Garden Blog - Top Tropicals
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What is the most popular and easiest tropical fruit tree to grow indoors?
No doubt about it - it's the Coffee Tree.
- Coffee is shade-loving and easy to grow with regular water
- It grows into a dark green shrub or small tree (about 3 to 5 feet tall in a pot)
- Its fragrant, star-shaped flowers resemble gardenias
- The whole fruit is edible and turns green to yellow to red
- The seeds are real "coffee beans" that can be dried, roasted, and ground at home.
Five Reasons to Grow a Coffee Plant
- Perfect Indoor Fruit Tree: Thrives in filtered light and stays compact
- Low Maintenance: Forgiving, adaptable, and ideal for new gardeners
- Aesthetic Appeal: Glossy green leaves and clusters of white blooms
- Homegrown Coffee: Yes, you can roast your own beans.
- Year-Round Beauty: Evergreen with seasonal fragrance
Coffee Plant Care Tips
- Light: Bright, indirect light is best. Avoid harsh afternoon sun.
- Water: Keep soil lightly moist but not soggy. Let the top inch dry out before watering again.
- Humidity: Loves higher humidity. Mist regularly or place on a pebble tray.
- Fertilizer: Use a balanced, gentle fertilizer like Sunshine Boosters C-Cibus every few weeks during growing season.
- Soil: Loose, rich, and well-drained. High in organic matter and slightly acidic. For potted plants, use a quality indoor tropical mix, such as Top Tropicals Abundance mix
- Repotting: Refresh soil and size up the pot every 1–2 years to keep roots healthy.
- Can I grow it outdoors?: Yes - bring it outside in warm months and back indoors before frost. It's best suited for USDA zones 10-11, but container growing gives you flexibility in cooler climates.
- How long until I get beans?: Expect flowers and fruit within 3 to 4 years from seedling stage - often sooner if you start with a young tree.
- What does the fruit taste like?: Mild and sweet-tart, like a mix between a cherry and a cranberry. You can eat it fresh.
How to Make Coffee from Your Own Tree
- Harvest: Pick the ripe red cherries
- Pop and Soak: Squeeze out the beans and ferment 1-2 days to remove pulp
- Dry: Spread out to dry for 1-2 weeks until hard and papery
- Husk: Remove the thin shell to reveal green beans
- Roast: Use a dry skillet or oven until fragrant
- Grind and Brew: Cool, grind, and enjoy the freshest coffee you've ever had.
Learn more: How to make your own coffee from homegrown beans
Coffee Health Benefits
- Rich in antioxidants - supports heart and brain health
- Boosts focus and mental alertness
- Supports metabolism and fat-burning
Why Coffee Makes the Perfect Gift Plant
- Long-living and beautiful
- Symbolic, useful, and personal
- Great for coffee lovers, gardeners, and the "person who has everything"
Why Desmos - a cousin of Ylang Ylang - is every gardeners dream
Desmos chinensis - Ylang Ylang Shrub
⭐️ Why Desmos - a cousin of Ylang Ylang - is every gardener's dream
🎥 The rare red-flowered variety of Desmos is one of the most sought-after perfume plants of Southeast Asia.
🛒 Make Desmos the highlight of your fragrance collection
📚 Learn more:
Perfume in a pot: exotic Dwarf Chanel No 5 Tree
#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits #Container_Garden
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- ⭐️ Desmos chinensis - Ylang Ylang Shrub - is a rare treasure for fragrance lovers. It's a compact, bushy, vining cousin of the famous Ylang Ylang tree, but with an even more intense perfume. The scent is often compared to sweet lemon candy.
- ⭐️This shrub shows off graceful, arching branches and pendant flowers that come in golden yellow or the even rarer bright red form. It thrives in warm, humid conditions and becomes vigorous once established.
- ⭐️Unlike the big Ylang Ylang tree (Cananga odorata) that can shoot up quickly and needs space, Desmos stays compact and can be maintained at about 3 to 6 ft. Perfect for smaller gardens or containers, while still delivering that unforgettable fragrance.
🎥 The rare red-flowered variety of Desmos is one of the most sought-after perfume plants of Southeast Asia.
🛒 Make Desmos the highlight of your fragrance collection
📚 Learn more:
Perfume in a pot: exotic Dwarf Chanel No 5 Tree
#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits #Container_Garden
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Tequila Sunrise Hibiscus breaks the rules
Hibiscus El Capitolio Tequila Sunrise
Tuxedo cat Smoky and Orange Cat Sunshine enjoying Tequila Sunrise
🍸 Tequila Sunrise Hibiscus breaks the rules
🛒 Shop Hibiscus plants
📚 Learn more from previous posts:
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- 🌅 Hibiscus El Capitolio Tequila Sunrise is a cousin of Hibiscus El Capitolio Bloody Mary we introduced earlier. El Capitolio is an unusual type of Hibiscus with a graceful, fountain-like growth habit and unique pendant, double-skirted blooms
- 🌅 Tequila Sunrise has warm peach-orange tones, often with soft pink highlights. The pom-pom-like flowers stand out against glossy green foliage, adding a bright, exotic touch to the garden.
