Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 21 Aug 2025

🍒 Tropical Cherries – Eugenias

Two  cats  enjoy  Grumichama  fruit  indoors  —  a  tuxedo  cat  picks  berries  from  a  potted  tree  while  an  orange  fluffy  cat  smiles,  sitting  by  tea  cups  and  plates  of 
 fruit.

Tropical Tea Time with Grumichama

Eugenias have earned a spot in many Southern gardens because they’re easy, dependable, and surprisingly versatile. These small trees and shrubs grow well in the ground or in containers, and they don’t waste time before setting fruit.

15% Off Eugenias – Limited Time

Use code EUGENIA15 at checkout.
Excluding S/H. Offer expires 08/28/2025

👍 Popular Choices:

What Makes Eugenia Cherries Stand Out

  • Start producing fruit in just a couple of years
  • Compact size — easy to keep 6–12 ft tall, smaller in pots
  • Low-care — tolerant of most soils and resistant to common pests
  • Strong in hot weather, yet can handle a light frost down to the mid-20s °F
  • Plenty of fruit for people and birds alike

Close-up  of  Grumichama  tree  branches  with  clusters  of  small  white  flowers  among  glossy  green 
 leaves. Grumichama Tree in Bloom – Eugenia brasiliensis

Growing & Care

Outdoors

  • Best in USDA Zones 9–11
  • Sun or partial shade; more sun usually means sweeter fruit
  • Plant in well-drained soil; avoid heavy, wet spots
  • Withstands summer heat and humidity, and can take a light freeze

Container / Indoor

  • Do well in 5–10 gallon pots on patios or balconies
  • Need bright light indoors — a sunny window or grow lights
  • Can flower and fruit in containers if kept warm and well lit
  • In cooler zones, bring plants indoors for winter and back out in spring

General Care

  • Water: Keep soil evenly moist; drought-tolerant once established but best yields with regular watering
  • Soil: Use good potting mix - LINK TO SOIL
  • Fertilizer: Balanced slow-release LINKL TO FERTILIZER Sunshine Boosters
  • Pruning: Light trimming keeps plants bushy and productive
  • Pollination: Self-fertile; one plant will fruit on its own

Read Garden Blog about Tropical Cherries

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Date: 20 Apr 2025

How to tell the difference between Jasmine Sambac Varieties

Jasminum Sambac varieties

⏳ How to tell the difference between Jasmine Sambac Varieties



💮 Jasminum Sambac is hands down the most fragrant jasmine in existence - and the most popular among tropical gardeners and plant collectors.

💮 Native to India, it's the source of jasmine perfume oil and the signature ingredient in jasmine tea.

💮 This plant comes in several varieties, each with unique flower size, shape, and growth habit - ranging from compact shrubs to vigorous bushes and climbing vines. It takes both sun and shade and makes a perfect container plant and indoor plant favorite.

💮 All varieties of Sambac are equally fragrant. To get more flowers, just use Sunshine Pikake plant booster and enjoy the perfume all day long!

💮 At Top Tropicals, we grow every known variety of Jasminum sambac in cultivation:

Arabian Nights - compact slow growing shrub with small delicate flowers

Belle of India - compact vine with long elegant petals, shade lover

Grand Duke of Tuscany - the most popular, vigorous bush with carnation-like flowers

Grand Duke Supreme - bigger, more vigorous version of Grand Duke with larger flowers

Gundu Malli - new hybrid between Arabian Nights and Grand Duke

Little Duke - more compact version of the Grand Duke

Maid of Orleans - vigorous full sun climber, great for hedges and fences

Mali Chat - very delicate, rare variety, with miniature 3-tier flowers, not easy to establish, shade lover

Mysore Mulli - vigorous vining shrub for sunny or semi-shade locations

🛒 Smell the Difference – Shop Sambac varieties

Learn more:
📚 Jasminum Sambac Absolute Flower - book download
📱 Sambac varieties
📱 Jasminum Sambac Page

#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits #How_to #Discover

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 20 Aug 2025

What is your favorite variety of Jasmine Sambac?

Jasminum Sambac varieties

💮 What is your favorite variety of Jasmine Sambac?



💮 Jasminum Sambac is hands-down the queen of fragrant flowers. The scent is heavenly - so much so that it's the key to jasmine perfume and the secret behind authentic jasmine tea.

💮 Jasmine sambac comes in all shapes and sizes - from neat little shrubs to big, vigorous bushes and even climbing vines. Every variety shows off a different flower form. It’s happy in sun or shade, perfect for pots, and loved as an indoor plant.

