Garden Blog - Top Tropicals
Date: 26 Sep 2026
Daily Cat Lesson: Whats Inside That Cat Smile?
🐾 Daily Cat Lesson: What's Inside That Cat Smile?
- 🐾 How Many Teeth Does a Cat Have?
Adult cats have 30 teeth:
• 12 incisors: 6 tiny front teeth on top + 6 on the bottom. Used for nibbling, grooming, and delicate picking.
• 4 canines: the four big fangs for grabbing and puncturing prey.
• 10 premolars: 6 upper + 4 lower. Sharp teeth used mainly for cutting and shearing food.
• 4 molars: 2 upper + 2 lower, also primarily for slicing rather than grinding. - 🐾 Those big fangs are called canines.
They're designed for grabbing and holding prey. The smaller incisors between them help with delicate jobs - including grooming and nibbling things from the fur.
🐾 Kittens are born completely toothless.
Their 26 baby teeth start appearing at around 2–3 weeks old.
At about 3–4 months, those baby teeth begin falling out and 30 permanent teeth take their place.
🐾 Do kittens teethe like human babies?
They do! Their gums can be tender and uncomfortable, and many kittens develop a strong desire to chew things while their permanent teeth are erupting. Toys, cardboard, furniture, fingers, electrical cords - everything becomes a potential teething device.
💡Fun fact: owners often never find the lost baby teeth. Kittens frequently swallow them while eating, which is harmless.
By about 6-7 months, the transformation is complete:
From toothless potato to fully equipped miniature predator.
- 🐾 Cats don't really chew like we do.
Their sharp back teeth work more like scissors, slicing meat into pieces that can be swallowed. Their jaws are much better at moving up and down than grinding side to side. - 🐾 Cats can get cavities - but rarely.
The bigger dental problems are usually plaque and tartar, gum disease, broken teeth and tooth resorption, a painful condition in which the tooth structure begins to break down. - 🐾 Cats are very good at hiding dental pain.
Bad breath, drooling, dropping food, chewing on one side, pawing at the mouth or suddenly preferring softer food can be clues.
😸 Best prevention?
Regular dental checks and, if your cat permits such outrageous human interference, brushing with cat-safe toothpaste. Never use human toothpaste.
💡 One final fact:
Those impressive fangs belong to an animal who may still need you to open his pâté for him.
🐈📸Pelmen the Sphynx cat - a friend of TopTropicals PeopleCats.Garden.
🐈 Stay with us for your Daily Dose of Cat! #DailyCatLesson #PeopleCats
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Date: 26 Sep 2026
The Tree That Stinks and Flies: Shitwood
💩 The Tree That Stinks and Flies: Shitwood Gyrocarpus
Some plants attract you with perfume.
This one went in a completely different direction.
Gyrocarpus americanus has collected an impressive assortment of names: Helicopter Tree, Propeller Tree, Whirly Whirly Tree, Stinkwood - and, yes, Shitwood!
Our plant came from Thailand. And long before it flowers, you understand the name. Rub or crush a leaf and you'll notice a very distinctive smell. Not exactly jasmine.
🚁 A tree with its own helicopters
The name Gyrocarpus comes from Greek words referring to turning or rotating fruit.
Its woody fruits develop two long wings. When they fall, they spin like tiny helicopters, slowing their descent and helping the wind carry them away.
Across several Pacific islands, children traditionally tossed the fruits into the air just to watch them whirl back down. The original flying toy!
It may fly like a maple seed, but Gyrocarpus isn't related to maples at all - nature invented the helicopter more than once. Maple fruits are true samaras, while Gyrocarpus produces a pseudo-samara, with its propeller wings formed from persistent flower parts.
🚁 From Thailand to almost everywhere
Despite the name americanus, this isn't simply an American tree. Its enormous natural range stretches through tropical Africa, India and Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia - including Thailand - northern Australia and Pacific islands, as well as parts of Central and South America.
In Thailand it has local names including puu le and sao.
