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OUR TROPICAL GARDEN

 

Click below to see our garden plants alphabetically listed by common name.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
T page
 
Tamarind Tree Lysiloma sabicu or Tamarindus indica or Leucaena leucocephala or Leucaena glauca or Mimosa leucocephala or Acacia leucocephafa
No matter how you identify it, this is a wonderful tree bearing four to six inch brown lumpy and a little hairy pods with sticky tamarind paste and seeds enclosed. In good times hundreds of these pods hang all over the tree. Over the years the trees will grow to be from thirty to eighty feet tall and will be about two thirds as wide as they are high.
From: Africa
Photographed: This beautiful tree was photographed along side the road in our neighborhood in Montserrat.
Planting & Care: Tamarinds like good loamy soil and lots of rain. On the down side they don't grow very quickly, but on the up side they are resistant to heavy winds which in Montserrat is a a genuine blessing. Full sun is their favored location, though they will put up with a bit of shade. When young they do like being fertilized.
For More Information: See this web site
hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/tamarind.html
 Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©Krika.com 2008
 

Tapeworm Plant, Centipede Plant, Ribbonbush Homalocladium platycladum, Muehlenbeckia platyclada
 From: The Pacific
Photographed: At the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala in 2010.
Planting and Care: This odd looking plant will tolerate a wide range of light situations, but does best in semi shade as long as it receives regular rainfall or routine watering.
Text & Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2010
 

Thai Rose Mandevilla amabilis
This stunner of a vine not only blooms most of the year, but does so without being too fussy. And, as you can see in the photographs you can have it in either the simple or the extravagant flowering form.
Benefits: The Thai rose is as attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds as it is to us.
From: Brazil
 Photographed: In the Botanical Garden at the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala in July of 2010.
Planting and Care: This vine will be at its best in full sun or a bright semi shady area of the garden. Give it regular watering or routine rainfall.
Text & Photographs Copyrighted ©KO 2010
 
Thelma's Pink Brazilian Plume See the "B" Page -- BRAZILIAN PLUME FLOWER (PINK) 
 
Thelma's Pink Justicia See the "B" Page -- BRAZILIAN PLUME FLOWER (PINK)
 
 
 

THUNBERGIAS

I never heard of these plants before arriving in Montserrat, but the whole family has quickly won me over. They are some of the most exquisitely beautiful, exotic, and easy to grow vines that I have ever encountered.
 

Black Eyed Susan Vine Thunbergia alata
 This is a delicate vine with small very appealing flowers ranging from white through yellow to orange and all have the distinctive "black eye."
From: East Africa
Photographed: At the Hotel San Buenaventura on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala in May 2010.
Planting and Care: This little vine likes it sunny and moist and will be a perennial once it settles in. It is not winter hardy.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2010

 

 
 

**Clock Vine, Blue Trumpet Vine, Sky Vine Thunbergia grandiflora
We planted a small clock vine to the side of a tree we don't like much, but don't want to cut down because of the shade it provides. In just a few years, the vine has grown to the top of the tree.  The vine's beautiful flowers have made a relatively unattractive tree a visual treat.
Photographed: In our garden at our home in Montserrat.
 Planting and Growth: This lovely vine likes a rich soil or a good bit of fertilizer along with regular watering or rainfall. It thrives in a semi shady location, but will handle a bit more sun if given adequate moisture.
Text & Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2008

 
 

King's Mantle, Bush Clock Vine Thunbergia erecta
This is yet one more very appealing plant in the Thunbergia family. This one is less of a vine and more of a bush.
Benefits: Its lovely blue flowers are bee, butterfly and hummingbird attractants.
From: Tropical Africa
Photographed: In the Botanical Garden at the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Planting and Care: Set in a place with full sun and routine rainfall or watering this plant should do very well.
 Text & Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2010

 
 

Orange Clock Vine Thunbergia gregorii
 This is a very lovely light hearted quickly spreading colorful vine that should find a little space in every garden.
Photographed: In the Botanical Garden at the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala in July of 2010.
Planting and Care: Full sun or semi shade will do fine for this little treasure as long as it gets regular rainfall or watering. It may even be winter hardy so give it a try. It will die back with the first real frost, but it may very well show up again in the spring.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2010

