Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 8 Jun 2025

Curcuma - the tropical tulip with a secret spice twist

Curcuma flowers

🌷 Curcuma - the tropical tulip with a secret spice twist

  • 🌷Curcuma, also known as Siam Tulip or Turmeric, is a plant with personality! It looks like it came straight from a fairy tale with bright, showy blooms in pink, purple, white, yellow, and even orange - that rise above lush green foliage like floral fireworks.
  • 🌷Despite its exotic looks, it’s super easy to grow. Keep the soil moist, give it filtered light, and this beauty will reward you with long-lasting blooms. This is an excellent cut flower that lasts up to 2 weeks in a vase!
  • 🌷And here's the kicker: beneath the soil, it hides a spicy secret - its rhizomes are the source of Turmeric, the golden powder used in curry and traditional medicine. So yes, your flower garden can also be a spice rack!
  • 🌷Curcuma thrives in warm zones but grows happily in pots too - just bring it inside when things get chilly. With its striking looks and health-boosting roots, Curcuma is your new garden showstopper and wellness booster all in one!


🛒 Plant Curcuma: add color, spice, and charm to your garden

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Date: 23 Jun 2025

Black Tacca Lily

Tacca Lily - Black Bat Flower, Devil Flower

A flying bat with whiskers. Tacca. It's rare. It's weird.

  • Tacca Lily - also known as the Black Bat Flower or Devil Flower, looks like something brewed up in a witch's greenhouse.
  • The flower isn't really a single flower - it's a full-on performance. Giant black-maroon "wings" stretch out like a bat in flight, while long, drooping filaments dangle like eerie whiskers or jungle jewelry. Some can reach over a foot long!
  • Those weird, wild filaments? They're not just for show - they are believed to help mimic the look of decaying matter to attract pollinators like flies. Creepy? Yes. Clever? Absolutely.
  • The plant blooms best when it feels pampered - think filtered light, tropical vibes, and spa-level humidity. A smart indoor exotic for a bathroom with a skylight!
  • It grows from a rhizome, and while the Black Tacca (T. chantrieri) is prized for its spooky looks, its Green cousin (T. leontopetaloides) is actually used to make a type of tropical arrowroot starch.
  • Some gardeners say it takes a while to bloom (maybe a few months) - but once it does, it becomes the crown jewel of the greenhouse. People will ask if it's real. You'll say, "Yes, and it lives here!"
  • Tacca comes in different species/colors: Black, White, Green:
Tacca nivea - White Tacca
Tacca chantrieri - Black Tacca
Tacca leontopetaloides - Green Tacca

📚 Learn more:



🛒 Shop Bat Head Lilies - Devil's Flower Tacca

#Nature_Wonders #Shade_Garden #Container_Garden #Fun_Facts

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Date: 28 Jun 2025

Get the Red Jade look without the fuss: cold-hardy Dwarf Red Jade Vine

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

Dwarf Red Jade Vine blooming

💃 Get the Red Jade look without the fuss: cold-hardy Dwarf Red Jade Vine

  • 🔥 Love the stunning, fiery blooms of the famous Red Jade Vine (Mucuna benettii) but live outside the tropics?
  • Its cousin - Dwarf Red Jade Vine - is tougher, easier to grow, and just as jaw-dropping, and delivers the same dazzling display of blazing red flower chains - without the high-maintenance, ultra-tropical demands.
  • 🔥 Camptosema grandiflora - Dwarf Red Jade Vine, Cuitelo, or Rooster's Crest - this Brazilian superstar brings cascading chains of bright red blooms that look like flames frozen in mid-air.
  • 🔥 Unlike the ultra-tropical and finicky Mucuna benettii, this cousin is tougher, easier to grow, and just as jaw-dropping. It thrives in full to partial sun, forgives a little drought, and even shrugs off light frost. Blooming in fall and winter, it gives your garden a fiery finale when everything else starts to fade.
  • 🔥 Got a pergola or arbor? Perfect. The hanging flower clusters will light up the space like a botanical chandelier. Just prune it hard in spring and feed it well, and it will thank you with a blooming spectacle year after year.
  • 🔥 If you've been dreaming of the iconic Red Jade Vine but thought it was out of reach - this is your sign.


🛒 Get all the wow of Red Jade Vine - without the worry

📚 Learn more:


Camptosema grandiflora, Dwarf Red Jade Vine - my favorite plant

#Nature_Wonders #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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Date: 29 Jun 2025

Plumeria pudica: the evergreen plumeria that never stops blooming

Plumeria pudica

💐 Plumeria pudica: the evergreen plumeria that never stops blooming

  • 🌸 Also known as Bridal Bouquet, Plumeria pudica stands out from the rest with its lush, fiddle-shaped leaves that stay green year-round. Unlike typical plumerias that go bare in winter, this variety keeps its tropical charm in every season.
  • 🌸 It produces constant clusters of crisp white flowers with yellow centers - each about 3 inches across - giving the look of a fresh bouquet right on the plant. Whether in bloom or not, it's always ornamental.
  • 🌸 Its growth habit is just as versatile. Plumeria pudica can be shaped into a small tree or kept as a dense, clumping bush - ideal for patios, tight spaces, or tropical accents in the landscape.
  • 🌸 And the best part? It's low-maintenance. Fast-growing, drought-tolerant, and naturally resistant to pests and disease, this plumeria asks for very little and gives back a lot.
  • 🌸 We have in our collection very interesting variety of Plumeria pudica from Thailand. It has variegated leaves! Plumeria pudica variegata - Snow Bridal Bouquet, or White Arrow Leaf - has variegated leaf margins. Like regular Plumeria pudica, it is evergreen, never drops leaves, and grows into a beautiful, dense multi-stem bush. Great for container culture.


🛒 Add nonstop blooms and evergreen beauty to your garden

📚
Learn more:
Have you ever seen a Bridal Bouquet Plumeria this size?

#Container_Garden #Trees

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Date: 30 Jun 2025

Turn up the color in your garden with the bold everblooming Brazilian plume

Megaskepasma erythrochlamys - Brazilian plume or Red Cloak

Megaskepasma erythrochlamys - Brazilian plume or Red Cloak

Megaskepasma erythrochlamys flowers

Megaskepasma erythrochlamys flowers

♨️ Turn up the color in your garden with the bold everblooming Brazilian plume

  • ❣️Looking to add nonstop color, tropical flair for shade or sun, and pollinator appeal to your garden?
  • Megaskepasma erythrochlamys - Brazilian plume or Red Cloak, is the ultimate show-stopper shrub that takes both sun or shade.
  • ❣️ With its big, bold leaves and eye-catching crimson-to-mauve flower spikes, this plant brings exotic beauty - without the need for a steamy jungle.
  • ❣️The best part? It's surprisingly cold hardy. This lush-looking tropical can handle brief dips into the 30s (F), making it a top pick for USDA zones 9-11. Plant it in full sun or partial shade, and with regular watering, it rewards you with a steady burst of blooms that butterflies and hummingbirds can't resist.
  • ❣️Reaching 5-7 ft tall in the ground, it fills out beautifully to anchor beds or soften fences. In colder regions, it can still thrive in large pots - just give it a sheltered spot, bring it indoors when temperatures drop, and enjoy its vivid flower show all winter long.
  • ❣️If you want a garden that doesn’t fade with the season, the Brazilian plume delivers color, volume, and wildlife appeal - all year round.


🛒 Make your garden pop with color of Brazilian plume

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

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