Older references may list it as Gyrocarpus asiaticus or Gyrocarpus jacquinii. Today these are generally treated under the accepted name Gyrocarpus americanus.
🚁 An ancient useful tree
Its history goes far beyond being a botanical oddity.
The wood is very light and easy to work. Aboriginal peoples in Australia traditionally carved it into coolamons - wooden vessels for carrying food, water and other materials. Gyrocarpus even appears in Indigenous Dreaming traditions, where a tree can represent an ancestral coolamon.
Elsewhere in the Pacific, its lightweight wood was used for canoes and traditional objects.
Not bad for a tree called Shitwood!
🚁 And then there's that smell
You don't have to wait for flowers.
Our young plants haven't bloomed yet, but the leaves themselves already have a strong, distinctive odor when handled or crushed. Historical Pacific descriptions even compare the foliage smell to garlic. Mature flowers reportedly add their own strong scent.
Stinkwood, apparently, earned its name.
🚁 A giant tree that makes a great bonsai
In nature, Gyrocarpus americanus can eventually become a substantial deciduous tree. But young plants have another talent:
They make fantastic bonsai.
The smooth pale trunk develops character quickly, with open architectural branching and unusual lobed leaves. With pruning and shaping, even a young plant can look like a strange miniature ancient tree.
And this isn't just another pretty bonsai.
It's a tree from Thailand with smelly leaves, ancient cultural history, lightweight wood once used for vessels and canoes - and fruits that fly like helicopters.
Weird name. Weird smell. Flying seeds. Great bonsai.
What more could a plant collector ask for?
🛒 I Need This Weird Tree!
📚 Learn more
· Gyrocarpus americanus in Plant Encyclopedia
· Green in July, Variegated in January: Red-Stem Serissa
· Gout Plant - the Ultimate Natural Bonsai
· Coral-blooming bonsai with a bottle-shaped trunk - perfect container plant
· Why in Thailand Wrightia religiosa is near all temples and homes
· Surprising Miniature Gardenia
· The crown of thorns with no thorns!
· How to make bonsai with Shaving Brush Tree
· Half-n-Half Parrot's Beak
· Ponytail Palm - The Quirky Plant with a Big Personality
· How to grow Bougainvillea bonsai
· Adog poo is a beauty from Argentina
#Container_Garden #Discover #Trees
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Date: 25 Sep 2026
Daily Cat Lesson: Why Does One Cat Always Start the Fight?
🐾 Daily Cat Lesson: Why Does One Cat Always Start the Fight?
Every multi-cat household seems to have one. At ours, it's Klaksa.
🐾 Professional troublemaker.
The funny thing is, Klaksa is also extremely social. She doesn't want to sleep alone. She doesn't want to play alone. She always needs another cat to cling to. One minute she's hugging you, the next minute...
WHAP! Apparently affection has become combat.
🐾 Why are some cats always starting something?
Cats have very different personalities and social needs. A highly social, energetic cat may constantly seek interaction - and that interaction isn't always cuddling. Chasing, wrestling, pouncing and annoying a sleeping roommate can all be attempts to start play or get attention.
Boredom and excess energy can make the resident troublemaker even more creative.
🐾 And then there's Macaron.
He's the opposite. Independent. Self-sufficient. Sleeps alone. Spends time alone. Possibly writes poetry when nobody is watching. He generally tolerates Klaksa's nonsense with impressive patience.
But even patient cats have boundaries.
💡Cats usually give signals before escalating: turning away, leaving, tail flicking, ears shifting back, growling or a warning swat.
If the pest doesn't take the hint... patience eventually expires. 😼
And today our philosopher has an additional reason to demand some peace:
🎂 Happy 6th Birthday, Macaron! 🎈🎊
May your birthday be filled with naps, treats, quiet contemplation...
and significantly less Klaksa.
🐈📸 Top Tropicals rescued cats Macaron and Klaksa at PeopleCats.Garden.