- 🌅 Blooming from summer through fall, this hardy hibiscus thrives in full sun to partial shade, tolerates heat, drought, salt, and even wet soils. A fast grower reaching 5-10 ft, it's perfect as a showy specimen, hedge, or container plant in USDA zones 9-11.
🛒 Shop Hibiscus plants
📚 Learn more from previous posts:
- 💋Hibiscus El Capitolio Bloody Mary
- 💋Most useful Hibiscus plants
- 💋How to get rid of pests on Hibiscus?
- 💋Skeleton Hibiscus with "crazy petals" - flower will blow your mind
#Hedges_with_benefits
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What is Mickey Mouse Plant?
Ochna integerrima - Vietnamese Mickey Mouse plant, Hoa Mai
⚡️What is Mickey Mouse Plant?
🐭 Ochna integerrima - Vietnamese Mickey Mouse plant, Hoa Mai.
🛒 Get your own Mickey Mouse Plant
#Hedges_with_benefits #Nature_Wonders
#Fun_Facts
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🐭 Ochna integerrima - Vietnamese Mickey Mouse plant, Hoa Mai.
- ⭕️ Its seeds and sepals resemble the face of Mickey Mouse, hence the common name.
- ⭕️ Hoa Mai, also known as Yellow Mai Flower, is the quintessential symbol of Spring in Vietnam, especially during the Tet celebration.
- ⭕️ "Hoa Mai" translates to "yellow blossoms," highlighting the bright yellow flowers that bloom during Tet.
- ⭕️ Ochna integerrima is a medium-sized shrub that can be trained into a miniature tree, making it a prized plant for exotic collections.
- ⭕️ In winter, it is covered with bright yellow flowers, which are believed to bring good luck and prosperity during the Tet celebration.
🛒 Get your own Mickey Mouse Plant
#Hedges_with_benefits #Nature_Wonders
#Fun_Facts
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What is the best flowering shrub for a shady spot?
Aphelandra hartwegiana - Yellow Aphelandra
Aphelandra squarrosa - White Zebra Plant
Aphelandra sinclairiana - Panama Queen
Aphelandra x panamensis - Scarlet Candle
💐 What is the best flowering shrub for a shady spot?
📚 Learn more from previous posts:
Panama Queen
How to grow Zebra in container?
🛒 Shop Aphelandras
#Butterfly_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits #Shade_Garden
🏵 TopTropicals
- 🚩 Aphelandra is hands down one of the best solutions for a shade garden where you want to see more colors. It is a great addition to a collectible tropical butterfly garden, can grow into 4-5" tall bushy specimen. Tolerates both sun and shade.
- 🚩Aphelandras have beautiful lush foliage and showy, long terminal inflorescences throughout the warm season.
- 🚩These flowers are loved by hummingbirds.
- 🚩Aphelandra hartwegiana - Yellow Aphelandra. Yellow flowers emerge out of long orange stalks in the fall time. Pretty and unusual!
- 🚩Aphelandra squarrosa Dania (Snow White) - White Zebra Plant. It is also one of the best house plants, not only pretty because of its white-veined "Zebra" foliage, but also for the apical inflorescence with its beautiful yellow bracts.
- 🚩Aphelandra sinclairiana - Panama Queen, has extremely tropical look and fragrant flowers of unusual color combination: orange and pink.
- 🚩Aphelandra x panamensis - Scarlet Candle - a rare hybrid with bright red flowers
📚 Learn more from previous posts:
Panama Queen
How to grow Zebra in container?
🛒 Shop Aphelandras
#Butterfly_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits #Shade_Garden
🏵 TopTropicals
How to French Kiss the Red Button Ginger
Costus spicatus x woodsonii - Red Button Ginger, French Kiss
Costus spicatus x woodsonii - Red Button Ginger, French Kiss
⚡️ #Fun_Facts:How to French Kiss the Red Button Ginger
💋 Costus spicatus x woodsonii (Red Button Ginger, French Kiss): this ginger's inflorescence resembles a cluster of bright red buttons, making it a standout in tropical gardens.
🛒 Order French Kiss
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💋 Costus spicatus x woodsonii (Red Button Ginger, French Kiss): this ginger's inflorescence resembles a cluster of bright red buttons, making it a standout in tropical gardens.
🛒 Order French Kiss
#Hedges_with_benefits
🏵 TopTropicals
What Tree Calliandra brings into your garden?
