Tabebuia  chrysotricha  -  Dwarf  Golden  Tabebuia

Photo above: Tabebuia chrysotricha - Dwarf Golden Tabebuia

Q: What tropical trees are fruiting and flowering in March?

A: There's always something blooming and fruiting, especially with spring on the way! Our garden is buzzing with bees and butterflies, and in the nursery, you'll always find plants in bloom or bearing fruit. Here are a few standout winners of the season.

Orchid Trees

Bauhinia  alba  (candida)  -  White  Orchid  Tree

Orchid trees are among the most spectacular trees in Florida, flowering from late winter through spring. They are fast-growing, not fussy about soil or water, and bloom for several weeks in a stunning display of white, purple, pink, or red flowers. In the photo: Bauhinia alba (candida) - White Orchid Tree - the most cold-hardy of all Bauhinias, tolerating temperatures as low as 26F. You can see them in full bloom across Florida right now!

Carambola - Star Fruit

Starfruit  (Averrhoa  carambola)

Starfruit trees (Averrhoa carambola) have been fruiting in our garden since fall, and they just keep producing! We've had so many starfruits that we ended up making lots of jam.

Calliandra

Calliandra  tweedi  With  Love  -  Red  Tassel  Flower

Calliandras are known to be spectacular winter bloomers, but in our garden, they seem to flower year-round. They make fantastic ever-blooming hedges or striking small specimen trees.
In the photo: red-flowering Calliandra tweedii "With Love" - Red Tassel Flower, yright now, this beautiful bush is covered in red blooms in front of our office at Sebring Farm.

Mulberry Trees

Mulberry  fruit  on  the  tree

Yes, it's Mulberry season! Some varieties have already ripened, while others are just about to. We're competing with the birds to see who gets the first fruit, but honestly, there's plenty for everyone! These trees are very cold hardy and highly productive.

Loquat Trees

Loquat  tree  Eriobotrya  japonica

Loquat trees (Eriobotrya japonica) are loaded with fruit right now! We've started picking them and have already made some delicious preserves - you can only eat so many fresh. Loquats continue fruiting through April and May, making them one of the most rewarding, easy-to-grow, and productive fruit trees.

Tabebuia Trees

Tabebuia  impetiginosa  -  Dwarf  Pink  Tabebuia,  Pau  DArco,  Taheebo

Tabebuia trees put on a spectacular show from late winter through spring! Golden and pink Tabebuias are small, compact trees that fit any yard and deliver a breathtaking display year after year.
Check out these short videos of blooming Tabebuias:
Tabebuia chrysotricha - Dwarf Golden Tabebuia
Tabebuia impetiginosa - Dwarf Pink Tabebuia, Pau DArco, Taheebo

Date: 8 Apr 2025

What makes Lolita so special and different from regular Surinam Cherry?

Black Surinam Cherry cv. Lolita (Eugenia uniflora)

Black Surinam Cherry cv. Lolita (Eugenia uniflora)

Black Surinam Cherry cv. Lolita (Eugenia uniflora) fruit

Black Surinam Cherry cv. Lolita (Eugenia uniflora) fruit

Black Surinam Cherry cv. Lolita (Eugenia uniflora) fruit

Black Surinam Cherry cv. Lolita (Eugenia uniflora) fruit

Black Surinam Cherry cv. Lolita (Eugenia uniflora) fruit

Black Surinam Cherry cv. Lolita (Eugenia uniflora) fruit

What makes Lolita so special and different from regular Surinam Cherry? 💋
  • ❣️ Black Surinam Cherry cv. Lolita (Eugenia uniflora) is Sweet, Juicy, and Cold-Hardy!
  • ❣️ Lolita Cherry is the cultivar you've been waiting for - also known as Black Star or Pitanga var. Black. This rare variety starts red and ripens to a rich black color, with a flavor tha'’s incredibly sweet, juicy, and free of the typical aftertaste found in regular Surinam cherries.
  • ❣️ The fruit is large (1-1.2 inches), packed with juice, and produced by a vigorous, upright, freely branching plant that often fruits in its first year. A reliable and heavy producer, this cherry tree is both ornamental and productive.
  • ❣️ Why grow Lolita?


💋 Delicious, black-colored cherries with exceptional sweetness
  • 💋 Fast to fruit, even in the first year. Seedlings grow true to type - a rare trait!
  • 💋 Cold hardy to the upper 20s F once established. Thrives in USDA zones 9–11 or in containers with winter protection
  • 💋 Upright, bushy habit makes it perfect for edible hedge or small garden spaces
  • 💋 Hard to find and easy to love, Lolita Black Surinam Cherry is a must-have for tropical fruit collectors.


🛒 Plant a Lolita Cherry and have lots of delicious fruit and juice

📚 More about Lolita Cherry from previous posts:


#Food_Forest #Remedies #Discover

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Date: 22 Apr 2025

Low-Maintenance Bloom for Your Patio

Desert  Rose  -  Adenium  in  pot

Q: I'm looking for compact, low-maintenance plants for my patio - something colorful, unusual, and not like the boring crotons. I need several for my lanai, preferably flowering, showy, and easy to care for since I often forget to water. Do such plants even exist?

A: Sounds like you need Adeniums - also known as Desert Roses. They're perfect for patios and lanais, and they check every box: compact, low maintenance, drought-tolerant, and bursting with color. You can grow them in sun or shade, and they don't mind if you forget to water now and then. Plus, they're real conversation pieces - people collect them like art! Adeniums look like living sculptures thanks to their thick, swollen caudex.

At Top Tropicals, we grow over 200 hybrid varieties of Adeniums, and usually have 100+ in stock. You'll find doubles, reds, purples, yellows, even striped, dotted, rainbow, and black flowers. With so many options, you'll want more than just one!

Desert  Roses  -  Adeniums  in  pots

Want that iconic fat base? Here's the trick:

Every time you repot, raise the plant slightly to expose more of the upper roots. This encourages downward root growth and thickens the caudex over time. Just use a well-draining mix, water only when dry, and feed with Sunshine Megaflor Booster to support both blooming and trunk growth.

Adeniums aren't just low-effort - they're living art for your lanai!

The First Video of Exotic Adenium Hybrids

Our Desert roses - Adeniums - were planted in March - and now, at the end of April, they're in full bloom. Just look at these colors in this !

Desert  Roses  -  Adeniums  flowering  different  varieties

Date: 23 Apr 2025

Why PeopleCats?

Why PeopleCats? Why PeopleCats? Why PeopleCats? Why PeopleCats?

⭕️ Why PeopleCats?



"One cat just leads to another..." - Ernest Hemingway

Most PlantPeople are also PetPeople, and many of them are CatPeople - people who have PeopleCats!

Here @TopTropicals, we find that combination both fun and incredibly productive in the garden! Currently, we have over 30 cats across our two locations - each one rescued, with many of them coming from uncertain beginnings, lucky to have found their sweet home with us.

At TopTropicals Garden Center, we're proud to be a cat-friendly plant facility. Our cats play an integral role in our daily routine, showering us with love and even making us better people. Our team takes great care of them, with cat care being part of their daily tasks.

And of course, our customers absolutely adore our , who guide them through the nursery and entertain them at our local plant events.

Come visit us in purr-son and make friends with our #PeopleCats!

📱 Meet PeopleCats of TopTropicals

🐈 PeopleCats.Garden 
#PeopleCats

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