1. Plant a
tree... or a shrub, even just a small perennial will do. This plant will
make you feel good and accomplished for the whole year, until next Labor Day
(or even longer!). You will always see this fruit of your work and remember
your motivation, so things are not that bad with you!
2. Pull 66 weeds.
Needless to say, you have plenty of those in your yard at the moment.
Why 66? Just do it and see what happens. If you don't see any happy results,
pull another 66.
3. Fertilize
all plants in your garden or potted collection with slow release fertilizer and microelements. Remember, this is the last chance to give them food and
strength to survive, before winter. Starting October, all leftover fertilizer
goes to storage, even in tropical gardens.
4. Apply SUNSHINEbooster to protect your plants from cool temperature, help to go into
dormancy and rest without stress.
Remember, there are products for all your pre-winter needs: Sunshine-T for improving cold tolerance, Sunshine-BC for caudex and bonsai plants, Sunshine-H for houseplants, and general booster Sunshine-E to cover all occasions... 50 and 100 ml bottles available for large plant collections.
Sunshine-Honey should be applied on all fruit trees to ensure their next
year successful crop.
5. Add extra
mulch in those areas where it was washed off with summer rains or broke
down. One day of mulch work will provide 6 months of safe overwintering for
your plants.
6. Have a BBQ
or simply a nice meal with your friends or family. Enjoy your holiday
relaxation after hard work weekend and recharge your Happiness for many days to
come.
Date: 31 May 2026
🔮
The Search for Enchanted Incense
Sunshine: John said it smelled like a thousand
jasmines. Smokey: And somehow that's all the information he brought
back from Thailand. Sunshine: He brought a photo, too. Smokey: Excellent. We can begin our international manhunt.
Well, Smokey and Sunshine have closed the case and found the mystery
plant. The cork board is coming down, the magnifying glass is back in the
drawer, and the "Enchanted
Incense" mug is finally empty.
Now let's talk about the plant itself.
🌸 Some plants arrive with a label. Some arrive with a
story.
Cerbera x manghas - Enchanted Incense - produces some of the most
unusual
fragrant flowers in the tropical garden. Its velvety reddish blooms,
outlined in white and carried on vivid pink tubes, create an exotic display
that looks hand-painted.
When our good friend John Mood returned from a plant conference in
Thailand, he did not bring us a plant. He brought us a mystery.
John had spent decades growing and collecting rare tropical plants. When he
said he had found something special, we paid attention.
On a visit to Chatuchak
Market, one of the most famous plant markets in Asia,
something stopped him. Not the flowers. The fragrance.
"I found a plant that smells stronger than a thousand jasmines," John
told us.
That one sentence stayed with us for years.
He had photographs. He had his memory of that scent. What he did not have
was a name. No tag. No seller information. Just the photos and the certainty
that he had smelled something genuinely unusual.
So we started looking.
We showed the photographs around. We asked collectors. We compared flowers.
Every lead turned into another question. But eventually, after years of
searching on and off, we found it.
The mystery plant turned out to be an unusual Cerbera
unlike anything we had grown before.
Today we call it Enchanted Incense. Fragrance lovers recognized
immediately what John had recognized in that Bangkok market. This was not
just another pretty tropical flower.
🌸 The Plant
Even when
not in full bloom, Cerbera
x manghas Enchanted Incense is a standout plant. Its glossy, deep
burgundy foliage and bronze new growth create a bold tropical presence,
while the unusual flowers add an extra layer of intrigue.
Visitors at our nursery still walk past it and stop. Not because they
noticed the plant. Because they noticed something in the air and could not
figure
out where it was coming from.
The flowers start soft pink and white, then deepen to rich red and auve as
they mature. They come in clusters, four to five inches across, and the
fragrance they produce does not stay close to the flower. It moves. It fills
the space around the plant. On a warm morning it can perfume an entire
patio.
The foliage is worth mentioning too. Deep green leaves with burgundy and
mauve tones that make it attractive even when it is not blooming. The growth
habit is slow and slightly weeping, similar to plumeria,
which is no coincidence since they are close
relatives. Unlike plumeria, Enchanted Incense stays evergreen in warm
climates.