🐈 Stay with us for your Daily Dose of Cat! #DailyCatLesson #PeopleCats
🟢 Join 👉 TopTropicals
Date: 25 Sep 2026
6 Best Thai and Southeast Asian Mango Varieties
🥭 6 Best Thai and Southeast Asian Mango Varieties
If you like mangoes that are sweet, smooth, aromatic and usually low in fiber, explore the varieties from Thailand and Southeast Asia.
💡Big difference: some Asian mangoes are excellent before they are fully ripe. They can be eaten crisp and green as well as soft and sweet.
🥭 Nam Doc Mai
One of Thailand's most famous dessert mangoes. The fruit is elongated, with smooth, nearly fiberless flesh and intense sweetness when ripe.
👌Flavor: very sweet, smooth, floral and aromatic.
- 🥭 Maha Chanok
Maha Chanok (sometimes spelled Maha Chinook) is as beautiful as it is good to eat. The long, curved fruit can develop gorgeous yellow, orange, pink and red color. Inside, the flesh is sweet, juicy and fiberless with a pleasant complex aroma.
👌Flavor: sweet, juicy, aromatic and complex. - 🥭 Keo Savoy
A classic Thai mango especially prized for eating green. The firm, crunchy flesh has a pleasant sweetness even before the fruit fully ripens. It can also be allowed to ripen for a softer, sweeter mango.
👌Flavor: crisp and mildly sweet when green, sweeter when ripe.
🥭 Pim Sen Mun
Another excellent dual-purpose Thai mango. Pim Sen Mun can be enjoyed green and crunchy or allowed to ripen. It is a great choice if you like mangoes at different stages rather than only fully soft fruit.
👌Flavor: crisp, refreshing and sweet, becoming richer as it ripens.
🥭 Fralan
Fralan is particularly valued as a green-eating mango. The immature fruit is crunchy and pleasant to eat, making it very different from the soft dessert mangoes most Americans are accustomed to.
👌 Flavor: crisp, mildly sweet and refreshing when green.
🥭 Mun Kun Si
Mun Kun Si is a Thai mango prized for eating while still firm. The flesh stays crisp and crunchy, with a pleasant sweetness rather than the sharp sourness people often expect from an unripe mango. It can also be allowed to ripen, when it becomes softer and sweeter.
👌Flavor: crunchy, sweet and refreshing when green; sweeter and softer when ripe.
✅ Which one should you choose?
✓ For a classic sweet Thai dessert mango, choose Nam Doc Mai.
✓ For beautiful fruit and excellent dessert quality, try Maha Chanok.
✓ For mangoes that are especially good crunchy and green, look at Keo Savoy, Mun Kun Si or Fralan.
✓ And for a mango you can enjoy both green and ripe, try Pim Sen Mun.
Don't judge all mangoes by the same rule. With many Southeast Asian varieties, waiting until the fruit becomes completely soft isn't always the goal. Sometimes the best time to eat a mango is while it still crunches.
🛒 Shop Thai & Southeast Asian mangoes
📚 Learn more:
Mango Tree - Mangifera indica - in Plant Encyclopedia
5 Best Indian Mango Varieties and Their Flavors
5 Best Dwarf Mango Trees for Small Yards
5 Best Mango Trees for Beginners
Top 10 Dwarf "Condo" Mango, great for container culture
Top 5 recommended vigorous Mango tree varieties, reliable producers
Top 5 Favorite Mango we just love
10 steps how to grow a mango tree
#Mango_Rainbow - varieties you should try
#Food_Forest #How_to #Discover #Mango
Date: 24 Sep 2026
HANGING LOBSTER CLAW: LEAVES IN DISGUISE
By Tatiana Anderson, Plant Expert, Top Tropicals
Smokey: Sunshine... that's the plant, for cat's sake.
Sunshine: Yes. Very fresh. I brought donuts too. Just in case.
Smokey: Of course you did. Fine. Give me your damn donuts.
