Garden Blog - Top Tropicals

Date:

Why all Floridians want Coffee Senna in their landscape and what it has to do with Coffee. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Why all Floridians want Coffee Senna in their landscape and what it has to do with Coffee

Cassia occidentalis - Coffee Senna, Fedegoso, Privet Cassia

Cassia occidentalis - Coffee Senna, Fedegoso, Privet Cassia

Cassia occidentalis - Coffee Senna, Fedegoso, Privet Cassia

Cassia occidentalis - Coffee Senna, Fedegoso, Privet Cassia

Cassia occidentalis - Coffee Senna, Fedegoso, Privet Cassia

Cassia occidentalis - Coffee Senna, Fedegoso, Privet Cassia

Cassia occidentalis - Coffee Senna, Fedegoso, Privet Cassia

Cassia occidentalis - Coffee Senna, Fedegoso, Privet Cassia

☀️ Why all Floridians want Coffee Senna in their landscape and what it has to do with Coffee
  • 🌼 Beauty without the hassle! Cassia occidentalis, commonly known as Coffee Senna, Fedegoso, or Privet Cassia, offers striking beauty and practical benefits, making it an excellent choice for low-maintenance landscapes and herbal medicinal garden.
  • 🌼 From spring to fall, this medium-sized shrub showcases clusters of orange-yellow flowers that look like little yellow hummingbirds from the distance and attract butterflies and bees.​ The large, red-veined leaves add ornamental value even when not in bloom.​
  • 🌼 Coffee Senna thrives in full sun to partial shade and is drought- and cold-tolerant once established. ​Requires minimal care, making it ideal for gardeners seeking beauty without the hassle.​ Its spreading habit can provide a natural hedge or privacy screen.​
  • 🌼 Coffee Senna gets its common name from the resemblance of its seeds to coffee beans. The seeds are dark and oval-shaped, much like coffee beans. Despite the name, the seeds are not related to the actual coffee plant (Coffea arabica). The "Senna" part of its name refers to its botanical Senna genus, which includes various species traditionally used for medicinal purposes.
  • 🌼 Health Benefits of Coffee Senna


Beyond its ornamental appeal, Coffee Senna has a history in traditional medicine:​
  • ✔️Digestive Aid: The seeds have mild laxative properties, aiding in constipation relief.​
  • ✔️Respiratory Support: Infusions of the root and dried flowers are used to treat gastrointestinal issues, colds, and flu .​
  • ✔️Skin Health: Poultices made from the roots and flowers are applied to treat skin disorders such as eczema .​
  • ✔️Nutritional Value: The seeds are rich in iron and other minerals, contributing to overall health .


🛒 Plant your own Coffee Senna

#Food_Forest #Butterfly_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits #Remedies #Discover

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

How to get a large, lush and fragrant bush in no time. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

How to get a large, lush and fragrant bush in no time

Clerodendrum bungei - Glory Bower, Cashmere bouquet

💐 How to get a large, lush and fragrant bush in no time
  • 💐 Looking for a fragrant, fast-growing shrub that adds beauty and privacy to your garden? Clerodendrum bungei - Glory Bower, Cashmere bouquet - is an excellent choice.​


    • Key Benefits:
  • 💐 Fragrant Blooms: Enjoy clusters of sweetly scented, pink flowers that attract butterflies and other pollinators. They open in terminal panicles up to six inches across.
  • 💐 Versatile Growth: Dark green leaves often tinged purple are up to 8 inches long. This plant can be grown as a compact shrub or allowed to spread. This plant is incredibly vigorous and fast-growing, spreading quickly through root suckers. If you don’t want it to take over your yard in just one season, make sure to plant it in a contained corner or a container.
  • 💐 Hardy and Resilient: Cashmere Bouquet is hardy to USDA Zones 8-10 and can tolerate light freezes, rejuvenating each spring. ​
  • 💐 Low Maintenance: It thrives in full sun to part shade and is drought-tolerant once established. ​Keep the soil moist during the growing season. ​Regular pruning helps maintain its shape and encourages more blooms. ​


🛒 Buy Clerodendrum bungei – Cashmere Bouquet

📚 More about Clerodendrums in previous posts:

