❄️ How to Prepare Your Tropical Garden for Winter

Smokey and Sunshine Wrap Up the Garden with Frost Cloth Before the Chill.

Smokey: "Thermometer says 45. Time to wrap the bananas!"
Sunshine: "You wrap the bananas. I’ll guard the mulch… from this sunny spot."
Smokey: "Teamwork, Sunshine. Teamwork."

🌡️ Cold nights are coming - but your tropicals do not need to shiver!

Even in sunny Florida and other warm zones, one cold snap can undo months of growth. Preparation is everything. Tropical plants can handle a lot, but they dislike surprises. Let’s make sure your garden stays safe, strong, and happy all winter long.

Tips from Tatiana Anderson, Top Tropicals Plant Expert

👉 Group and Check Your Plants

You already know which plants are in pots and which are in the ground. What matters now is prioritizing by cold sensitivity. Identify the tender tropicals – papaya, banana, plumeria, adenium, heliconia – and decide which ones get covered first when temperatures drop. Keep frost cloths or old sheets near those areas, ready to grab fast. If your garden is large, label protection zones or mark plants that always need extra care. The goal is to have a plan, not a panic, when the cold alert hits.

Once you know your priorities, you can plan the rest of your protection strategy.

👉 Feed and Mulch

Stop using high-nitrogen fertilizers by late fall. They push soft new growth that freezes easily. Add compost around the base of your plants and top with 3 to 4 inches of mulch. Mulch acts like a blanket: it keeps warmth in, protects the roots, and keeps soil moisture steady. Just make sure the soil drains well; cold and soggy soil leads to root rot. In raised beds, check that water flows away easily.

After you feed and mulch, it is time to look at how your local zone changes the game.

👉 Zone-by-Zone Tips

Moving Tropical Plants Indoors for Winter Protection

• Zone 10: You are lucky! This is mostly a maintenance season. Watch for root rot after heavy rain, trim lightly if needed, and protect tender young trees during surprise chills. Keep some frost cloth ready just in case.
• Zone 9: This is the main action zone. Nights can dip into the 30s. Deep-water your trees once before cold nights to insulate the roots. Apply heavy mulch, and have frost protection ready to go. If you grow tropical fruit like mango or guava, consider wrapping young trunks in burlap or foam pipe insulation.
• Zone 8: This is where tropical gardening becomes creative. Stick to cold-hardy tropicals such as loquat, guava, or cold-hardy avocado varieties. Use portable greenhouses, wrap trunks, and move smaller plants indoors or to a heated porch when frost threatens.

Now that the garden beds are set, let’s look at your pots and containers – your most mobile plants.

👉 Container and Patio Plants

Potted plants are the easiest to protect but also the quickest to freeze. Start reducing watering now so roots do not stay too wet in cooler weather. Before moving them, check for insects hiding under leaves or in the soil. Group your pots close to a wall for reflected heat and wind protection. If you plan to bring them indoors, do it gradually. Move them closer to the house for a few days before bringing them all the way inside to help them adjust to lower light and humidity.

When the chill starts, many gardeners rush to move everything inside at once – but a smooth transition works much better.

👉 Indoor Plants

When bringing plants inside, give them a good rinse to remove dust and bugs, and flush the soil to wash out salts from summer fertilizing. Keep them separate from your houseplants for a week to make sure no pests come along. Expect some leaf drop – it is normal as they adjust to lower light. Give them bright light near a window, and cut watering by about half until spring. Avoid misting too much; good airflow matters more than humidity during winter.

Many tropicals, like hibiscus, brugmansia, and crotons, may look tired for a while, but they will bounce back quickly once days get longer.

👉 Timing Is Everything

The key is to prepare before the first cold warning. Check your weather app regularly once nights start dropping into the 50s. Keep covers, mulch, and supplies ready so you are not running outside at midnight with a flashlight and a frozen hose. Have your frost cloths labeled by plant group and stored in an easy spot. A little organization now saves a lot of stress later.

Many tropicals, like hibiscus, brugmansia, and crotons, may look tired for a while, but they will bounce back quickly once days get longer.

Remember: the goal is to help your plants rest safely. Many gardeners prune or fertilize too late in the season – we will talk about why that can be risky next week." — says Tatiana Anderson, Top Tropicals Plant Expert

Coming next mail-list: The best gadgets for cold protection (lights, heaters, frost covers) and what NOT to do in winter.

📚 Learn more from Top Tropicals Blog:

Cold protection - winter action for your plant collection

What plants are good to order in Winter?

How to take care of house plants in Winter

How to protect tropical plants in Winter

How to take care of a mango tree in winter

How to protect Avocado from cold

Overwintering Adeniums outside of tropics

Protecting Tropical Plants with Frost Covers at Top Tropicals Nursery

❄️Cold Night Survival Guide

Smokey and Sunshine Prepare Plants for the Cold Night.

Smokey: Come on, Sunshine, help me move these plants inside before it gets dark!
Sunshine: I am helping... see? I’m supervising the mango tree.
Smokey: You call that supervising? The frost cloth’s upside down!

When the forecast drops into the 30s, panic is not a plan. This is your simple, clear checklist to protect every tropical in your garden. Think of it as the quick emergency manual that goes hand in hand with the previous cold-weather newsletter.

"We all love our tropical flowers, mangoes, bananas, and rare fruit trees. A single cold night does not have to be a disaster. The key is knowing what to do, when to do it, and what mistakes to avoid." - Tatiana Anderson, Top Tropicals Plant Expert

🌡️ FROST AND FREEZE

A frost and a freeze are not the same. A frost is when you see ice crystals on leaves or grass, while a freeze is when the air temperature drops below 32 F. The tricky part is that you can get frost even when the air is above freezing, and you can have a freeze with no frost at all. It all depends on humidity and the dew point. If the dew point is below freezing, the ground can cool faster than the air, letting frost form even when your thermometer reads 35 or 36 F. And once the air itself drops below 32 F, even for an hour, tender tropicals can be damaged. For plants, a freeze is far more dangerous, because freezing air pulls heat out of stems, branches, and roots. Frost usually burns leaves, but a true freeze can injure wood, kill buds, and damage the entire plant.

Frost on the grass and leaves on Winter morning in Central Florida

WHAT TO DO AND NOT TO DO BEFORE A COLD SNAP

✔️ 5 THINGS TO DO:

1. Water well. Hydrated plants tolerate cold better than dry, stressed ones.
2. Add mulch. A thick layer around the base keeps roots warm.
3. Block the wind. Move pots to a sheltered corner or patio.
4. Cover at night, uncover in the morning. Let plants breathe and get light.
5. Add gentle heat if needed. Non-LED Christmas lights or a small old style 15-20W light can raise temps a few degrees.

❌ 5 THINGS NOT TO DO:

1. Do not prune or trim. Fresh cuts freeze first.
2. Do not overwater. Wet, cold soil invites root rot.
3. Do not let plants dry out either. Wilted plants freeze more easily.
4. Do not use dry fertilizer. Gentle liquid feeds like Sunshine Boosters are safe to use with every watering: its intake naturally slows down as watering decreases.
5. Do not look only at the thermometer. A long, windy night can be worse than a short freeze.

TEMPERATURE ACTION GUIDE (40 to 25 F)

• 40 to 38 F: Move potted plants to shelter, water soil, and cover tender tropicals.
• 37 to 33 F: Use frost cloth and anchor it down so the wind does not lift it.
• 32 to 30 F: Add a heat source like non-LED lights.
• 29 to 25 F: Double-cover sensitive plants, wrap trunks, and protect roots heavily.

COLD TOLERANCE BY PLANT TYPE

Before a cold night, it really helps to know your plant’s exact cold limits. Every species is different, and young plants are always more sensitive than mature ones. Take a few minutes to look up your varieties in our Tropical Plants Encyclopedia — it will tell you the safe temperature range, how much protection each plant needs, and which ones must be covered or moved before the next cold snap hits.

• Bananas: leaf burn below 37 F
• Mango, Annona: hurt around 32 F
• Cold hardy avocados: Mature tree can take about 25 F. Young trees must be protected
• Olives, Citrus, Guava, Jaboticaba: usually OK outside with mulch

QUICK-ACTION TABLE

Before the cold arrives, make yourself a quick list of every plant and what action each one needs. It saves time when temperatures start dropping and keeps you from scrambling in the dark. Check that you have enough frost cloth, blankets, and supplies on hand so you can cover everything without rushing. Planning ahead makes cold nights much less stressful.

• Bring Indoors: Cacao, Bilimbi, Coffee. They need warm, bright light.
• Cover Outdoors: Mango, Jackfruit, Banana, Annona. Use frost cloth, not plastic on leaves.
• Leave Outside: Eugenias, Peaches, Persimmons, Longan, Lychee, Papaya, Citrus, Loquat, Hardy Avocado. Add mulch and monitor overnight lows.

🛒 Check out cold tolerant tropicals

Covering large mango and avocado trees in pots at TopTropicals during cold nights

GADGETS AND TOOLS THAT HELP

• Indoor helpers: LED lights, small heaters, bottom-heat mats, timers.
• Outdoor helpers: frost cloth rolls, mini greenhouses, non-LED Christmas lights or small incandescent lights, smart thermometers.

Always keep electrical safety in mind, especially if you are using extension cords outdoors. Use only weather-rated cords, keep all connections off the ground, and protect plugs from moisture. Make sure heaters and lights are stable, secured, and never touching fabric covers. A few minutes of safety check can prevent a dangerous situation on a cold, wet night.

And if you want to keep plants strong through winter, add Sunshine Boosters to your watering routine. It is gentle, safe in cold weather, and gives plants an extra edge.

AFTER THE COLD PASSES

In the morning, uncover plants. Leaving covers on during the day can trap heat and cook the tender new growth, especially under the sun. The only exception is true frost cloth designed for all-day use, which allows air, light, and moisture to pass through. Regular blankets, sheets, and plastic must come off as soon as the sun rises.

Do not cut anything yet. A plant can look completely dead after a freeze, but many branches are still alive under the bark. Cutting too soon removes wood that would recover on its own. Wait until new growth begins in spring. That is when you can see exactly which branches are truly dead.

Use the scratch test. Gently scratch the bark with your nail or a small knife. If the layer underneath is green, the branch is alive. If it is brown and dry, it is likely dead. But even then, wait until warm weather to be sure, because sometimes only the tips die back while the lower part of the branch survives.

Once the weather stabilizes, resume light feeding. Plants coming out of cold stress need gentle support, not heavy fertilizer. A mild liquid feed like Sunshine Boosters helps them rebuild roots and push new growth without burning tender tissue.

Dwarf Ceiba Pink Princess (Grafted) - a unique compact cultivar covered with pink flowers in Winter. Watch short video: How this breath-taking flowering tree stays so compact.

WHAT NOT TO DO

• Do not prune right after a freeze.
• Do not overwater cold soil.
• Do not fertilize heavily until spring.
• Do not leave covers on in full sun.

CLOSING THOUGHT

Your tropical garden can survive any cold night if you prepare right. Cold snaps always feel stressful in the moment, but once you know your plants, have the right supplies, and follow a simple plan, it becomes routine. A few minutes of preparation before dark can save months of growth and keep your collection healthy all winter.

Frost cloth is the true workhorse of cold protection: it keeps heat in, keeps frost off, and will not suffocate plants the way plastic or blankets can. Having a few rolls ready means you never have to scramble at the last minute. Sunshine Boosters give your plants gentle support during the colder months so they stay strong enough to bounce back quickly when warm weather returns.

A little planning now will pay off in spring, when your mango, banana, citrus, and all your favorite tropicals come back happy and ready to grow.

🛒 Shop Garden Supplies

Add Heat Pack to your plant order

How to protect tropical plants in Winter

Winter tips and podcast

Photo above: wrapping plants with frost cloth

Winter can be tough on plants, especially on tropical varieties. But with a little preparation, you can protect your garden and keep your plants safe from the cold. Here's how:

Winter Care Tips for Tropical Plants

Cut watering: Reduce watering to prevent root rot. Cold + wet = dead roots.
Water before frost: Thirsty plants are more vulnerable. Water them before a cold night to prevent damage.
Wind protection: Wind is more harmful than temperature drops. Plant near structures like houses or trees for shelter.
Prepare for long cold periods: If cold weather lasts for hours, use all available protection, including Christmas lights and propane heaters.
Don't use dry fertilizer in winter: Heavy fertilizing encourages tender growth, which is more susceptible to cold damage. Sunshine Boosters liquid fertilizers are safe to use year around as their intake is controlled by reduced watering.
Use fabric covers, not plastic: Plastic can cook plants in the sun, while fabric allows better ventilation.

Photo above: we cover our plants in the nursery with a thin synthetic fabric (sintepon) called "frost cloth" or "strawberry cloth". It is light, breathable and allows light and water to go through unlike plastic that creates heavy water pockets.

Prepare for Cold Nights

Wrap plants: On cold nights, cover individual plants or trees with sheets or blankets to shield them from wind chill.
Use Christmas lights: A simple string of lights can add extra warmth, protecting your plants during frosty nights.
Use propane heaters: For added warmth in a larger area, place a propane heater near your plants. Make sure to follow safety guidelines and keep the heater at a safe distance from flammable materials. This can help maintain a few extra degrees of warmth, especially in more open garden spaces or temporary greenhouses. Always ensure proper ventilation to avoid harmful gas buildup.

Photo above: we use both propane and kerosene heaters at the nursery

Large Collections? Build a Temporary Greenhouse

Affordable winter greenhouse: For large plant collections, you don't need an expensive greenhouse. A mobile carport with plastic or fabric covering, costing around $200, can house up to 100 plants!

Photo above: Temporary wrapping around plant collection with a plastic or frost cloth protects from a windchill. It may also win you a few degrees even without a heater. In this particular case, according to our temp sensors, with 30F outside, it was 41F inside this "dome", no heaters used.

Southern Exposure and Garage Storage

Southern windowsills: Compact tropicals can thrive on southern-facing windowsills, getting plenty of sunlight during the day.
Move plants inside: If you have larger collections, move them into a well-lit garage for the colder nights or longer periods.

Photo above: using Christmas lights around plants while wrapping with frost cloth.

Key Factors for Survival

Cold duration: Tropical plants can survive brief cold spells but long durations, even above freezing, can be deadly.
Wind-chill: Wind chill can be harsher than the temperature itself.
Exposure: Southern-facing slopes hold heat longer, making them ideal for your plants.
Humidity: Proximity to lakes or oceans can create a milder micro-climate.
Gradual temperature Drops are safer. Plants adjust better to slow temperature changes than sudden cold blasts. Gradual cooling allows plants to prepare, reducing the risk of damage.

Strengthen Plant Hardiness

Health and maturity: Well-established, healthy plants are more cold-hardy.
Boost plant immunity: Use products like SUNSHINE-Epi to improve cold resistance. Apply it before and during cold snaps to protect your plants.
Healthy plant is hardy. Make sure to fertilize your plants on regular basis - healthier and stronger plants are more cold hardy.

With these steps, you can protect your plants and help them survive the winter months. Stay warm and keep your garden thriving!

Podcast with Horticulturist Mark Hooten:
How to Protect Tropical Plants in Winter

👻 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

👉 Collect Tacca plants:

Black - Tacca chantrieri

White - Tacca nivea

Green - Tacca leontopetaloides

Cold protection for tropical plants

Pushing the limits of tropical gardening

The year is almost over but the winter is not. This Christmas weekend at our Sebring B-farm we had it down to 30F. As a tropical gardener, winter can be challenging, especially if you grow plants outside of tropical zones.

To protect your garden from the cold, consider the following:

1. Monitor freeze watches and be prepared to take action if necessary.
2. Create temporary structures like mini-greenhouses using PVC pipes, carport frames, or bamboo sticks to support covers.
3. Use covers such as frost cloth, cardboard boxes, blankets, and bed sheets.
4. Use Christmas lights and other heating elements, including propane heaters, to keep plants warm.
5. Add a layer of heavy mulch around plant trunks to protect them from the cold.
6. Apply plant boosters that improve cold hardiness, such as Sunshine Epi, Sunshine-Si, and Sunshine Superfood.

At TopTropicals B-Farm, we sprayed our plants with a special cold hardiness treatment Sunshine-Si and covered and wrapped everything we could. We also moved cold sensitive species inside greenhouses. All of our plants are looking great and happy!

Photo above: Mulching mango trunks and using Christmas lights for cold protection

Read more about this special treatment plan: Cold Hardiness Improvement Kit.

Photo above: Temporary wrapping of a section of a greenhouse with a plastic or frost cloth protects from a windchill. It may also win you a few degrees even without a heater. In this particular case, according to our temp sensors, it was 30F outside, and 41F inside this "dome", no heaters used.

Sunshine Boosters:

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☀️ When tropical plant takes a Summer break

Why your plants might stop growing in mid-Summer
and what to do about it

Q: Why some tropical plants stop growing when it gets too hot? Aren't they supposed to like the heat? Should I use more fertilizer during hot Summer?

You've been watching your tropical tree thrive all spring. New leaves, steady growth, maybe even a flower or two. Then July hits, and… nothing. The heat cranks up, and your once-busy plant just sits there. No new shoots, no blooms, not even a twitch. If it feels like your plant ghosted you - but don't worry! It's not dying. It's just hot!

Q: What happens to tropical plants when it gets extremely hot?

When the heat hits, plants hit pause. In the peak of summer, especially with temperatures above 90F, many tropical and subtropical plants go into heat survival mode. Growth above ground may slow down or stop entirely. It's not because you forgot to water or skipped a fertilizer dose - it's just too hot. The plant's energy shifts underground, where roots may still be growing. Think of it like a tropical version of a siesta - less margarita, more mulch. This stage might last a few weeks or longer, depending on how intense the heat gets. But the important thing is: it's normal.

Q: What NOT to do?

• Don't drown it in extra water. That leads to root rot.
• Don't dump dry fertilizer on it. That can burn the roots or just get flushed away. Use controlled release or liquid fertilizer dozed proportionaly to the plant's water usage.
• Don't prune aggressively, hoping to jolt it awake.

None of that helps - in fact, it can make things worse.

Q: What you CAN do?

• Water deeply in the early morning, and let the soil dry a bit between waterings.
• Add mulch to help keep the root zone cool and reduce evaporation.
• Provide temporary shade for potted plants or young trees.
• Hold off on pruning or heavy feeding until you see new growth.

Just like you wouldn't run a marathon in a heatwave, your plant needs a break too.

Q: Why you shouldn't fertilize stressed plants with dry fertilizer?

Fertilizing seems like the obvious solution when a plant stalls, but in the heat of summer, it can backfire. When temperatures soar, roots slow down, and absorption becomes inefficient. You might pour in nutrients, but your plant can't use them - and what's worse, any tender new growth that does emerge can get scorched or sunburned before it has a chance to harden.

Feeding a plant with strong fertilizers during a heatwave is like telling someone to sprint in a sauna. It's not just unhelpful - it's risky. That's why you need a fertilizer that’s engineered for hot weather - not just any slow-release formula.

Liquid Sunshine Boosters mild formulas are safe to use year around. Controlled release fertilizer like Green Magic are safe as well, just make sure to follow directions and dosage.

Q: Why Green Magic fertilizer works in heat better that Osmocote?

Not all slow-release fertilizers are built for hot summer. Some popular brands might seem like a good choice - but they’re optimized for soil temperatures around 70-75F. That's a mild Spring day in the South, but in real-world Florida or Arizona heat? Not even close.

Here's the problem: Osmocote releases nutrients based on moisture, not temperature. When it's hot and humid - or worse, when you water heavily - it can dump too many nutrients at once. That nutrient surge can:

• Burn your plant's roots
• Force tender new growth that gets fried in the heat
• Leach straight out of the pot, wasting both fertilizer and money

It's unpredictable, especially in containers that heat up faster than ground soil. What you think is "slow-release" can behave more like a fertilizer bomb.