 
Thunbergia mysorensis (no common name yet)
Benefits: This looker attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.
From: India
Photographed: In Panajachel on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Planting and Care: This plant will do best in a semi shady area and will do fine with medium to low watering. I was recently warned by a new friend in Panajachel that this plant has to be severely cut back on a routine basis or it will take over the world. Maybe something so beautiful should be allowed to do just that.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2010
 

Thunbergia White Gem Thunbergia fragrans
This is a very attractive fast growing vine. Its strikingly white flowers are like eye candy especially set against the dark green lush foliage.
Benefits: As with so many tropical flowers, this one too attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.
From: India
Photographed: In the Botanical Garden at the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala in July of 2010.
Planting and Care: This is a pretty easy going plant liking full sun or semi shade and routine rainfall or watering.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2010
 
 

 

THYME

**Spanish Thyme, Broad-Leaf-Thyme, Cuban Oregano, Cuban Thyme, Indian Borage, Allspice (Montserratian name) Plectranthus amboinicus or Solenostemon amboinicus or Coleus amboinicus
This is truly a wonderful plant. It is extremely easy to grow, performing more like a weed than a valued plant and it tastes better than French thyme! WOW, it doesn't get better than that! Aside from using it fresh from the garden in anything we are preparing that calls for thyme, we use very thin slices of its very young fleshy somewhat hairy light green leaves in salads and they are delicious.
Benefits: This thyme is also used as a tea in Montserrat, but we don't know yet what the health benefits are apart from those we derive from having a lovely cup of tea.
From: Tropical Americas
Photographed: In our herb garden at our home in Montserrat.
Planting and Growth: These fleshy plants are easy to grow and to propagate. In the tropics pick a semi shady location for summer plantings or a sunny one for the winter. Take a six inch cutting from a healthy plant and stick it in decent soil. Give it some water and it will be off and running. These plants are heavy feeders, so don't stint on the fertilizer, compost or manure when you can get it. After letting the original plant grow for a year, take a cutting and start over. These plants seem to age more quickly than most, loosing their beautiful appearance.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©Krika.com 2008
 
**Thyme (1) French Style Thymus vulgaris L. or Curcuma procumbens
French thyme is preferred by the people of Montserrat as they know it is commonly used in the United States and Britain. Sadly, here in Montserrat it is very difficult to grow, less flavorful than Spanish thyme as described above and it is extremely rarely available. Once in a great while in any year you will find a small bunch of French thyme for sale at an extortionate price in one of the roadside stands.
Benefits: Thyme has many uses apart from its flavorful contributions in the kitchen. As a tea it is used effectively to treat everything from coughs and colds to headaches and hangovers.
Text Copyrighted ©KO 2008
 
 
 
**Ti Plant, Hawaiian Ti Leaf, Good Luck Plant Cordyline fruticosa or Cordyline terminalis
The bright red and deep pink leaves, or green and pink leaves or green and white leaves of the members of this family make a great addition to the non-flowering plants in the garden. The fact that it is a great survivor as well puts it high on my list of favorites! This very colorful leafy plant can grow to a height of about twelve feet. Its leaves are about fifteen inches long and are an appealing blend colors.
From: The Pacific
Photographed: In our terrace garden at our home in Montserrat,  at the Hotel San Buenaventura and the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Planting and Care: Ti plants prefer bright shade to come into their own and they are very receptive to regular rainfall, but they don't need it to be beautiful. They also prefer a slightly sweet soil so add a bit of lime to the soil before planting if your soil is acidic. When they become leggy, simply cut off the main stems at a level where you want new growth. Then you can plant the pieces that you've cut off, hence having even more beautiful Ti plants.
Landscape Architecture: This is a perfect plant for a shady location as its color will add spice to a mainly green environment. It also makes an interesting light hedge if establishing a border is more important than creating a privacy wall.
Text and Photographs Copyrighted ©KO 2008 and 2010
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
 