Heliconia rostrata hangs a long chain of bright red "lobster claws," each tipped in yellow with a touch of green. They zigzag down the stem like a string of ornaments, and the first time you see one, it's hard to believe it's real.
It's real, and the strangest thing about it is what those claws turn out to be.
WHAT ARE THE LOBSTER CLAWS?
They look like flowers, but they're bracts. A bract is a modified leaf that's taken on a different job. On Lobster Claw, that job is protecting the flowers and putting on the show.
The true flowers are much smaller and emerge from inside the bracts. If you want to call the claws fake flowers, go ahead. Just know the real ones are in there.
Think of the bracts as the gift wrap and the flowers as the gift. Here, the wrapping gets all the attention.
HOW THE BRACTS WORK
The bracts are folded like canoes and overlap one another. Those folds can hold a bit of rainwater, along with plant secretions and organic debris.
The botanical term for water held inside a plant is phytotelmata, from the Greek words for "plant" and "pond." Rain pooling in the center of a bromeliad is a familiar example.
In the tropics, these pockets can give tiny organisms shelter and moisture. Researchers studying Heliconia rostrata in Ecuador collected 280 invertebrates (small animals without a backbone) from the bracts during one week of sampling. That was a field study, so don't read it as a count for garden plants. Still, a plant grown for its looks has a small ecological role too.
📚 The Lobster Claw's Secret Water Tank
THE ODD PART: IT HANGS UPSIDE DOWN
Many Heliconia species hold their bracts upright, like open cups. Heliconia rostrata hangs its inflorescence (the whole flowering stem, bracts and all) downward.
You'd expect anything inside to drain right out. Even so, the overlapping bracts can hold a little moisture in their protected folds.
WHY GARDENERS LOVE LOBSTER CLAW
Lobster Claw is one of the most recognizable tropical ornamentals, and its hanging red, yellow, and green display draws the eye from across the yard.
Red and green sit on opposite sides of the color wheel, so each makes the other look brighter. Put a clump at the edge of a lawn or in front of a hedge, and the green around it looks more vivid.
Mature plants can reach around 7 feet tall and fill out with large, banana-like leaves. The claws last a long time on the plant, and they make excellent cut flowers.
In warm climates, plant it in the ground. Farther north, grow it in a big pot. Lobster Claw blooms very well in containers - even a 3- to 7-gallon pot can support an impressive flowering plant.
LOBSTER CLAW IN 30 SECONDS
Botanical name: Heliconia rostrata
Common names: Hanging Lobster Claw, Lobster Claw, Parrot's Beak
Height: up to about 7 feet
Growth habit: rhizomatous clump, usually 3–4 feet wide, gradually spreading to 5 feet or more over the years
Bloom season: late spring through fall and into winter; in consistently warm tropical climates, flowering can occur year-round
Main attraction: long, hanging red-and-yellow bracts
GROWING HELICONIA ROSTRATA
Light: Lobster Claw likes a bright spot. Filtered light or partial sun suits it, and in some climates it takes more. Where the afternoon sun is harsh, a bit of shade usually helps, especially while the plant is still adjusting. At our Florida nursery, we grow ours under 30% shade cloth, where they get plenty of bright light without the full force of the sun all day.
Wind: Shelter it from whipping wind when you can. The big leaves tear, much like a banana's. Torn foliage doesn't mean the plant is unhealthy, but plants out of the wind usually look better.
Water: Keep the soil consistently moist but well drained. This isn't a swamp plant.
Soil: Rich, well-drained soil with plenty of organic matter.
IN THE GROUND: WARM CLIMATES
Spacing: Lobster Claw grows from rhizomes (thick underground stems) and spreads into a clump. Expect about 3-4 feet across, with older clumps eventually reaching 5 feet or more. Give it room from the beginning - we recommend keeping it at least 3-4 feet from walkways, walls and neighboring plants.
