🍑 From the Garden: Why I Always Recommend Growing Your Own Peaches

by Tatiana Anderson, Top Tropicals Garden Expert

I'll be honest with you. The first time I bit into a peach straight off the tree, still warm from the afternoon sun, I understood why people get obsessed with this fruit. There is no comparison to what you find in a grocery store. Store peaches are picked hard, shipped cold, and by the time they reach you, something important is already gone. A tree-ripened peach is soft, fragrant, juicy, and sweet in a way store peaches rarely are. Eat it fresh, slice it into a cobbler, throw it on the grill - it holds up beautifully either way.

So let's talk about how to actually get there.

Planting

Peaches are not difficult. Give them sun, drainage, and room for air movement, and they will usually tell you very quickly that they are happy.

• Full sun is essential - 8 hours minimum, and more is better.
• Drainage matters - peach roots do not like sitting wet.
• If your soil stays wet, plant on a mound - simple fix, big difference.
• Water deeply, then pause - let the soil partially dry before watering again.
• Prune every year - it keeps the tree open, improves airflow, and helps the tree put energy into fruit instead of tangled growth.

What If You Do Not Have Room?

You can still grow peaches in a large container. This is a great option for patios, small yards, renters, or gardeners who want better control over soil and drainage.

• Use a large pot with drainage holes.
• Choose a fast-draining potting mix, not heavy garden soil. We recommend Sunshine Abundance potting mix.
• Place the container in the sunniest spot you have.
• Water more often than in-ground trees, but never let the pot stay soggy.
• Prune to keep the tree compact and easy to manage.

Fertilizing

Peach trees are generous plants, but producing vigorous growth and a heavy crop of sweet fruit takes energy. Regular feeding makes a noticeable difference in tree health, flowering, and fruit quality.

I prefer a simple two-part approach that provides both steady background nutrition and quick, readily available nutrients when the tree is actively growing.

• Green Magic controlled-release fertilizer provides a steady supply of nutrients for months and serves as the foundation of the feeding program.
• Sunshine Boosters liquid fertilizers deliver amino acid-based nutrients that are quickly absorbed and especially useful during periods of active growth, flowering, and fruit development. Sunshine C-Cibus formula is the best for fruit trees.

During the growing season, this combination helps build stronger branches, healthier leaves, better flowering, and sweeter, higher-quality fruit.

If your tree shows yellowing leaves or weak growth, consistent feeding often makes a dramatic difference within a few weeks.

📚 More about low-chill peaches from our garden Blog

📚 More about Tropic Beauty Peach

🛒 Shop Low-Chill Peach trees

Sunshine’s Philosophy: Lazy Peach Sundae 😺

Sunshine absolutely loves peach cobbler, especially when someone else does all the peeling, slicing, mixing, and baking. But when he is left to prepare dessert on his own, his standards become much more practical. Why turn on the oven when perfectly ripe peaches already taste amazing? His philosophy is simple: if a recipe takes less than five minutes and ends with peaches and vanilla ice cream in the same bowl, it is a masterpiece.

Sunshine's Lazy Peach Sundae

This is not cooking. This is assembly.

Ingredients

• 2 ripe homegrown peaches
• 2 big scoops of vanilla ice cream
• A drizzle of honey (optional)
• A pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Instructions

1. Slice the peaches.
2. Put them in a bowl.
3. Add vanilla ice cream.
4. Drizzle with honey and sprinkle with cinnamon if you feel ambitious.
5. Eat immediately while smiling.

Sunshine's Review

"I peeled exactly nothing and still got dessert. This is my kind of gardening."

Want this?
Start with a low-chill peach tree. That is usually how it begins.

🛒 Plant your own Peach tree

Healthy Plants: Q&A from Mr Booster

New Boosters for the New Year!
Sunshine Total Feed: Orchidasm and Citron

How to grow everblooming orchids?

Q: I ended up with a large collection of orchids that I was given as presents... They grow well but unfortunately after the showy blooms were gone, I don't see any more flowers, just green leaves. What do I need to do to make them bloom again? Should I fertilize them with Azalea bloom booster?

