Date: 18 Feb 2025
What cactus vine produces gooseberries
Q: I've heard about a tropical gooseberry suitable for making jams but don't know its exact name. Do you have it? Gooseberry jam is my husband's favorite, but I can't find gooseberries here in Florida - too hot, maybe?
A: Yes, we do have the plant you're looking for! We've just made some delicious jam from this tropical gooseberry, and it tastes just like the northern varieties but even more flavorful! Florida's winter is the perfect season for this wonderful fruit. Right now, our plant is growing quickly and vigorously over our fence, and it's covered with fruit. Just a couple of months earlier it was full of fragrant, beautiful white flowers!
The plant in question is Perescia aculeata, commonly known as Barbados Gooseberry. It's a unique cactus with both edible leaves and fruit, making it a tropical treasure that offers beauty as well as culinary delights.
The fruit is yellow with a juicy, subacid pulp that tastes remarkably similar to traditional gooseberries. You can enjoy the fruits fresh, stewed, or transformed into jams and jellies.
The young leaves are also edible, adding a nutritious boost to your meals.
This fast-growing vining cactus prefers well-drained soil that remains moist during the summer and drier in winter, and it can be effectively grown in containers on a trellis.
Watch a short video of Barbados Gooseberry fruiting.
Date: 1 Mar 2025
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: 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) fruit
Black Surinam Cherry cv. Lolita (Eugenia uniflora) fruit
Black Surinam Cherry cv. Lolita (Eugenia uniflora) fruit
- ❣️ 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:
- 💋Top 10 fruit you'll ever need for your health benefits: #8 Lolita Cherry
- 💋 Who is that Sweet Black Lolita from Surinam?
- 💋Top 10 fast-fruiting trees: #3. Eugenias - Tropical Cherries
- 💋How to make a jam with Surinam Cherry
#Food_Forest #Remedies #Discover
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Date: 22 Apr 2025
Low-Maintenance Bloom for Your Patio
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!
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 !
Date: 23 Apr 2025
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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