Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

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Fun Facts: Cacao beans. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Fun Facts: Cacao beans

Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)

Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)

Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)

Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)

Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)

Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)

Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)

Cacao Chocolate Tree (Theobroma cacao)

📖 Fun Facts: Cacao beans (Theobroma cacao) were used to make chocolate, and the ancient Maya and Aztec civilizations valued cacao beans as currency 💰 Can we use chocolate as money?
  • 🍫 Chocolate tree has large dark green leaves that shade the fruit pods which grow directly from the trunk and branches.
  • 🍫 The flesh of the fruit is eaten as a dessert, and the seeds are the raw material of chocolate. Hot chocolate can be made by drying the seeds, roasting, grinding, and adding milk.
  • 🍫 This exotic rare tree makes a gem of a houseplant collection.


🛒Get your own Chocolate Tree

#Fun_Facts #Food_Forest

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Fun Facts About the Guava Flower. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Fun Facts About the Guava Flower

Guava Flower

🌸 Fun Facts About the Guava Flower
  • 🌸 Frilly and Fabulous - Guava flowers may be small, but they're packed with fluffy white stamens that give them a soft, powder-puff look.
  • 🌸 Pollinator Magnet - Bees and butterflies love guava blooms, making them a great addition to a pollinator-friendly garden.
  • 🌸 Scent-sational - The flowers have a light, pleasant fragrance that adds a touch of sweetness before the fruit even arrives.
  • 🌸 Bloom to Fruit - Each flower can turn into a delicious guava fruit, making them both beautiful and productive.
  • 🌸 Part of the Showy Family - Guava (Psidium) belongs to the Myrtaceae family, which also includes eye-catching bloomers like Eucalyptus, Bottlebrush (Callistemon), and the stunning Rose Apple (Syzygium).


📚 More from previous posts about: #Guava

🛒 Shop Guava Trees

#Food_Forest #Guava #Fun_facts

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Get more goodies and savings from
Top Tropicals Telegram Channel!

Top Tropicals Telegram Channel discount

Want to grow exotic fruit, pick the perfect plants for your yard, and become a plant expert - without wasting hours online? Join the Top Tropicals Telegram Channel

- Learn how to grow your own food forest with minimal effort
- Discover the best plants for your space - shade or sun, pots or ground
- Get expert tips on care, fertilizing, pruning, and harvesting
- Enjoy daily posts with practical advice, fun facts, and plant horoscopes
- No scrolling through endless videos - just direct answers and inspiration
- NO COMMERCIALS! Plant- (and cat-) info only.
- PLUS: Get exclusive access to discount codes and deals only available to our Telegram subscribers!

And of course enjoy daily appearances from our beloved PeopleCats (and a few adorable PeopleDogs).

Whether you're a new plant lover or a tropical pro - there's something here for everyone. Tap to join, grow with us, and unlock your plant wisdom and savings!

Cat checking Telegram

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How many varieties of Bananas can I grow? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

How many varieties of Bananas can I grow?

Bananas (Musa sp.) in containers

🍌 How many varieties of Bananas can I grow?
  • 💛 At Top Tropicals, we have a few dozen varieties of Bananas (Musa sp.) - ranging from popular commercial and plantain types to spectacular ornamental bananas with colorful, tropical foliage.
  • 💛 Banana plants are a favorite in Southern gardens, indoor plant collections, and greenhouses in cooler climates. Fast and easy to grow, they transform any space into a tropical paradise in just one season and can produce fruit for you in as little as 8–18 months after planting.
  • 💛 Bananas are a powerhouse of nutrition, packed with potassium for heart health, fiber for digestion, and vitamins B6 and C for immunity. They’re a natural energy booster, great for snacks, smoothies, and even baking. Plus, their tryptophan content can improve your mood, and their low sodium helps regulate blood pressure.
  • 💛 With so many delicious and unique varieties, growing different types of bananas lets you enjoy a range of flavors, textures, and uses - whether fresh, blended, or cooked - making them a must-have in any tropical or indoor garden!


Discover the most popular edible and ornamental bananas in our next post 🔽

🎥 Banana selection today at TopTropicals farm. Come over to pick the best one!

📚 More about Banana from previous posts:

🛍 Shop Banana varieties

#Food_Forest #Bananas

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Top Tropicals is now in Telegram!

