Creating Fairy Fun How to Create a Fairy Path Through Raised Tree Roots. All Good Fairies Welcome. Evil Fairies should go some place else. LOL! The Tropical Grower is sharing How to Create a Fairy Path Through Raised Tree Roots because who doesn’t need a little magic in their lives.  And what better place than your Garden or around your home, to let those creative juices flow and make something special.  Now, I cannot promise a fairy will use your path, but hoping is part of the fun.   Growing Tropical we are no strangers to exposed roots.  If they don’t grow close to ..read more

Use Rose Gloves How to Grow Bougainvillea Outside The Tropical Grower is featuring some of Our Gardens oldest plants this week in How to Grow Bougainvillea Outside.  If your Growing Tropical and want a hearty grower, leafy green all year with bursts of color most of it, Bougainvillea is gorgeous.  But, if you’re opposed to thorns, you should think twice about planting one.  They’re pokey. Bougainvillea is a lovely trickster with shape-shifting abilities, growing as a vine, tree, or bush.  You can literally find it everywhere where we live, but most especially around the Old ..read more

Water Lilies Are Gorgeous How to Grow Water Lilies At Home The Tropical Grower is showing off our lovely Water Lilies this week with How to Grow Water Lilies At Home.  No lie, I longed for Water Lilies.  They are one of my absolute favorites.  And you would think in a Tropical Zone, it would have been a given, we have a fountain.  But no, despite pitching them to My Mom since the fountain’s installation. Part of the problem was the perception that Water Lilies would be difficult to maintain.  Our fountain is finished, brick and concrete.  And despite having a stup ..read more

Schefflera or Umbrella Trees, Same Thing How to Grow Schefflera Outside The Tropical Grower is back to tropical basics with How to Grow Schefflera Outside.  Schefflera, also called Umbrella, trees are cornerstones in Our Garden, meaning they are building blocks of the beds and areas we landscape. Not only are Schefflera trees distinctly tropical in feel and completely trainable, they are not pokey.  Tropicals tend to be pokey, but I can full-body plunge into Schefflera with the cutters unscathed as long as I don’t hit a big branch.  Ours have big thick branches.  Not pokey ..read more

How to Transplant Large Leaf Philodendron Outside. My mom calls this Boney Finger Philodendron. I’ve also seen it as a Philodendron Tree. The Tropical Grower is featuring How to Transplant Large Leaf Philodendron Outside because I had the chance to transplant 3 a couple of weeks ago, and the information out there is seriously lacking.  The problem is most people grow these as houseplants, and I didn’t need to repot one.  The plants being transplanted were bigger than me. Now, I should say right-off this was not my first time transplanting one, not even close, but I tend to like infor ..read more

Oh No, It’s Coming Your Way ‘How To’ Tips on Preparing Your Garden for Storms. We covered newly planted tomatoes with pots for Ian.That baby Yellow Pear Tomato plant above became this monster that produced into July. Yeah, almost a full year. Worth saving. The Tropical Grower is sharing some of our ‘How To’ Tips on Preparing Your Garden for Storms in the hopes of saving some planties.  With the passing of Hurricane Idalia, as forecasted, the ‘I’ named storm missed us this year.  Whoosh!  My prep for it was minimal.  Unlike for Ian or Irma, both hit us, and Our Garden was fu ..read more

You’re Exposed, Now What? How to Throw Up a Quick Vine Screen. A Week up, and it’s already starting to fill out. The Tropical Grower is creating cover this week with How to Throw Up a Quick Vine Screen.  We’ve all been there.  A weird creepy neighbor or just an overly curious one moves in.  A big old tree falls over in a storm.  You lose the hedge row to Code Enforcement or bugs.  Life’s hard, things happen. Dang. I spend a great deal of time reorienting my brain to head towards ‘solving the problem’ instead of figuring out why it happened.  It’s not easy, and I’m ..read more

Do You Have Dragons? How to Train Your Plants The Tropical Grower is talking taming plants this week with How to Train Your Plants.  We definitely have some dragons, also known as heavily growing planties, here in our Tropical Zone.  Whether you are Growing Tropical or find your green in more northern regions, some form of Training is necessary to keep plants where you want them. Training can also be done for shade, screening, to define space, to create something useful or just to make something cool and pretty.  Plants are pretty versatile.  You can even train them to prod ..read more

Crazy Dramatic & Fun How to Create a Tunnel Through Your Vegetation. Isn’t this Super Cool? The Tropical Grower is sharing one of our favorite features this week in How to Create a Tunnel Through Your Vegetation.  Do you have a bunch of dense growth all together?  Is it keeping you from walking through or slapping you in the face?  Is it just kind of a green blah in need of something amazing?  Consider cutting a Tunnel through it.  It can also lower maintenance.  Bonus. Our Garden, After Dark. Yup, lit this baby up for the walk to the pool and love the effect ..read more

The Easiest of All Grows How to Grow Bromeliads At Home An entire bed of Flaming Torch Bromeliads in Bloom The Tropical Grower is back to its roots with How to Grow Bromeliads, the easiest of all Tropical plants.  In fact, they are so easy they rival cactus for the top spot in simplest houseplants to keep alive.  Growing Tropical, you can stick them in any well draining, shady to partially shady spot, and they will thrive.  Yup, trees count.  We even have them growing in full sun.  They’re very hearty. Most Bromeliads are easily recognizable by their tough spear shaped ..read more