Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 3 May 2024

Best picks of the Season

Special SALE deals - from our horticulturist

These plants are large, developed and beautiful NOW!

Hibiscus  schizopetalus  -  Coral  Hibiscus

Hibiscus schizopetalus - Coral Hibiscus. Spectacular weeping tree hibiscus, rare and hard to find. Grows rapidly and blooms freely. Flowers look like parachutes and can be recognized by the fringed and lacy petals which are bent backward. It has slender and gracefully curved stems. Can be trained into a showy standard.


Cestrum  nocturnum  -  Night  blooming  jasmine

Cestrum nocturnum - Night blooming jasmine. Garden favorite - the sweetest fragrance at night is intoxicating. One of the most famous and desirable fragrant plants. Flowers are pale yellow to white, open at night and stay extremely fragrant until sunrise. These flowers are widely used in India and other countries of South Asia for perfumery, medicinal applications and in religious ceremonies. Best location will be near driveway, window or entrance, where the magic fragrance can be appreciated.


Juanulloa  aurantiaca  -  Gold  Finger  plant,  Mexican  Spoon  Flower

Juanulloa aurantiaca - Gold Finger plant, Mexican Spoon Flower - this one is soooo pretty! Unusual looking vine or shrub with yellow-orange fleshy flowers, everblooming and a VERY fast growing. Rare, collectible plant.


Tabernaemontana  Flore  Pleno,  Crape  Jasmine

Tabernaemontana Flore Pleno - Crape Jasmine, Carnation of India, Florida Gardenia - this fast growing bush with waxy leaves and beautiful fragrant flowers is a must in tropical garden. Easy to grow and free flowering, dense bush.


Microsorum  musifolium  -  Alligator  (Crocodile)  Fern

Microsorum musifolium - Alligator Fern, Crocodile Fern from Australasia. Perfect for shade! An epiphytic fern with cool alligator-skin looking leaves. The strikingly shaped, light green fronds of the fern form a lovely backdrop to its stunning stiff, leathery, dark green alligator-skin foliage. Perfect as a houseplant, or planted under a tree. Grows to 2-3 ft in height and likes a sheltered, semi-shaded location, no direct sunlight.

See more special picks in our Telegram Channel

Date: 2 May 2024

Cat of the Day - Gutalin a.k.a Google.

Cat of the Day - Gutalin a.k.a Google.
🐈 Cat of the Day - Gutalin a.k.a. Google.

Google knows everything. He is our oldest cat (born 2007), and recently started cloning himself because he can't find helpers as smart as he is. Do you know the feeling? Hold that thought. Good night for now... 🌜

📸 😺 👇 Share your cats in comments!

🐾 More #PeopleCats in our Garden: PeopleCats.Garden

🏵 TopTropicals

Date: 6 May 2024

Cat of the Day - Ricki

Cat of the Day - Ricki
🐈 Cat of the Day - Ricki

Find yourself a comfortable spot like Ricki did - he likes hanging out on a grill. Cool or hot, it's all good. Good night.🌜

📸 😺 👇 Share your cats in comments!

🐾 More #PeopleCats in our Garden:
PeopleCats.Garden

🏵 TopTropicals

Date: 7 May 2024

Cat of the Day - Shaka

Cat of the Day - Shaka Cat of the Day - Shaka Cat of the Day - Shaka
🐈 Cat of the Day - Shaka

One day a feral cat had given birth to a kitten on our front porch, but the mother had left and not returned...
Find out what happened next... a happy ending! Good night.🌜

📸 😺 👇 Share your cats in comments!

🐾 More #PeopleCats in our Garden:
PeopleCats.Garden

🏵 TopTropicals

Date: 16 May 2024

When Bigger means Better

Large  Avocado  trees  in  containers

Everybody loves shopping online nowadays, and plants are no exception. Buying plants by mail order is not uncommon anymore; it only takes one click, and luckily, there are many sources - from big shopping malls like Amazon to small backyard nurseries that sell their seedlings on eBay or Facebook - all delivered to your door. But plants are alive... So when doing your online plant shopping, you must ensure that you fully enjoy your experience and are happy with a healthy plant that a) doesn't die; b) recovers quickly; and c) starts growing fast, so you can see flowers and fruit as soon as possible.

The rule of thumb for shipping plants: bigger plants undergo shipping better, experience less stress, less leaf drop, and recover quicker than plants with smaller root systems. So when it comes to buying plants online, the bigger, the better. Unfortunately, many mail-order plant sources may sell you a tiny twig that has very few chances of surviving. Shipping is very expensive today, so shipping a bigger size plant may cost more than the plant itself.

Below is a piece of advice on how to make the best plant selection for your garden...

Loquat  trees  in  containers

Photo above: Loquat trees in 3 gal containers.

5 important rules on how to buy trees online

1. Find a source with bigger plants. Check reviews, ask friends for recommendations, inquire from the company about the size of their plants and how they pack their plants for shipping.
TopTropicals offers well-established, strong plants with developed root system, in container sizes 1, 3, 7, 15 gallon, directly from a tropical Florida growing farm. Our unique plant-packing techniques are state of the art!

2. Price not always reflects the size and quality of the plant
TopTropicals offers many deals, discounts and sales, while still providing the biggest and strongest plants grown in real tropical conditions.

3. Most fruit trees must be grafted to produce good fruit. Make sure you are not purchasing a seedling when it comes to Mango, Avocado, Peaches and some other trees with named varieties that don't come true to seed.
TopTropicals offers only grafted - Mango, Avocado and a large number of other tropical cultivars.

4. Pick up when possible from the nursery your ordered from, or get a delivery, instead of shipping the plants. A drive to the nursery will save you more time and money in the future, plus you can hand-pick the biggest and healthiest specimens.
TopTropicals is open 7 days a week for your convenience. Visit our Ft Myers Garden Center or Sebring Farm to select the biggest plants.

5. Take advantage of X-Large size plant material if you live outside the tropical zone and are trying to zone-push your tropical garden. Bigger plants will establish faster and have more chances to survive cold winters. Again, it will save you money in a long run (although bigger plants may be more expensive, but their survival rate is much higher when it comes to cold nights).
TopTropicals offers X-Large flowering and fruiting trees (7-15-25 gallons), and most of the varieties you see in our online store can be custom-ordered in big sizes. Delivery and installation available.

Avocado  trees  in  containers

Photo above: Avocado trees in 7 gal containers.

Large  Champaka  tree  in  container

Photo above: Magnolia champaca