#Hedges_with_benefits #Perfume_Plants #Container_Garden #Butterfly_Plants

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

Top irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Top irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven

Thunbergia mysorensis - Clock Vine

Thunbergia mysorensis - Clock Vine

Bignonia capreolata - Crossvine

Bignonia capreolata - Crossvine

Tecomaria capensis - Cape Honeysuckle

Tecomaria capensis - Cape Honeysuckle

Passiflora coccinea - Passion Flower

Passiflora coccinea - Passion Flower

Ipomoea - Prince Kuhio Vine

Ipomoea - Prince Kuhio Vine

Lonicera japonica - Japanese Honeysuckle

Lonicera japonica - Japanese Honeysuckle

Antigonon leptopus - Mexican Coral Vine

Antigonon leptopus - Mexican Coral Vine

Pyrostegia venusta - Flame Vine

Pyrostegia venusta - Flame Vine

🕊 Top irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven. Part 2.

Full list of Hummingbird favorite vines for the previous post ⤴️

Antigonon leptopus - Mexican Coral Vine 📸
Aristolochia - Dutchman's Pipe
Bignonia capreolata - Crossvine 📸
Camptosema - Dwarf Red Jade Vine
Chonemorpha fragrans - Frangipani Vine
Clerodendrums - Bleeding Heart and others
Clitoria ternatea - Butterfly Pea
Combretum aubletii - Monkey Brush Vine
Dipladenia (Mandevilla)
Faradaya splendida - Glory Vine
Gmelina philippensis - Parrot's Beak
Hiptage benghalensis - Helicopter Flower
Ipomoea - Prince Kuhio Vine 📸
Lonicera - Honeysuckle 📸
Mansoa alliacea - Garlic Vine
Pandorea jasminoides - Pandora Vine
Passiflora - Passion Flower 📸
Petrea volubilis - Queen's Wreath
Pyrostegia venusta - Flame Vine 📸
Quisqualis indica - Rangoon Creeper
Senecio confusus - Mexican Flame Vine
Solandra - Butter Cup
Stephanotis floribunda - Bridal Bouquet
Tecomanthe dendrophylla - New Guinea Creeper vine
Tecomaria capensis - Cape Honeysuckle 📸
Thunbergia - Sky Vine, Clock Vine 📸
Turn Your Garden Into a Hummingbird Paradise!

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants #How_to

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

Top Eight irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Top Eight irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven

vines for a hummingbird haven

vines for a hummingbird haven

🕊 Top Eight irresistible vines for a hummingbird haven. Part 1.

Below is the Hummingbird Haven Plan designed for continuous blooms, vertical interest, and year-round hummingbird attraction.

Centerpiece (Tall Structure / Arbor)
  • Thunbergia, especially Thunbergia mysorensis (Clock Vine). Provide strong overhead support for its hanging blooms. Let this showstopper trail over a sturdy pergola or arbor. Its long, red-and-yellow flowers will be your garden’s main hummingbird magnet.


    • Side Support (Trellis or Fence)
  • Bignonia capreolata (Crossvine) - A hardy, fast-growing native that clings to supports. Train it on a trellis for early-spring blooms that attract the season’s first hummingbirds.
  • Tecomaria (Cape Honeysuckle) - A vigorous, evergreen bloomer that loves full sun. Its bright red-orange tubular flowers draw hummingbirds throughout the year and are perfect for training along fences or trellises.


    • Mid-layer (Fence, Arch, or Large Pot Trellis)
  • Passiflora (especially vitifolia or coccinea). Needs full sun, rich soil, and regular water; prune to manage size and boost flowering. Let it twine near seating areas for bold red blooms and close-up hummingbird visits.


    • Ground-Level Accents
  • Ipomoea (including Prince Kuhio Vine) - Thrives in warm, frost-free zones with sun and moisture. Plant at the base of structures or in containers to sprawl or climb with vivid purple-pink blooms.
  • Lonicera (including L. sempervirens - Coral Honeysuckle) - Plant at the base of a trellis or fence, near the arbor. This cold-hardy native has red-orange or yellow tubular blooms from spring to fall and adds a delicate contrast to tropical textures.


    • Wild Touch / Quick Filler
  • Antigonon leptopus - Mexican Coral Vine - Loves sun and drains well; drought-tolerant but frost-sensitive. Great for fences and open trellises as a fast-growing, summer-to-fall bloomer buzzing with activity.
  • Pyrostegia venusta (Flame Vine) - Bursting in fiery orange, perfect for fences or pergolas. Plant along a back fence or side trellis where it can sprawl wide and fill empty space. Thrives in full sun, blooms in winter-spring, and complements vertical stars like Thunbergia and Passionflower.


📝 These vines feature tubular, nectar-rich blooms that hummingbirds adore.
Add a shallow birdbath or feeder nearby, and you'll have a full-service nectar station!

See full list of Hummingbird favorite vines in next post ⤵️

🛒Turn Your Garden Into a Hummingbird Paradise!

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants #How_to

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

How to add Music to your garden. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

How to add Music to your garden

Clerodendrum incisum - Musical Note, Morning Kiss

🎶 How to add Music to your garden
  • ♪ Clerodendrum incisum, also known as Musical Note or Morning Kiss, is a compact, low-maintenance plant with unusual, showy flowers that resemble musical notes, giving it its name.
  • ♪ It thrives in both full sun and shade, tolerates some drought, and attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, making it perfect for wildlife-friendly gardens. With blooms bursting everywhere, this plant creates a beautiful carpet of musical-note-shaped flowers around its base, offering a true symphony for your garden.


ℹ️ The unopened flowers resemble musical notes, giving the plant its name.

🛒 Get Musical Notes for your garden

📚 Learn more about Music Notes:

#Hedges_with_benefits #Butterfly_Plants

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

How to enhance your garden with hardy tropical: Fast Growing White Orchid Tree. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

How to enhance your garden with hardy tropical: Fast Growing White Orchid Tree

How to enhance your garden with hardy tropical: Fast Growing White Orchid Tree

  • 💮 Bauhinia alba (candida) - White Orchid Tree - is the most cold hardy of all bauhinias. It is a medium-sized, fast-growing tree with short trunk and spreading branches that provide excellent shade.

  • 💮 Abundant, fragrant white flowers adorned with subtle lemon-green markings, blooming from winter through spring and intermittently in summer.

  • 💮 Cold Hardy: Among the most frost-tolerant Bauhinias, thriving in temperatures as low as 26F. ​

  • 💮 Rapid Growth: Grows quickly, reaching heights of 15 to 30 feet, ideal for creating a lush, shaded area. ​

  • 💮 Attracts Pollinators: The large, showy flowers attract hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies, enhancing your garden's ecosystem.​

  • 💮 Low Maintenance: Drought-tolerant once established and thrives in well-drained soil with full sun exposure. ​


📚 Orchid trees from previous posts:

🛒 Enhance your garden with White Orchid Tree

#Hedges_with_benefits #Trees #Butterfly_Plants

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

How to enhance your garden with hardy tropical: Fast Growing White Orchid Tree. A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

How to enhance your garden with hardy tropical: Fast Growing White Orchid Tree

Bauhinia alba (candida) - White Orchid Tree

How to enhance your garden with hardy tropical: Fast Growing White Orchid Tree
  • 💮 Bauhinia alba (candida) - White Orchid Tree - is the most cold hardy of all bauhinias. It is a medium-sized, fast-growing tree with short trunk and spreading branches that provide excellent shade.
  • 💮 Abundant, fragrant white flowers adorned with subtle lemon-green markings, blooming from winter through spring and intermittently in summer.
  • 💮 Cold Hardy: Among the most frost-tolerant Bauhinias, thriving in temperatures as low as 26F. ​
  • 💮 Rapid Growth: Grows quickly, reaching heights of 15 to 30 feet, ideal for creating a lush, shaded area. ​
  • 💮 Attracts Pollinators: The large, showy flowers attract hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies, enhancing your garden's ecosystem.​
  • 💮 Low Maintenance: Drought-tolerant once established and thrives in well-drained soil with full sun exposure. ​


📚 Orchid trees from previous posts:

🛒 Enhance your garden with White Orchid Tree

#Hedges_with_benefits #Trees #Butterfly_Plants

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

This Jasmine Blooms 365 Days a Year - And It Smells Divine! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

This Jasmine Blooms 365 Days a Year - And It Smells Divine!