Tibouchina See Trailing Tibouchina Below
 
Tin Roof Tree See The "G" Page -- GROUNDLEAF

 
**Tomatillos, Husk Tomato Physalis ixocarpa or Physalis philadelphica
This wonderful very sensitive and attractive perennial plant produces the "green tomato" so essential in Mexican cuisine. Its growth habit resembles the normal red tomato in some ways, but it does become a rather large plant in a short time if all goes well and in so doing it produces lots of tomatillos. When ripe these are light green roundish fruits covered in the peculiar tomatillo papery wrapping. Slip off the covering to find the green tomato which before washing has a slightly greasy feel. After washing, tomatillos are usually cooked and included in an upcoming meal, either as a broth base to a stew such as clamoli, or a "gravy" to a dish such as queso cilantro or enchiladas suizas, or simply as a green salsa for tacos or whatever meal you may be enjoying. They are delicious and once cooked they can be frozen for future use.
Benefits: Apparently aside from contributing its wonderful flavor in our kitchens, the tomatillo also is said to have medicinal benefits.
From: Mexico
 Photographed: In our upper garden at our home in Montserrat.
Planting and Care: If you have a lot of seeds, plant them directly in the garden where germination will be very limited as is usual here in the tropical Caribbean. With access to few seeds, I always use a starter soil mix that I make and get the seeds off and running as small plants before I set them out in the garden. The tomatillo may be treated much as a tomato plant and is subject to the same pests and diseases. They are very vulnerable to dustings of volcanic ash and to the acid rain that we often get here in Montserrat because of the activity of the Soufriere volcano. Tomatillos may be staked as you would with tomato plants, but in our location the high winds seem to tear staked plants apart. So, instead of staking, I lay flexible seed starter trays on the ground and lay the tomatillo laden branches on them to keep them from direct contact with the soil. This has proved much easier than staking and much more productive as our plants do not suffer as badly in the high winds.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©Krika 2007/2009
 
**Tomatoes Lycopersicon lycopersicum
I consider the tomato one of my essential foods. Red ripened in the garden or field, there is just nothing better. In New England I canned dozens of quart jars each year to enjoy in the coming winter. I could and have eaten them every day of my life that I could find freshly grown ripe red ones. Like so many of our favorite plants, they originated in Central and South America.
Benefits:
1)The luscious fruits of the tomato plant are also beneficial to the skin. Force a tomato through a sieve and apply the pulp and juice directly to your skin.
2) Tomatoes are highly nutritious, provide many of the amino acids needed for protein synthesis, including lycopene which is believed to help prevent several forms of cancer.
3) A diet including cooked tomatoes has been linked to a reduced risk of prostate cancer and other digestive tract cancers.
From: Central and South America
Photographed: In our upper garden at our home in Montserrat.
Varieties Suitable for Tropical Climates: Two of our favorites are Calypso, a small round tomato, and Sweet 1000 the best of the cherry tomatoes we have ever had. Each of these does well in Montserrat. Surprisingly, we visited the greenhouse of a local farmer, Daniel James, and he showed us his beautiful stand of Rutgers plants ladened with green tomatoes for the second or third time according to Daniel. I would not have expected this variety which did beautifully in New England to be so productive here which goes to show it is always worth experimenting. We've heard that Solar Set is a good variety to grow in Florida so it may work well in the Caribbean as well.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©Krika.com 2008 
 

TOMATO PLANT PROBLEMS

Blossom End Rot
This very strange problem occurs when there is a calcium deficiency along with an excess of nitrogen or water. Nitrogen in the form of ammonia especially is a major suspect in causing the problem. The solution is not difficult and you need not remove plants or plant materials as there is no disease component to the problem. First begin watering the soil regularly so there are no extremes of soil moisture levels. Second, test the pH of your soil if you can or simply add lime at the following rate: one half pound of lime for every 10 square feet of garden space. This should raise the soil pH by one number. If the problem persists, do a second lime treatment and wait awhile to see what happens. Regular watering and raising the pH of the soil should do the trick. This process worked like a magic trick for our tomatoes and we'll now be using it with our green pepper plants which have had the same problem.

Surprisingly here in Montserrat where we have an extreme acid rain and acidic volcanic ash situation there is no lime of any kind available to farmers or backyard gardeners. Go figure when we have six just under US $20,000 Department of Agriculture financed greenhouses awarded to local farmers. Can you imagine greenhouses in the Caribbean?