Calliandra houstoniana - Tree Calliandra
Calliandra houstoniana - Tree Calliandra, flower
⚡️ #Fun_Facts: Tree Calliandra
🎉 Calliandra houstoniana - Tree Calliandra - is the only tree form of Powderpuff. It quickly grows into a bushy beautiful tree in just one season, and fluffy pink flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies year around
🛒 Order
#Trees #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants
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🎉 Calliandra houstoniana - Tree Calliandra - is the only tree form of Powderpuff. It quickly grows into a bushy beautiful tree in just one season, and fluffy pink flowers attract hummingbirds and butterflies year around
🛒 Order
#Trees #Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants
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What vine to plant over a big fence
Chonemorpha fragrans - Frangipani vine
❗️ What vine to plant over a big fence.
🛒 Buy Frangipani Vine
#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits
🏵 TopTropicals
- 🔹 Chonemorpha fragrans, or Frangipani vine, that we mentioned before, is a large woody tropical liana with clusters of large, perfume-fragrant flowers and lush green foliage. It is close related to perfumed Plumeria - Frangipani.
- 🔹 The fragrance is very fresh and pleasant, similar to Plumeria, fills the air around.
- 🔹 Leaves reaching up to 12 (!) inches - very tropical, majestic look!
- 🔹 Requires sturdy support - it can grow pretty big and heavy!
- 🔹 Takes both sun or shade. Full sun and regular fertilizer is essential for profuse blooming.
🛒 Buy Frangipani Vine
#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits
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Why is it called Passion flower and Passion fruit?
Passion flower - Passiflora
Passion fruit - Passiflora
Passion fruit - Passiflora
☸️ The truth about Passion flower and Passion fruit.
📚 Learn more: The Passion Fruit – Juicy Maracuya
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- Passion vines, passion flowers, and passion fruits - these are all Passiflora - fascinating plants with a rich history. These vines come from tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas.
- Medicinal: Various parts of the passion vine have been used in traditional medicine to treat ailments such as anxiety, insomnia, and hypertension.
- Host for Butterflies: Passion vines serve as host plants for several butterfly species.
- Passion of Christ: the passion flower's complex structure with five sepals, five petals often used to symbolize the Passion of Christ in Christian tradition. Spanish Christian missionaries in South America saw the flower's structure as a representation of Christ's crucifixion, which led to the name Passion Flower.
- Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis) - Maracuya - is highly nutritious, rich in vitamins A and C, fiber, and antioxidants.
- Delicious pulp: the fruit is popular in many cuisines around the world, used in beverages, desserts.
- Two main types of passion fruit: the purple sweeter variety (Passiflora edulis) and the yellow variety larger and more acidic (Passiflora x flavicarpa).
- Fast growing vine in no time: known for their rapid growth, Passifloras need strong support as they can quickly cover large areas.
📚 Learn more: The Passion Fruit – Juicy Maracuya
🛒 Shop Passiflora plants
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What is lipstick made of?
Bixa orellana - Lipstick Tree, Annatto, Achiote
Bixa orellana - Lipstick Tree, Annatto, Achiote
Bixa orellana - Lipstick Tree, Annatto, Achiote
Bixa orellana - Lipstick Tree, Annatto, Achiote
Bixa orellana - Lipstick Tree, Annatto, Achiote
💋 What is lipstick made of? Lipstick plant!
🛒 Grow your own Annatto
#Hedges_with_benefits #Food_Forest
🏵 TopTropicals
- 💄Bixa orellana - Lipstick Tree, Annatto or Achiote - is a bushy shrub or a small tree South America with large, impressive leaves, charming pink flowers and amazing... seeds! It is used in various industries, including cosmetics and culinary arts.
- 💄Natural Pigment: The seeds of the Bixa plant contain a natural pigment called annatto, which ranges in color from yellow to deep orange-red.
- 💄Cosmetic Use: Annatto is commonly used in cosmetics, including lipstick, due to its vibrant coloration. It adds shades of red and orange to cosmetic products. Extract derived from the Bixa seeds is mixed with other ingredients to achieve desired shades. It provides a natural alternative to synthetic dyes.
- 💄Famous spice Annatto is widely used as a spice in cooking, particularly in Latin American, Caribbean, and Filipino cuisines.
- 💄Flavor and color: It imparts a mild, slightly peppery flavor and is prized for its ability to add a rich, yellow-orange color to dishes such as rice, stews, and sauces.
- 💄Health benefits: Beyond its culinary use, annatto seeds have medicinal properties, including antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
- 💄Flower arrangements: The dried seed pods add a unique touch to flower arrangements, enhancing their visual appeal.
- 💄Hedge or screen: Ideal for use as a hedge or screen, Bixa requires frequent pruning to encourage bushy growth at the base.
🛒 Grow your own Annatto
#Hedges_with_benefits #Food_Forest
🏵 TopTropicals