Date: 31 Oct 2025
👻 When plants grow wings...
🌴 Twilight in the garden. Smokey is holding a glowing pumpkin. Sunshine is sipping cocoa.
Sunshine: "Smokey, why does that plant look like it wants to fly away?"
Smokey: "That’s the Bat Lily - Tacca. It’s rare, it’s
weird, and it’s in bloom just in time for Halloween."
Sunshine: "Figures. You always find the spooky ones."
Meet the Bat Lily (Tacca)
Tacca is also called the Bat Lily or Devil Flower. This tropical wonder grows bat-shaped wings and foot-long whiskers. The black form (Tacca chantrieri) looks straight out of a gothic dream, while the white one (Tacca nivea) is ghost-like and elegant.
Some of our plants are blooming right now in the nursery — true Halloween magic! Blooms are delicate and may not travel, but the plants are strong and will flower again soon in your care.
Black Bat Lily (Tacca chantrieri) with dark maroon wings and long whiskers
White Bat Lily (Tacca nivea) in bloom with wide ivory wings
"The White Bat Lily (Tacca nivea) is bold and sculptural, with oversized
ivory wings that command attention. Its pale bracts stretch wide above
clusters
of deep maroon flowers, and long, silvery whiskers spill gracefully through
the foliage. In filtered light, the plant seems to glow from within —
elegant, crisp, and perfectly balanced between the strange and the
beautiful.
If I could pick, I’d go with the White Tacca. It feels more
architectural, more balanced — those oversized wings catch light in a
way that
shows off every vein and curve. It looks engineered by nature, almost like
an
alien design prototype that actually works.
The Black Bat Lily (Tacca chantrieri) feels alive with shadow. Its dark
maroon wings and wiry whiskers make it look like something that fluttered
out of
the jungle at dusk. The bloom’s layered structure and near-black sheen
give it a quiet power — mysterious, understated, but impossible to
ignore. But if I were designing mood lighting for a greenhouse at night, the
Black Tacca wins. It’s subtle, mysterious, like a secret only visible
up
close. Together, they’re perfect opposites — yin and yang of the
tropical underworld: white for daylight, black for moonlight." — says
Tatiana Anderson, Top Tropicals Plant Expert
Special Offer: Discounts on Rare Tacca Plants
Grow your own Bat Lilies — White or Black — at a special Halloween price!
Get 25% OFF Tacca plants with code
TACCA2025
Min order $25 (excluding S/H), valid online only, cannot be combined with other offers.
Hurry, offer expires November 03, 2025!
🎃 Storewide Halloween Sale – For Everything Beyond Tacca
Not into spooky plants? Enjoy savings on all other tropical plants across the store!
Get 15% OFF tropical plants with code
HALLOWEEN2025
Min order $100 (excluding S/H), valid online only, cannot be combined with other offers.
Hurry, offer expires November 03 2025!
👉 Collect Tacca plants:
Date: 2 Nov 2025
Winter flowering trees and shrubs - all you need for winter color in your garden
🌺 Winter flowering trees and shrubs - all you need for winter color in your garden.
Many snowbirds ask what to plant when they’re here just for the season. The answer is simple: go for trees and shrubs that bloom in winter. Fall is the perfect time to plant them, so your garden bursts with flowers once the cool season arrives.
📱 We put everything in one place for you!
Check out this single YouTube Post with all our favorite winter-blooming trees and shrubs - your shortcut to a colorful garden this season:
http://youtube.com/post/UgkxRWCHqNDqrRIIwK_BAeWjfi3spnZK0EbA?si=LbNv_RhkKGkc0rxv
Save it for later and share it with your garden friends.
🌸 Videos on Winter flowering trees and shrubs:
👉 See more...
🛒 Want to grow your own winter color garden?
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Date: 4 Nov 2025
Do you have Shampoo Ginger in your garden?
Zingiber Zerumbet, Shampoo Ginger, Pine Cone Ginger
💄 Do you have Shampoo Ginger in your garden?
💄Pine Cone Ginger (Zingiber Zerumbet), is called Shampoo Ginger due to its unique, milky substance found in the cones. If you squeeze these bright red cones, a fragrant, milky liquid seeps out - traditionally used in Asia and Hawaii as a natural shampoo. Even today, you’ll find it in commercial shampoos.
🛒 Grow your own Natural Shampoo Ginger
📚 Learn more:
- 🟡 Free natural shampoo: squeeze it and see what comes out!
- 🟡 What Ginger makes a natural shampoo?
- 🟡5 most spectacular Ginger species
#Shade_Garden #Container_Garden #Remedies #Fun_Facts
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Date: 16 Nov 2025
Updates from Mittens
- 🐾 Mittens is growing up fast and turning into a beautiful young lady! She still follows Chiane to work every single day and hasn’t missed a shift yet. Talk about dedication! Sometimes you just get lucky and find the perfect team member - and we sure did!
🐾 At TopTropicals, we’re truly blessed with a crew of hardworking, happy people and equally devoted #PeopleCats.
🐾 When you visit our Garden Center in Ft Myers, don’t forget to say a few kind words to our team - they work tirelessly to care for the plants and make sure each one is shipped safely to your home.
🐈📸 Mittens the Cat relaxing after hard work at TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden
#PeopleCats
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Date: 18 Oct 2025
Avocado leaf tea: island secret for a calm heart and blood pressure
Avocado leaf tea: island secret for a calm heart and blood pressure
🍃 You see that Avocado tree in your yard? Don't just love it for the fruit - the leaves carry magic too! Old folks in the tropics will tell you - never throw away the avocado leaves. They’ve been used for generations to brew a tea that helps steady the heart and ease high blood pressure.
🍃 When life gets busy and your heart starts beating too fast, this tea helps it find its rhythm again. The leaf holds flavonoids and quercetin - fancy words for what nature been doing all along: keeping the blood flowing smooth and the body at peace. Folks say it also helps with digestion and keeps the liver happy.
🍃 Avocado leaf tea
Ingredients
- 3 to 4 fresh avocado leaves
- 2 cups water
- Optional: honey, lemon, or cinnamon stick
Instructions
- Rinse the avocado leaves well.
- Place them in a small pot with 2 cups of water.
- Bring to a gentle simmer and let it cook for about 10 minutes.
- Strain the tea and add honey, lemon, or cinnamon if desired.
- Sip slowly and enjoy the calm, earthy flavor.
- 🍃 They say it helps the belly, calms the mind, and keeps the liver strong. Maybe that’s science, maybe it’s just island truth - but it surely does the body good! Some call it bush medicine, others just call it good sense. Either way, it’s a simple garden remedy that’s been soothing hearts long before pills and prescriptions came around.
🛒 Plant an Avocado tree and help your body stay healthy
📚 Learn more:
Tropical fruit and plants that help keep blood pressure in balance, Part 1, and Part 2.
#Food_Forest #Remedies #Discover #How_to
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals