Project Ian

A letter from a gardener:
"We just want our paradise back!"

"...My name is Ian, and I am a 21 y/o Natural Resource Management student at South Dakota State University. In 2006, my family found a small barrier island lush with foliage and virtually untouched by the modern world, and we fell in love. Little Gasparilla Island became a piece of our family and now after 16 years, we still spend months out of each year enjoying the island's natural beauty.
Enter Hurricane Ian.
With the eye of the hurricane traveling directly over the island, many homes and materialistic items were destroyed, but more importantly, the once beautiful "jungle" is now more comparable to a barren desert.
This is where I was hoping to get some help... to restore the beauty of Little Gasparilla. After almost 3 weeks, neither the county nor FEMA has made it out to survey our island. And it is almost as if we feel forgotten. After fending for ourselves for clean-up, I am ready to get to work on landscaping. Plants are my passion and it pains me each day to wake up and see that 90% of our Australian and Norfolk Island Pines are completely gone, along with most foliage and palms.
We just want our paradise back, and many of us will work for it by any means necessary..."

We replied to Ian who suffered from Ian... We are willing to help his beautiful island, as well as everyone who is looking for help restoring our Florida beauty. Check out our deals and re-leaf discounts we send in our Newsletters. Remember to attend our Garden Festival on Nov 19, with some big discounts as well as free plants for after-Ian re-leaf!

We will make Florida beautiful again.
We will call it Project Ian!

This Fall Special:
Avocados and Champakas in large containers

The clean-up and restoration after Hurricane Ian continues for many of us across Florida and the Southeast. Some people In SW Florida lost their homes, and almost every home owner lost a tree or even the whole garden. TopTropicals is here to help. We started introducing special Re-Leaf offers to help local gardeners replace broken trees. When it's time to restore your garden, we have 15-25 gallon Avocado trees in many varieties and oversized Magnolia Champaca trees available for pick up at our Fort Myers Garden Center or B-Farm in Sebring.

These trees are 6-8 feet tall (some larger) and ready to bear fruit!

Please call or visit our Garden Center to select your own tree.

Delivery and installation available

Limited time offer!

Fertilizing in Fall:
Plants need food too!

Q: I know that I am not supposed to fertilize plants in winter. But I just bought several ground orchids from you, they are blooming now and I wonder if I can give them some food to support their bloom energy? When should I do the last application of fertilizer? I will keep them in a sun room during Winter until Spring.

A: Traditionally, end of October to November is the time when we give the last dose of fertilizer to our tropical plants. Liquid fertilizers, and especially amino-acid based Sunshine Boosters, are safe to apply year around. This means, you can continue feeding your plants with Sunshine Boosters through the Winter without risk of over-feeding or burning roots. Why?
The answer is very simple: even with their metabolism slowed down in Winter, plants will use all that food.
Sunshine Boosters have special mild formulas that are scientifically designed and based on Amino Acids. Plants will use all essential elements from the solution as needed.
Liquid fertilizer is diluted in water, and will be applied only when you water the plant. During Winter, water needs are lowered = watering times are less frequent, with less amount of water = the plants will get less water and less fertilizer accordingly.

Importance of micro elements
in combination with plant food during winter

In the photo: winter chlorosis on Kumquat leaves that is very hard to treat and should be prevented instead

Keep in mind that feeding your plants regularly during Winter will help to avoid "winter chlorosis" and other deficiency problems. So called "cool-temperature-induced chlorosis" (CTIC) is especially common in Spring on young, actively growing leaves. Unless chlorosis is prevented by micro-element applications, affected leaves may remain in this condition for the rest of the growing season.

Make sure to select proper type of fertilizer for your over-wintering plants. We have special formulas for foliage, flowering plants, fruit trees, young seedlings, even for for orchids and bromeliads. Check out our selection!