Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date: 19 Jun 2025

Valencia Pride mango - a stunning shade tree with red-blushed, fiberless, honeyed fruit

Valencia Pride mango

Valencia Pride mango - a stunning shade tree with red-blushed, fiberless, honeyed fruit.
Mango Rainbow🌈


🥭 Valencia Pride is a vigorous Florida heirloom - a Haden seedling from 1941, famed for its large, oblong-sigmoid fruit with yellow skin and crimson blush. The nearly fiberless, firm flesh is juicy and flavorful, offering sweet-tart notes of honey, coconut, and stone fruit . The tree grows tall and open, making it ideal for shade in zones 9-11, and is moderately cold-hardy with good disease resistance. It ripens mid- to late summer (July-August in Florida) and produces reliably once established.

🛒 Shop Mango varieties

📚 Previous posts: #Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try

#Food_Forest #Mango #Mango_Rainbow

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Date: 10 May 2024

What is Jaboticaba? I like the sound of this word!

What is Jaboticaba? I like the sound of this word! What is Jaboticaba? I like the sound of this word! What is Jaboticaba? I like the sound of this word!
🍇 What is Jaboticaba? I like the sound of this word! 😁

Jaboticaba (Myrciaria cauliflora) is the most popular native fruit of Brazil that famous Brazilian Vine La Vino Tinto is made of!🍷

  • 🟣 Grape-like purple fruit with a thick skin and delicious melting pulp somewhat resembling Northern Black Currant in flavor.

  • 🟣 Trees grow very slowly and due to small leaves and dwarfish growth habit are often used as bonsai. Some old bonsai specimens can fruit.

  • 🟣 Larger specimens are very valuable because it takes Jaboticaba up to 7 years from seed to start fruiting.

  • 🟣 Similar to Mamey, Jaboticaba has cauliflorous fruit - that grow on main stems or woody trunks.

  • 🟣 Jaboticaba is relatively cold hardy, mature trees are taking down to 23 F for short periods without serious damage.




🛒 Shop Jaboticaba trees

#Food_Forest #Nature_Wonders #Container_Garden

🏵 TopTropicals

Date: 10 Sep 2025

The secret to abundant dragon fruit harvests

The secret to abundant dragon fruit harvests

✍️ The secret to abundant dragon fruit harvests



🔴 Dragon fruit (Pitaya) thrives when it's fed regularly. For the best results, use Sunshine C-Cibus, a complete liquid fertilizer made for fruit trees. It is gentle enough to apply with every watering, all year long, and it gives your plants the steady nutrition they need to set more flowers and produce bigger harvests.

🛒 Order Sunshine C-Cibus liquid plant booster

#Food_Forest #How_to #Dragon_Fruit #Fertilizers

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Date: 30 Sep 2025

Loquat salsa: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

Loquat salsa: quick-n-fun exotic recipes

🍴 Loquat salsa: quick-n-fun exotic recipes


  • 🔴Dice Loquat fruit with tomato, onion, and jalapeno.
  • 🔴Great spooned over grilled fish or eaten with chips.

Loquat Salsa Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fresh loquats, peeled, pitted, and diced
  • 2 medium tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 medium red onion, finely chopped
  • 1 jalapeno, finely diced
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Peel and pit the loquats, then dice them into small cubes.
  2. Dice tomatoes and onion, finely chop the jalapeno.
  3. In a bowl, combine loquats, tomato, onion, jalapeno, and cilantro.
  4. Add lime juice and salt to taste, stir gently to mix.
  5. Chill for 15 minutes before serving.

Serving Suggestions

  • Serve with tortilla chips.
  • Spoon over grilled fish, chicken, or shrimp.
  • Use as a topping for tacos or salads.

🛒 Plant your Loquat tree

#Food_Forest #Recipes #Loquat

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Date: 3 Oct 2025

Plant for birds: feast for wildlife and people from a tiny vine!

Passiflora suberosa - Corkystem Passion Vine

Plant for birds: feast for wildlife and people from a tiny vine!

  • Passiflora suberosa - Corkystem Passion Flower: did you know this Florida native passion vine is more than just a butterfly host? Birds love it too - they’ll happily snack on the little fruits and sing you thank-you songs all day long!
  • And yes, the fruit is edible for people as well! The berries are small, but they make a fun and exotic treat.
  • The plants has a tiny flower and a tiny fruit – both only about half an inch – but together they create a mighty native habitat.
  • It's a triple win: butterflies, birds, and people can all enjoy something from this charming little plant. Plus, it’s the larval host for Gulf Fritillary, Zebra Longwing, and Julia butterflies, and its tiny greenish flowers provide nectar all year long. Fast-growing, easy, and full of life – a real gem for any Florida garden.
  • This vine is delicate and compact, perfect for a medium trellis or climbing a small tree. Unlike the big, aggressive passion vines that can cover a whole fence, this one stays manageable.
  • This Passion vine is not just charming and wildlife-friendly, it’s also tough as nails. Cold hardy and easy to grow, this native vine takes whatever Florida throws at it – heavy rains, long droughts and heat, poor sandy soils, even total neglect – and still thrives. A perfect choice if you want beauty, wildlife, and resilience all in one little plant.


🛒 Plant this small and tough vine with food and wildlife benefits

📚 Learn more:


#Food_Forest #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants #How_to

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