B-Farm in Sebring is now open!
Every Friday and Saturday

Thank you everyone for visiting us this weekend at new Top Tropicals location in Sebring (B-Farm)! We met many new friends as well as old friends that now are closer.
Local gardeners in Central Florida are now excited to have a special place for their needs in rare tropical plants.

Top Tropicals B-Farm conveniently located at the corner of FL-66 highway and McRoy Rd.

Sunshine Boosters at B-Farm

Many guests also purchased Sunshine Boosters liquid fertilizers. Sunshine Boosters are safe for daily use year around and ensure that you will have happy and healthy plants. Stash up for feeding your plants during the winter to make them strong, hardy and healthy!

At B-Farm, we offer free consultations on Sunshine Boosters. We can help you select proper combinations of fertilizers, micro-elements and special plant supplements, including those that improve cold hardiness of tropical plants.

B-Farm Team

What is Akee fruit?

One of the most bizarre looking, yet useful...

Email from our Florida customer:

I got an Akee tree from you last year for my tropical fruit garden collection and honestly didn't know much about what it was. This year it started growing real fast and branched out. In spring it was flowering like crazy and now I have about 20 bright coral fruit hanging off the tree that look like Christmas decorations. They are extremely showy and can be seen from far away, I have neighbors stopping by asking what kind of tree it is. I finally did more research on it and found a recipe how to cook the fruit. Only a few had ripened and opened so far, but I already had a chance to try the meal. Cooked the arils and fried in a pan with some butter. What a delicious surprise! To my taste, it is like a mix of potatoes and eggs. Just through in some bacon and it will make a complete breakfast! One of the coolest fruit I've tasted. Just wanted to share this with you.

About Akee (Blighia sapida)

This showy fruit, a close relative of Lychee, Longan, and Rambutan, is a National fruit of Jamaica. It is indeed very exciting one, and what is also important, the tree is easy in cultivation, fast growing and can be maintained compact. I it is not bugsy or picky about soil/water conditions, and is relatively cold tolerant for being a tropical tree. You can find delicious akee meals only in Jamaican restaurants. But no need to search for it - grow your own tree, it can't be easier. It will start fruiting for you the next season, you don't have to wait long. Sometimes it fruits twice a year! However, remember, the fruit is used as a vegetable, and is not eaten raw. It must be picked after the fruit has opened naturally so the flesh is fully exposed to light. When the fruit has "yawned", discard the seeds (or better plant them to grow more trees - to share with your friends!). The arils, while still fresh and firm, are best parboiled in salted water or milk and then lightly fried in butter. Then they are really delicious!
Read more about this tree...

Guava, the easiest container fruit tree

Grow Your Own Food

Guava is one of the most popular and well-known tropical fruit because it is so tasty, sweet, juicy and flavorful! Many people are familiar with it because of the large number of products made from this aromatic fruit. But very few people know that Guava tree culture is very easy and this plant can fruit in a pot right away. Guava tree start blooming and producing fruit as small as 1 gal pot size. It can be kept in compact shape, responds well to pruning, stays bushy and grows very fast. It is a perfect container fruit tree or a specimen for a tropical garden of any size.
Upon ripening, the fruit becomes soft and juicy. It may be eaten fresh, made into a juice or nectar contain fruit pulp, or made into preserves, jam, jelly, or paste. A distinctive, savory-fresh aroma of fruit is thermo-stable, thus survives processing. The guava is an excellent source of vitamins C and A.
The plant is relatively cold hardy. Our young trees, 3 months after being planted in the ground were exposed to a short period of freeze last winter (mid-20's) but they grew back without significant damage. Try to keep Guava cold-protected for the first winter, then it will be much hardier once established.
Guavas are fast growers and heavy feeders, and benefit from regular applications of fertilizer. Make sure to get some Sunshine Boosters fertilizer: Sunshine C-Cibus - Crop Booster, and feed them your round.

Planting in August

Top Tropicals Garden Calendar

August is the hottest month in most places, and tropical/subtropical areas are not the exception. In Florida we have some hot August days in upper 90's. Is it still OK to plant during hot weather? Yes, and here are some guidelines for you:

1. Hot metabolism.
Many tropical plants grow faster at high temperatures. Select heat-resistant species for August planting (below are just a few suggestions).

2. Water adequately.
Water thoroughly your newly planted tree. Water daily (lightly) with a hose for at least a week, don't rely on sprinklers. Then reduce watering to every other day and gradually switch to sprinkler system if you have it. Do not overwater: non-established plants don't like combination of heat+wet.

3. Mulch well.
Keep mulch 1"away from the trunk to avoid rot.

4. Shading.
Protect the young tree from hot sun with a shade cloth or a sheet if leaves get wilted, for 1-3 days, then remove it, let the plant adjust to bright light.

Photo above: Trachelospermum jasminoides - Confederate Jasmine, the toughest jasmine that can take extreme heat and drought.

Easy Sunday Morning Deals: Dwarf Guava Hawaiian Rainbow

Saving on your favorite plants is Easy.
Easy like Sunday Morning...

..."A ' ohe loa i ka hana a ke aloha.
Distance is ignored by love..."
- Toni Polancy -

It's time for our favorite day and another Easy stroll through Top Tropicals Garden with savings of

50% and MORE!

Put a little Aloha in your garden....
Two Exotics from Paradise

It may be cold where you are, so take a trip with us to the Hawaiian Islands. Tropical breezes, soothing ocean waves and an unbeatable selection of tropical plant treasures...
This week we bring the Aloha to you. A guava that will bring a taste of the Islands and a spectacular variety of Majestic Taro.

Dwarf Guava Hawaiian Rainbow

- Ready to fruit this year! -

This is a very small version of the favorite aromatic Guava - Hawaiian Rainbow Nana. It grows only up to 5-6 ft tall, perfect for limited space. It can be grown in a pot and fruits heavily almost year around. The flesh is sweet, aromatic, and varies from white to yellow to pink.

Colocasia Diamond Head

- Large Developed plants! -

Diamond Head is a spectacular variety of Taro is named after the volcanic cone on the Hawaiian island of Oahu - both the cone and plant are black and lustrous! Mature plants form a well-behaved clump and reach 3 to 4 feet tall, with leaves up to 2 feet wide! A must for black plant fanatics. Grows more compact that other Colocasias and no two leaves are the same!

Colocasia Diamond Head, regularly $42.95,
is on Easy Sunday sale for only $21.48

Dwarf Guava Hawaiian Rainbow, regularly $52.95,
is on Easy Sunday Sale for only $26.48.

Combine the two for maximum Aloha and save even more:

only $42.95 for both - one plant comes FREE!

Remember, the Easy Sunday Deal expires on Monday January 17th.