Green-Magic, by contrast, uses a temperature-sensitive polyurethane coating that responds gradually and consistently as the soil warms. That means:

• No sudden nutrient spikes
• No wasted runoff
• And no risk of heat-triggered burn

It's designed to feed steadily and predictably - even when temps hit 90F and stay there. For potted tropical plants, that kind of control is the difference between stressed and thriving.

Q: How does Sunshine Boosters help with daily plant recovery in summer?

Once your plant begins to show signs of life again - maybe a new bud, or evening perkiness - it's safe to resume feeding. But skip the salts, and reach for something gentler: Sunshine Boosters.

These amino-acid based liquid fertilizers are designed for daily use, even in containers during the hottest days. They enhance nutrient uptake, even when roots are stressed or sluggish. Unlike synthetic chelators like EDTA, Sunshine Boosters won't bind nutrients or burn root system. They stay gentle, available, and effective. Learn more from this short video.

Use SUNSHINE Robusta for foliage support, or Ca-Support PRO for strong structure and recovery. It's like hydration and nutrition in one - perfect for tropical plants fighting through summer heat.

When Bigger means Better

Everybody loves shopping online nowadays, and plants are no exception. Buying plants by mail order is not uncommon anymore; it only takes one click, and luckily, there are many sources - from big shopping malls like Amazon to small backyard nurseries that sell their seedlings on eBay or Facebook - all delivered to your door. But plants are alive... So when doing your online plant shopping, you must ensure that you fully enjoy your experience and are happy with a healthy plant that a) doesn't die; b) recovers quickly; and c) starts growing fast, so you can see flowers and fruit as soon as possible.

The rule of thumb for shipping plants: bigger plants undergo shipping better, experience less stress, less leaf drop, and recover quicker than plants with smaller root systems. So when it comes to buying plants online, the bigger, the better. Unfortunately, many mail-order plant sources may sell you a tiny twig that has very few chances of surviving. Shipping is very expensive today, so shipping a bigger size plant may cost more than the plant itself.

Below is a piece of advice on how to make the best plant selection for your garden...

Photo above: Loquat trees in 3 gal containers.

5 important rules on how to buy trees online

1. Find a source with bigger plants. Check reviews, ask friends for recommendations, inquire from the company about the size of their plants and how they pack their plants for shipping.
TopTropicals offers well-established, strong plants with developed root system, in container sizes 1, 3, 7, 15 gallon, directly from a tropical Florida growing farm. Our unique plant-packing techniques are state of the art!

2. Price not always reflects the size and quality of the plant
TopTropicals offers many deals, discounts and sales, while still providing the biggest and strongest plants grown in real tropical conditions.

3. Most fruit trees must be grafted to produce good fruit. Make sure you are not purchasing a seedling when it comes to Mango, Avocado, Peaches and some other trees with named varieties that don't come true to seed.
TopTropicals offers only grafted - Mango, Avocado and a large number of other tropical cultivars.

4. Pick up when possible from the nursery your ordered from, or get a delivery, instead of shipping the plants. A drive to the nursery will save you more time and money in the future, plus you can hand-pick the biggest and healthiest specimens.
TopTropicals is open 7 days a week for your convenience. Visit our Ft Myers Garden Center or Sebring Farm to select the biggest plants.

5. Take advantage of X-Large size plant material if you live outside the tropical zone and are trying to zone-push your tropical garden. Bigger plants will establish faster and have more chances to survive cold winters. Again, it will save you money in a long run (although bigger plants may be more expensive, but their survival rate is much higher when it comes to cold nights).
TopTropicals offers X-Large flowering and fruiting trees (7-15-25 gallons), and most of the varieties you see in our online store can be custom-ordered in big sizes. Delivery and installation available.

Photo above: Avocado trees in 7 gal containers.

Photo above: Magnolia champaca - Joy Perfume Tree in 25 gal container.