Cat texting telegram

Welcome to our new Telegram Channel!
We finally did it, and excited to connect with all of you on this amazing platform. After using Telegram for a few years for both business and personal communications, we realized it is a winner of the modern Social Media!

In Top Tropicals Telegram Channel you will find much more than on our website or Newsletter: Fun Plant Facts, Nature Wonders, Amazing Plant Videos, Gardening How-to Tips, Exotic Recipes, Contests, Sweepstakes, Give-aways and so much more. Plus, of course, your favorite PeopleCats!

Telegram is a messaging app with a focus on speed and security, it's super-fast, simple and free. You can use Telegram on all your devices at the same time - your messages sync seamlessly across any number of your phones, tablets or computers. It's perfect for sharing your comments, photos, videos, even making calls.

You can watch news, browse your interest, message to friends and colleagues, save your files, create groups, make phone calls, and the most amazing thing - Telegram works where nothing else works, no WiFi or cell service! It proved to be more reliable than any other apps and (surprise!) even works in airplane without wifi connection - proved!

The platform has its own cloud and offers limitless storage. And the last and not least - it's ad-free! Telegram is free and will stay free - no ads, no subscription fees, forever. It's a clean, clear and easy to use for all ages and applications. Try it yourself and discover how easy and pain-free it is!

Telegram is for everyone who wants fast and reliable messaging and calls.
See you in Telegram!

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Which adenium is ever-blooming? Discover Flamingo Glow. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Which adenium is ever-blooming? Discover Flamingo Glow

Adenium Flamingo Glow

Which adenium is ever-blooming? Discover Flamingo Glow
  • If you've visited our Top Tropicals Farm in Sebring, you've surely noticed our two beautiful ever-blooming Adeniums Flamingo Glow - the favorites that always draw admiration (and wishlists) from everyone! Our 2 Flamingo Glow mother plants we have in 7 gal pots are in bloom most of the time, almost year around, except for the Winter dormancy period.
  • We're excited to share some great news: these two stunning Flamingo Glow adeniums cross-pollinated and have produced seeds, and their offsprings are now already blooming! The well-sized 3 year old seedlings have inherited the same vibrant, glowing color as their parents, and we now have a few plants available for sale.
  • Desert Rose Flamingo Glow is a dazzling Top Tropicals hybrid (A. arabicum x A. obesum) that adds a splash of tropical elegance to any collection. Its soft pink blooms glow like a flamingo at sunset, gradually deepening from delicate blush to rich rose with darker splashes that illuminate the petals. Compact and easy to grow, this variety has a naturally dwarf habit and forms a beautifully rounded caudex, perfect for containers or bonsai-style displays. A living jewel that glows brighter with time!


📚 Learn more: #Adenium

🛒 Claim Your Flamingo Glow and discover more Adenium colors

#Container_Garden #How_to #Shade_Garden #Adenium

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Discover the health benefits of Katuk: a Superfood for your mind and body. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Discover the health benefits of Katuk: a Superfood for your mind and body

Katuk,Tropical Asparagus - Sauropus androgynus

🏆 Discover the health benefits of Katuk: a Superfood for your mind and body
  • 🌿 Katuk, or Tropical Asparagus (Sauropus androgynus), is a delicious leafy vegetable popular in South and Southeast Asia. Its young shoots, often referred to as tropical asparagus, are highly prized for their taste and high yields.
  • 🌿 In Vietnam, Katuk is commonly cooked in soups with crab meat, minced pork, or dried shrimp, while in Malaysia, it’s stir-fried with egg and dried anchovies.
  • 🌿 The plant is unique for being one of the few plants that contains vitamin K. It’s also rich in folate, vitamin K, and lutein - nutrients linked to improved memory and reduced cognitive aging.
  • 🌿 Katuk thrives in full sun or semi-shade, making it a versatile and healthy addition to your garden or kitchen.


Lean more:
📚 Tropical Asparagus, Katuk: Grow your own food
📱 How to cook with Katuk

🛒 Add Katuk Superfood to your edible garden today

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Discover

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Why do the Chinese drink tea? A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Why do the Chinese drink tea?

Why do the Chinese drink tea?
🌱 Why do the Chinese drink tea?