💮 At TopTropicals we love them all, but these three are our favorites:
- Belle of India - with elegant long petals
- Arabian Nights - vigorous yet compact, always covered in blooms
- Little Duke - same big carnation-like flowers as Grand Duke, but in a smaller, tidy package

👉 At Top Tropicals, we grow every known variety of Jasminum sambac in cultivation:



Which one would you choose for your garden?

✔️ Arabian Nights - compact slow growing shrub with small delicate flowers
✔️ Belle of India - compact vine with long elegant petals, shade lover
✔️ Grand Duke of Tuscany - the most popular, vigorous bush with carnation-like flowers
✔️ Grand Duke Supreme - bigger, more vigorous version of Grand Duke with larger flowers
✔️ Gundu Malli - new hybrid between Arabian Nights and Grand Duke
✔️ Little Duke - more compact version of the Grand Duke
✔️ Maid of Orleans - vigorous full sun climber, great for hedges and fences
✔️ Mali Chat - very delicate, rare variety, with miniature 3-tier flowers, not easy to establish, shade lover
✔️ Mysore Mulli - vigorous vining shrub for sunny or semi-shade locations

👉 To get more flowers, just use Sunshine Pikake plant booster and enjoy the perfume all day long!

🛒 Smell the Difference – collect Sambac varieties

📚 Learn more:


The most wanted fragrant plant
How to tell the difference between Jasmine Sambac Varieties
Jasmine Sambac in bloom
📚 Jasminum Sambac Absolute Flower - book download
📱 Jasminum Sambac - Absolute Flower
📱 Jasminum Sambac Page

#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits

🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date: 5 May 2023

Severe weather:
How to help your plants survive

Beautiful  mango  tree

By Ed Jones, the Booster Guy

Q: A horrible hailstorm hit last night, damaging the majority of plants and trees on my property (piles of hail left like snow - crazy!). Do you have any advice on how to give plants some extra TLC while they recover? Any tips are appreciated.

A: Spring is here and in some areas of the country, so is severe weather season. So what can you do to give your plants a fighting chance when Mother Nature shows her ugly side? Here in Florida, spring and summer thunderstorms are a normal occurance. Unfortunately, those storms often come with small tornados, high winds and sometimes hail.

The photo below was from a hail storm that came through the north side of Sebring, Florida in April of 2022.

Hail  storm  in  Florida

So the question remains. What can we do to help our plants when this type of weather strikes? Well the short answer is that there is not much we can do to prevent it from happening. These storms usually strike pretty quickly and most of us, given some warning, will chose to make sure vehicles are in the garage if possible and that loose items in the yard are brought in to a safe place. If you have time to move potted plants, that would be great, but it is not worth risking your own safety to do so.

The good news is that most plants will recover on their own. Even though they may look ugly for a while, patience is the best cure for most of them. Of course, the healthier the plant, the better chance it will have when it suffers damage due to severe weather. A good fertilizer plan along with regular doses of micronutrients will help your plants to be at their best so that they can recover quickly. And here is what you can do... CONTINUE READING >>

tropical  plants  landscape

Date: 9 Nov 2019

Saving Fallen Papaya Tree

Q: Hope there is help for my beautiful amazing papaya tree! There where a loooooooot of fruits on it, but it broke! First of all, it was leaning and friends tried to straight my beautiful tree. What can I do? Will it get fruits again?

A: A couple months ago we also had a Papaya tree loaded with fruit that fell down (see photos). It was heart-breaking. We secured it and it continued growing for a couple of weeks but unfortunately, at the end the tree still died, leaving us a million fruit. The Papaya tree has a very sensitive root system and is hard to re-establish once the roots are damaged.
However, if it just has a broken top, it has a good chance to grow back from the side shoots.
Of course, remove all the fruit so they don't take energy from the recovering tree.
When a tree is loaded with fruit, it is important to provide support for heavy branches and for the trunk if needed. Always support the fruiting tree to prevent from possible falling BEFORE it starts leaning down and may become broken by even a light wind.
In the photo, you can see how we fixed boards around, but it was already after the tree fell. Unfortunately, it was too late since the roots got damaged. Always need to stake the tree up before the branches get too heavy!

RECOMMENDED FERTILIZERS:
Fruit Festival Plant Food - Super Crop Booster
Mango-Food - Smart Release Fruit Tree Booster
SUNSHINE-Honey - sugar booster

Maradol Papaya $10 Hot Sale

Only local pick up from our Garden Center
Hurry up, while supply lasts!