A: Orchids culture is different from garden ornamental plants. First big difference, they are epiphytes, growing in a loose bark medium rather than soil, and benefit from daily mist. Second difference is a type of fertilizer. You can not use a regular garden fertilizer on orchids, because they are very sensitive to salts. Orchids need special, acidic type of fertilizer, very mild in action.
Luckily, Sunshine Boosters formulas are exactly what orchids need! They are amino-acid based, have very mild formulas, and do not create nutrient lock up (building up salts is one of the biggest enemies of tender orchids).
A new Sunshine Boosters Orchidasm TotalFeed is scientifically balanced orchid food that contains all necessary nutrients, including micro-elements, for healthy, happy, vigorous orchids. It can be used as often as daily with every foliage spray. From our testing experience, after using Orchidasm Booster, orchids not only got happy and thriving - they also bloom more often - up to several times a year, shooting new flower spikes one after another! (while normal blooming cycle for most orchids is once a year). It gets even better - the flower display lasts twice longer!
To enjoy these beautiful flowers year around - treat them with Love, give them some Orchidasm!

See more information with pictures in Sunshine Boosters Orchid Blog

Secrets of a healthy Citrus tree

Q: We planted several citrus trees in our yard - Meyer Lemon, Grapefruit and Blood Orange. The trees came from the store full of flowers and even had a few fruit, but a year after planting - no more flowers! The old leaves are green, but new growth doesn't look healthy, leaves are yellowish and have spots, maybe eaten by bugs (?), and how do we get them to fruit?

A: Citrus plants are not the easiest trees to grow; they are susceptible to various diseases, pests, and deficiencies, especially in areas with high humidity/rainfall like Florida. Fungi, viruses, leaf minors, chlorosis - this is not a complete list of citrus common problems. In commercial groves, these conditions are kept under control by using harsh chemicals on solid schedule.
For home gardeners, growing citrus trees may become a challenge. Many people don't want to use harsh chemicals on their edibles; and those who do, may not always have time to apply treatments on a professional schedule. So as much as we all love a fresh juicy orange, growing your own may become quite a pain!
Sunshine Citron TotalFeed is your simple, eco-safe solution to a healthy looking, productive citrus tree with organic fruit! Amino-acid based formula provides all necessary elements to strengthen the tree and make it resistant to possible problems.
Did you know that treatment of leaf chlorosis (yellow leaves with dark green veins), commonly treated with iron supplements, in fact requires a complex combination of nutrients - both balanced NPK and micro-elements?
Use Sunshine Citron in combination with Sunshine GreenLeaf and Sunshine SuperFood and never see yellow chlorotic leaves again!
Apply Sunshine Epi on regular basis (every 2 weeks) and help your tree boost its immune system and stay virus-free.
Add Sunshine Honey, and you will have large, juicy fruit that are much sweeter and more flavorful than those from the store! All these boosters are compatible with each other, and perfectly natural. Eat your fruit safely and enjoy...

Read more about treating citrus tree defficiencies in Sunshine Boosters Citrus Blog.

Colors of Cannas

By Onika Amell, tropical flower specialist

Q: I'm a beginner gardener and looking for something easy to grow that will add a lot of color to my garden fast.

A: Try growing Canna lilies. They are a favorite of many gardeners as they are so easy to grow and always provide a reliable, beautiful show of flowers. In fact, Cannas are one of those plants that are spectacular even if they never bloomed. The leaves are tropical-looking, banana-like and huge! They range in a wide variety of shades and colors, always accentuating the large showy flowers on top.
One of our favorite cannas right now is Canna Cleopatra - very striking and most unique. Large yellow flowers speckled with red spots, or red flowers and even flowers with a little bit of both. Foliage is exotic and very beautiful, often dark green, dark chocolate or a combination of both. This is a canna that will definitely illuminate your garden!

Caring for Cannas

Cannas like a lot of water, full sun and high heat. They are also heavy feeders and prefer soils that are well drained, organically rich and moist. The leaves will quickly tell you when the plant is hungry. Feed your cannas weekly with a water-soluble 20-20-20 fertilizer Broad Leaf Plus, and they will quickly respond with beautiful, lush growth. Deadhead often to encourage continued flowering. Cannas are winter hardy in US hardiness zones 7 and warmer. If you live in colder areas, the rhizomes need to be lifted in the fall, and stored indoors in a dark, warm spot until spring arrives. Be sure to divide clumps every three or four years. Give them lots of room as they grow into large plants, forming spreading colonies up to 7 feet high and 4 feet wide. Show them off in mass plantings, in large containers or in mixed flower borders. Lure in hummingbirds with these beauties!