It is a compact, slow-growing small tree that is happy in a container. That
makes it practical for gardeners in colder climates who need to bring it in
for winter, and for anyone who wants a fragrant plant near a seating area
rather than somewhere across the yard.
🌸 Why We Grow It
The
flowers of Cerbera
x manghas - Enchanted Incense - look otherworldly. Deep reddish petals,
bright pink
tubes, and contrasting white edges combine to create one of the most
distinctive fragrant blooms.
We grow thousands of plants, and most can be described in a sentence or
two.
This one cannot.
A large Enchanted Incense grows right outside our office. Every year it
reminds us why we
spent so much time searching for it.
Visitors stop beside it and ask the same question: "What is that
smell?"
They usually notice the fragrance before they notice the plant.
Some follow the scent across the nursery. Others stop in the middle of a
conversation and start looking around. Nearly
everyone ends up standing next to the tree trying to figure out where that
incredible fragrance is coming from.
In a world full of beautiful tropical plants, Enchanted Incense remains
one of the few that announces itself before you even see it.
Cerbera
x manghas -
Enchanted Incense can display remarkable variation in flower color. This
form
combines soft rose-pink blooms with white-edged petals and rich burgundy
foliage, creating a striking contrast throughout the plant.
Light: Full sun is best (at least
six hours
daily). It will tolerate partial shade but blooms much more generously in
good
light.
Watering: Water regularly during
warm weather. In cool weather and winter, keep the soil on the drier side.
Overwatering when
temperatures are low is the most common mistake.
Soil: Use a well-draining mix. This
plant absolutely does not want wet feet.
Fertilizer: Feed with a
Green Magic
controlled-release fertilizer for flowering plants in spring, supplemented
with occasional liquid fertilizer through the summer. For non-stop blooms
without the risk of
salt build-up in containers, we highly recommend
Sunshine
Boosters™.
Read
our Guide to Sunshine Boosters™ and Green Magic fertilizer
Winter Care: Bring it indoors
when temperatures approach the mid-30s°F. The rootstock is fairly
tough,
but the foliage is not. Cold and wet conditions combined are the real risk.
One Last Thing
A closer
look reveals the remarkable details of Cerbera
x manghas - Enchanted Incense.
The velvety petals, crisp white edging, and fuzzy pink center give the
flower an appearance
unlike anything else in the garden. And then comes the scent...
John came back from Bangkok with a few photographs and a fragrance he
could not forget. It took us years to track down the plant behind that
memory. We have never regretted a single minute of the search.
Sunshine: So after all those years, what's the answer? Smokey: Stand next to the plant. Sunshine: That's it? Smokey: The fragrance explains the rest.
A closer
look reveals the remarkable details of Cerbera
x manghas - Enchanted Incense develops into an attractive small tree
with lush evergreen foliage and colorful new growth. In the
landscape, it combines year-round structure with clusters of bright
redding-pink fragrant flowers that stand out beautifully against the glossy
leaves.
Date: 20 Nov 2024
SunshineBoosters Winter Use
The magic fertilizer in action
Do you remember that Sunshine Boosters fertilizers can be applied year-round?
As natural fertilizers, their scientifically created formulas provide
perfectly balanced nutrition for your plants throughout the year. Follow the
instructions on the labels and apply Sunshine Boosters with every watering.
Give your plants extra boost during winter months! The fertilizer amount is
balanced, adjusting proportionally to the water amount, which is tailored to the
plant's winter needs. Unlike dry fertilizers, Sunshine Boosters can be used
all year without fear of burning plants with excessive nutrient lockup.
Those who visited on B-Farm in Sebring, have noticed our little garden
by the office, with plants that are always happy and vigorous - year around.
They are irrigated automatically with Sunshine Boosters using the Robuster injector. We are proud of our "crazy banana", it is taller
than the building, we honestly have never seen a banana of that size! The
solution we are using there is Sunshine Robusta (also available for pick up in 2.5 gal jugs).
Save on Sunshine Boosters with the discount code
above!