  • 🍃 It actually has to do with the Chinese theory of the five elements - wood, metal, fire, water, and earth:

木 金 火 水 土

  • 🍃 Tea comes from a plant - Camellia sinensis - the Tea Leaf Tree - that is used to make all true teas: green, black, white, and oolong. The Tea Tree contains the element of wood (木) 🌳

  • 🍃 When it's roasted in a cast-iron pan, it gains the element of metal (金)

  • 🍃 Then it's dried over fire, adding the element of fire (火) 🔥

  • 🍃 When it's brewed with boiling water, the element of water enters (水) 💦

  • 🍃 Finally, tea is poured into a clay vessel, symbolizing the element of earth (土) 🍯

  • 🍃 In this way, all five elements - wood, metal, fire, water, and earth - come together in a single cup.

  • 🍃 The plant grows slowly and can thrive in containers or frost-free gardens with sun to semi-shade.


🛒 Grow your own tea

📚Learn more from previous posts:
Tea facts
How to grow your own tea?
Where does the tea come from?
Instructions how to make tea from tea leaves (PDF)

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Fun_facts

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True love of Night Blooming Jasmine

By Onika Amell, tropical plant specialist

Q: I live in New Cumberland, West Virginia. I love the smell of Night-Blooming jasmine. Is it possible to grow it in the northern panhandle of West Virginia? Do I have to plant it every year or do I keep it in a pot and take it inside during the winter months?

A: Technically, Night Blooming Jasmine is not a true jasmine (those plants belong to Oleaceae, or Olive family). Night Blooming Jasmine belongs to the Solanaceae family, also known as the Nightshade or "Potato" family of plants. Yes, this sweet fragrant flower called Jasmine for its perfume is related to potatoes and tomatoes!
Night Blooming Jasmine - Cestrum nocturnum - is loved by many gardeners for its beautiful fragrance at night. It is one of the most fragrant tropical evergreen shrubs available. Cascading clusters of tiny, tubular pale yellow to white flowers open at night and release a heavenly fragrance throughout the garden, especially on warm summer evenings. The fragrance is much lighter during the day. Night Blooming Jasmine is grown year-round in zones 9-11. It is at its happiest in a sunny to a partially sunny spot in your garden in well-drained soil but can be grown in cooler climates as a container or greenhouse plant.
You would absolutely be able to enjoy this plant during the warm months in West Virginia, but it will most certainly not survive outside during the winter. You will have to bring it inside. Take it outside again only once you are confident there is no more possibility of frost. When grown indoors, be sure to give it the sunniest, South facing window in your home. When grown in a container, you will need to re-pot it every two to three years so it doesn't become root-bound.
For those who are lucky to live in frost-free areas, in ideal growing conditions outside, it can easily reach 8 feet with a spread of 5 feet. It has a lovely informal look that can soften a more manicured garden. Add organic matter to the planting hole when you plant to enrich the soil around the root ball. Water well in the summer, but allow them to dry out a bit between watering in the winter. Plant this Jasmine near pools, porches, doors, windows, and walkways where its lovely fragrance can be enjoyed. The shrub is also an excellent plant for privacy hedges and screens. When grown as a hedge, plant 3 feet apart.
Trim lightly after a bloom cycle to shape and then do a hard pruning in fall or spring to control the size of this plant. Fertilize 3 times a year - in spring, summer, and autumn - with a good quality granular fertilizer.

Recommended fertilizers:

Pink N Good Daily Plant Food - Flower Booster
Tropical Allure - Smart-Release Booster

Interesting facts:

Night-blooming jasmine is an excellent mosquito repellent. The powerful scent of the flowers attracts moths and bats that feed on mosquitoes and other small insects.
The flowers of the Night Blooming jasmine are widely used in India and other countries of South Asia for perfumery, medicinal applications and in religious ceremonies.

Limited time special offer:
Instant $5 off Night Blooming Jasmine

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Top Tropicals is now in Telegram!

Top Tropicals is now in Telegram!

Top Tropicals is now in Telegram!
🌴 Top Tropicals is now in Telegram!

TopTropicals.com - the World's leading authority on tropical plants - is now in Telegram. If you grow a tropical garden or indoor collection of rare plants, this is your channel!

Join to get exclusive updates on tropical gardening:

Fun Facts and Nature Wonders
🌺 How to make your plants flower and stay happy
How to get the biggest fruit crop
🏆 Sweepstakes and Contests
Butterfly and Container Garden
Food Forest
⚜️ Perfume Plants
🍲 Exotic Recipes and Remedies
...and of course, your favorite -
🐾 PeopleCats in the Garden!

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