Cold: For a Heliconia, Lobster Claw is relatively cold tolerant. Under favorable conditions, established plants may survive brief dips into the high 20s F, though leaves and flowers can be damaged even if the plant pulls through. After our Feb 2026 Florida record freeze, we cut away the damaged foliage and our Lobster Claws came right back from the rhizomes. Within about a couple of months they were full-size again - and eventually grew even wider and more vigorous than the year before.
IN A POT: COLD CLIMATES
Container: Those rhizomes need room in a pot too, so use a large, sturdy container. A 7-gallon pot is a good practical size; move up to 15 gallons if you want a really impressive specimen. A small pot may keep the plant alive, but it isn't ideal if you want a big plant that flowers well. Don't let the soil dry out completely again and again while it's growing.
Height: In a good-size container, expect roughly 5-6 feet of growth. That's manageable for many protected patios, greenhouses and rooms with enough vertical space, but measure your doorway and ceiling before moving a mature plant indoors.
Bringing it in: Move it to a protected spot before freezing weather settles in. Lobster Claw may survive a brief light frost, but the foliage can be damaged. If you have the option, move a container indoors whenever freezing temperatures are forecast. Don't count on a dark garage to get it through the winter. It still prefers light, although the rhizomes can be allowed to rest more or less dormant with reduced water and light if necessary.
Indoor care: Give it the brightest, roomiest spot you have and reduce watering as growth slows. Heliconia likes humidity, but it can tolerate dry indoor air for a limited time. Don't panic if some leaves develop dry edges, yellow or simply look less beautiful indoors. The goal is to get the plant comfortably through winter, not to make January look like Costa Rica.
Next summer: Move it back outside once nights are reliably above about 50F. Reintroduce it to stronger light gradually to avoid scorching the leaves. With warmth, water and feeding, the rhizomes should resume vigorous growth and can flower again.
📚 How to Grow Massive, Exotic "Lobster Claw" Blooms Anywhere (Even in Pots!)
FEEDING: WHAT WE DO AT TOP TROPICALS
There's more than one good way to feed a Heliconia. We add a scoop of Green Magic controlled-release fertilizer every 6 months and use Sunshine Booster Megaflor, which is safe to apply with every watering year-round.
For plants spending winter indoors, the biggest change is water: as growth slows, reduce watering rather than keeping the pot constantly wet. Resume normal watering as warmth and active growth return.
❓ LOBSTER CLAW Q&A
When does it bloom?
Lobster Claw typically blooms from late spring through fall and into winter. In consistently warm tropical climates, it may flower at other times of year as well.
How soon will my plant bloom?
Our plants are mature, well-established and ready to bloom. With good growing conditions, you can normally expect flowers by the next growing season, whether planted in the ground or grown in a roomy container.
What size plant will I get?
Our Lobster Claws are grown in 1- to 3-gallon containers with well-developed root systems and rhizomes. Plants are typically around 2-3 feet tall and may actually grow larger at the nursery. Taller plants may be trimmed back for compact shipping - don't worry, Heliconia regrows quickly in warm weather.
What do I do after a stem finishes blooming?
Each Heliconia stem flowers only once. When the bloom is finished and the stem begins to dry, cut that stem. The underground rhizome will continue sending up fresh shoots, which mature and produce the next round of flowers.
Can I order now?
Yes. Fall is actually a great time to ship Lobster Claw. The worst
summer heat is over, and our plants have had an entire warm growing season
to
develop strong rhizomes and root systems.
In warm climates, you can plant them and let them continue establishing. In
colder climates, keep your plant protected indoors through winter, then move
it outside once nighttime temperatures stay above about 50F. You'll start
spring with an established plant ready to take off when the heat returns.
Can I eat it?
No. Don't take breakfast advice from Sunshine.
ONE FOR YOUR GARDEN
We grow Lobster Claw for the color. The strange biology is a bonus.
Next time you see one in bloom, take a closer look at how those claws are built. Better yet, plant one where you'll walk past it every day.
👉 Grow your own Lobster Claw📚 Lobster Claw in Top Tropicals Blog
📚 LEARN MORE:
📚Heliconia rostrata in plant encyclopedia
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