Jasminum dichotomum - Rose Bud Jasmine, Everblooming Jasmine

🗓 This Jasmine Blooms 365 Days a Year - And It Smells Divine!
  • 🌹 Looking for a jasmine that blooms nonstop and smells absolutely divine? Jasminum dichotomum, the rare Rose Bud Jasmine, also known as Everblooming Jasmine - has the fragrance that never quits!
  • 🌹 Dark rose-pink buds open into pure white, perfumed flowers - year-round!
  • 🌹 Glossy ornamental foliage creates the perfect contrast.
  • 🌹 Covers fences, trellises, or arches in one season!
  • 🌹 Cold-tolerant, fast-growing, and ridiculously easy to grow.
  • 🌹 This isn’t just another jasmine - it's a rare collector’s favorite that delivers nonstop fragrance.
  • 🌹 Who wouldn't want a jasmine that smells like heaven and flowers every day?


🛒 Snag Your Rose Bud Jasmine Now – Before It Sells Out!

📚 Lean more from previous posts:
What jasmine blooms year around?
Perfumed Rose Bud, but not a Rose?

#Perfume_Plants #Hedges_with_benefits

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

Top 3 Fastest-Growing Red-Leaf Bananas Add Bold Color to Your Garden! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

Top 3 Fastest-Growing Red-Leaf Bananas Add Bold Color to Your Garden!

Banana Red Leaf, Musa x sumatrana, and Blood Leaf, Musa x sumatrana Zebrina Rojo, and Bordelon, Red Striped

🚩 Top 3 Fastest-Growing Red-Leaf Bananas – Add Bold Color to Your Garden!

💅 Looking for instant tropical flair? These red-leaf bananas are among the fastest-growing and most eye-catching ornamentals you can grow. Perfect for pots, patios, or planting in the ground - they grow fast, look exotic, and bring bold color to your space. Best of all, they're low maintenance and cold-tolerant!
  • 🔥 Banana Red Leaf, Musa x sumatrana - Stunning maroon undersides and variegated green-and-red leaves. Compact in containers (3–5 ft) or dramatic in the ground (up to 8 ft). A true showpiece.
  • 🔥 Blood Leaf, Musa x sumatrana Zebrina Rojo - Rich burgundy splashes across green foliage, with small red fruit. Loves containers and adapts well to cooler zones.
  • 🔥 Bordelon, Red Striped - Hardy and tall (10–15 ft!), with striking red-striped foliage. A Louisiana native that flowers and fruits if protected in winter.


📚 More about ornamental Bananas:

🛒 Grow fast, grow bold – these sell out quickly!

#Discover #Hedges_with_benefits #Bananas

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals

Date:

The Most Fragrant Medicinal Herb You'll Ever Grow! A Top Tropicals Garden Blog post.

The Most Fragrant Medicinal Herb Youll Ever Grow!

Lippia alba - Poleo, Pitiona

❤️‍ The Most Fragrant Medicinal Herb You'll Ever Grow!
  • 🌱 Just brushing past it releases a wave of spicy, citrusy fragrance - Lippia alba, also known as Poleo or Pitiona, is an herb garden must-have. Fast-growing, drought-tough, flood-friendly, and practically indestructible - it thrives where other plants fail!
  • 🌱 HELTH BENEFITS OF POLEO - LIPPIA ALBA

  • 🌿 Crush a leaf - instantly uplifting aroma! Close relative of popular Lantana but with much better scent.
  • 🌿 Grows into a lush, dense groundcover with dainty pink blooms
  • 🌿 Used in traditional Oaxacan cooking - especially mole sauces
  • 🌿 Leaves and roots make teas and syrups for cough, anxiety, digestion, and more
  • 🌿 Known for sedative, antidepressant, and analgesic effects
  • 🌿 Each plant has a unique essential oil profile!


🌱 Whether you’re into healing herbs, culinary magic, or just want the best-smelling plant in your garden - this is it.

🛒 Bring Home Nature’s Most Fragrant Medicine!

📚 Learn more:
What is the most aromatic medicinal herb

#Food_Forest #Remedies #Discover #Hedges_with_benefits

🔴 Join 👉 TopTropicals
< Previous pageNext page >Most recent entryBlog table of contents