We are getting very high interest from our customers to
our new plant boosterSUNSHINE-SuperFood as well as
many questions. We continue experimenting with the Jasmine
that you saw in our previous newsletter, that had pale
yellow leaves and numerous deficiencies. Right now, after
only 2 applications, it looks healthy green again. Click
on the picture to zoom in and see leaves turning from
yellow to green within less than a month. See also full plant photo of this jasmine.
Q:
Is SUNSHINE-SuperFood a fertilizer?
A:
Traditionally we call a fertilizer macro-elements (NPK -
nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium). Technically,
SUNSHINE-SuperFood is a complex of micro-elements that are
essential for plant's health. It provides such elements as
Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B, Mo, S, and Amino-acids that our
soils are usually poor of. These elements are responsible
for proper development of leaves, roots, flowers, and
overall plant vigor. Read more about role of these
micro elements.
Q:
Can I just get these additional elements in a dry form and
add to soil like a fertilizer?
A:
No. Some of these elements must present in extremely low
concentrations (this is why they are called micro-).
SUNSHINE-SuperFood is a liquid substance with very high
bioavailability that has very complicated formula; it is
not just a mix of the elements. The formula is developed
with the maximum efficiency for a plant to absorb through
leaves and a root system.
Q:
Is it better to spray leaves or water the plant with the
solution?
A:
Foliar applications are always most efficient in regards
of seeing a quick result. However, we recommend to also
drench the root ball with SUNSHINE-SuperFood solution to
deliver the necessary elements evenly to all parts of the
plant through its natural metabolism.
Q:
My gardenia looks very sad after winter - most leaves are
yellow and some have pale spots. Should I use
SUNSHINE-SuperFood more often and in higher
concentrations?
A:
We recommend to apply SUNSHINE-SuperFood once a month to
maintain a general plant health. In difficult cases like
with this jasmine on the photo, you can do twice a month.
However do not exceed recommended concentration. The rule
of thumb is, you can apply water soluble fertilizers and
supplements more often, but with lower concentrations -
this way a plant will be more responsive. Plant metabolism
in general is rather slow, changes take days and weeks -
don't try to speed it up. Your patience will be rewarded.
Most fertilizers focus on just three numbers - NPK. But that’s only part of the story. If your plants look okay but not amazing, or grow but don’t really thrive, they’re likely missing the smaller pieces that make a big difference.
☘️ Complete nutrition your plants actually use
Plants need more than just NPK. They also require a full range of microelements like iron, boron, magnesium, calcium, and others. These support photosynthesis, sugar movement, and internal plant processes.
SunshineBoosters include a full spectrum of these nutrients in balanced amounts. This gives plants complete nutrition without needing extra products for basic care.
☘️ The "Potassium Pump" - how plants move water and energy
Potassium plays a central role in how plants move water and energy. You can think of plant cells as tiny rooms with doors that open and close. Potassium helps control these openings.
Where potassium goes, water follows. This movement fills plant cells, making them firm and strong. It also helps move energy through the plant, supporting fruit development and flowering.
With enough potassium, plants handle drought better, grow stronger, and produce better crops.
☘️ Calcium - the backbone of plant strength
Calcium plays a key role in building strong plant structure and keeping growth stable. It is a major part of cell walls, so it directly affects how firm and healthy the plant tissues are. When calcium is available, plants develop stronger stems, better roots, and more solid fruit with improved shelf life. It also helps regulate how nutrients move inside the plant and supports proper cell division, which is important for new growth, root tips, and developing fruit.
Calcium improves resistance to stress, including heat and disease, and helps prevent common problems like blossom end rot, weak growth points, and poor fruit quality. Because calcium does not move easily inside the plant, a steady and available supply is important throughout the growing cycle.
Calcium cannot be mixed with NPK dry fertilizers. It forms insoluble compounds with phosphates and sulfates, so it has to be dosed separately.
In Sunshine Boosters, Calcium is present along with additives - complex agents and pH regulators. This allows you to dose calcium, sulfates, trace elements and other additives in one solution without fear of fertilizer lockout.
Growing Tips
