Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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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Date: 2 Jul 2025

The perfect ever-bloom beneath your shade tree

Tabernaemontana divaricata - Pinwheel Jasmine in bloom

🎡 The perfect ever-bloom beneath your shade tree

  • Tabernaemontana divaricata, also known as Pinwheel Jasmine or Crape Jasmine, is in bloom virtually year around at Top Tropicals garden.
  • ➕ It is a charming, low-maintenance shrub that thrives under taller trees, like palms or oaks. With glossy green leaves and delicate white, pinwheel-shaped flowers, it adds brightness and elegance to shaded spaces.
  • ➕ Blooming year-round, Pinwheel Jasmine brings steady beauty to your garden and can even be trained into a small ornamental tree.
  • ➕ While it loves bright light for the best floral show, it's surprisingly shade-tolerant - making it a go-to choice for under-tree planting.


🛒
Let your shady spots bloom beautifully!

📚 Learn more:


What is the best showy shrub to plant under a shade tree?

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Date: 29 Jun 2025

Pineapple Guava: fragrant fruit, beautiful blooms, and real health benefits

Pineapple Guava blooming

Pineapple Guava blooming

Pineapple guava fruit

Pineapple guava fruit

🍓 Pineapple Guava: fragrant fruit, beautiful blooms, and real health benefits
  • Feijoa sellowiana, also known as Pineapple Guava or Guavasteen, is an evergreen shrub or small tree that brings together beauty, fragrance, and edible rewards.
  • With its soft pink, edible flowers blooming in late spring and strongly scented fruit ripening in late summer to fall, it offers interest across multiple seasons.
  • The fruit is especially unique. When fresh fruit blended with a little sugar, many describe the flavor as forest strawberries with hints of mint or pineapple - some even say it reminds them of Juicy Fruit gum. The texture is smooth and slightly gritty, similar to a pear.
  • Nutritionally, Feijoa fruit is low in calories, high in fiber, and an excellent source of Vitamin C and antioxidants. You don’t need to guess when it's ready - the ripe fruit drops to the ground.
  • Pineapple Guava is easy to grow and adaptable. It tolerates drought, thrives in full sun or partial shade, and withstands heat as well as cold down to 10F. Whether planted in the ground or grown in a large patio container, it needs minimal care - just occasional watering and light feeding.
  • It also serves multiple purposes in the landscape: a dense, evergreen hedge for wind protection, a privacy screen, or a standalone ornamental that attracts birds and butterflies. It can be shaped into a small tree or kept compact depending on your space.
  • A beautiful, edible, and low-maintenance addition to the garden that earns its place year after year.


🛒Taste the fragrant forest-strawberry flavor - grow Pineapple Guava

📚 Learn more:


#Edible_Forest #Guava #Discover

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Date: 4 Jul 2025

Three things you will love about the tiniest Powderpuff - for the Tidiest Garden

Calliandra emarginata Nana, Dwarf Powderpuff

💖 Three things you will love about the tiniest Powderpuff - for the Tidiest Garden

  • 💖 Calliandra emarginata Nana, Dwarf Powderpuff - this cheerful little shrub stays compact and blooms non-stop with fluffy pink powderpuff flowers that bees and butterflies can't resist.
  • 💖 The name Calliandra means "beautiful stamens" - and it delivers! You'll see round, silky flowerheads popping out along the branches almost all year.
  • 💖 It's easy to grow, easy to shape into a tidy bush or a mini tree, and easy to love!


🛒 Shop Calliandras - Powderpuffs

📚 More about Calliandras:


#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants
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Date: 8 Jul 2025

How to grow Dragon Fruit from a cutting - Quick Guide

Dragon fruit, Pitaya - Hylocereus sp.

🌵 How to grow Dragon Fruit from a cutting - Quick Guide

  • 🐉 Get a healthy cutting


    Use a 6-10 inch long stem cutting from a mature dragon fruit plant. Let the cut end dry in the shade for 2-5 days so it forms a callus. This also helps prevent rot and fungus.
  • 🐉 Prepare the soil


    Use well-draining soil - well drained potting mix, Adenium mix, or cactus mix is ideal. Dragon fruit hates wet feet!
  • 🐉 Plant the cutting


    Stick the callused end about 2-3 inches deep into the soil. Make sure it's planted upright (the way it grew on the parent plant).
  • 🐉 Support it


    Add a trellis or post. Dragon fruit is a climbing cactus and needs something to grow on.
  • 🐉 Water lightly


    Water once after planting, then wait until the soil dries before watering again. Overwatering can rot the cutting.
  • 🐉 Give it sun and warmth


    Place in bright, indirect sunlight while it roots. Once established, it can handle full sun.
  • 🐉 Watch it grow!


    Roots usually form in 2-4 weeks. New growth means it's taking off! This is the time to Ferilize it!


🛒Shop Dragon Fruit plants and cuttings

📚 Learn more:


#Food_Forest #How_to #Dragon_Fruit

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