Links for blossom end rot information:
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/horticulture/blossom-rot.html
http://gardenhobbies.com/plantproblems/blossomendrot.html
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©Krika.com 2008
 
Torch Ginger See the "G" Page GINGERS -- Torch Ginger
 
**Tourist Tree See The "G" Page -- GUM TREE
 

Torpedo Cuphea, Giant Bat Face Cuphea Cuphea lllavea 'Torpedo'
Benefits: Much as we do, butterflies hummingbirds find this plant particularly appealing.
Photographed: In the Botanical Garden at the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Planting and Care: Full sun and routine rainfall or watering will keep this one and a half to two foot tall plant blooming for many months.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©Krika.com 2008
 

Trailing Tibouchina, Dwarf Tibouchina Dissotis rotundifolia
This is a strikingly attractive ground cover with appealing foliage and very pretty flowers that seem always to be blooming.
Benefits: This plant is a favorite of both butterflies and hummingbirds.
From: Tropical West Africa
Photographed: In the Botanical Garden at the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Planting and Care: Tibouchina will grow in full sun or in a semi shady area as long as it has regular watering or rainfall. For those who would like the plant but live in a cold climate, make a home for it in a hanging basket that can over winter inside your home.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2010
 
Travelers Palm Tree See the "PALMS AND SAGOS" Page -- Travelers Palm Tree
 
Tree Fern See The "F" Page FERNS -- Tree Fern
 
Tree Hibiscus See The "M" Page -- MOUNTAIN MAHOE TREE
 
Tree of Life See the "K" Page -- KALANCHOE -- Donkey's Ears
 
Tropical Almond Tree See The "A" Page -- ALMOND TREE
 
Tropical Gardening Links
See The "L" Page -- LINKS and REFERENCES FOR TROPICAL GARDENING
 

Tropical Hydrangea, Dombea Dombeya wallichii, Dombeya cayeuxii, Dombeya acutangula
This is a visually striking medium sized tree that I stumbled upon in a very unexpected Botanical Garden we discovered when we visited Panajachel on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. We hadn't been to the small town in more than twenty years and almost all the changes we have seen are just fine with us. I really can't think of another place I could say that about. Can you?
From: Africa
Photographed: In the Botanical Garden at the Hotel Atitlan on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.
Planting and Care: Plant in bright sun and make sure it receives regular rainfall or watering. It is a fast grower and a lovely bloomer so enjoy!
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2010

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Tropical Plants, Seeds and Trees
See The "L" Page -- LINKS and REFERENCES FOR TROPICAL GARDENING
 
Tropical Sage See the "R" Page -- RED SALVIA
 
Trumpet Creeper -- See Trumpet Vine Below

 

Trumpet Vine, Flame Vine, Trumpet Creeper Campsis radicans or Pyrostegia venusta or Pyrostegia ignea or Bignonia venusta
This is a common vine in warmer climates where its ease of care and its exuberant growth make it very popular.
From: The middle and southern latitudes of S. America (Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia and Argentina
Photographed: By the pool at the Hotel Riviera on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala in 2010.
Planting and Care: Grow this vine in full sun or bright semi shade for the best results and give it routine rainfall or watering.
Text and Photograph Copyrighted ©KO 2011

 

 
 
Tulip Torch See the "G" Page GINGERS -- Torch Ginger
 
Tumeric, Siam Tulip Curcuma longa or Curcuma domestica
Benefits: The roots or rhizomes are dried and ground into a powder to produce the spice tumeric, one of the main ingredients in curry powder, and one used as a flavoring all by itself. It is also often said to have many health benefits. Its non-nutritive benefits include its use as a fabulous natural yellow dye and as an ant repellant.
From: The tropical areas of Southern Asia
Planting and care: Tumeric grows most happily in a shady spot in the garden, but will tolerate some sun. It is fond of water and rewards us for good care with lovely funnel shaped yellow flowers.
Text Copyrighted ©KO 2008
 
Turk's Cap See the "D" Page -- DWARF MALLOW
 
**Turks Cap Cactus Melocactus intortus
When young, turks caps closely resemble barrel cactus; when more mature they become quite distinctive, having a wide cone like form as you can see on your left. When flowering (after years) they have very tiny fluorescent hot pink flowers that you'll have to put your glasses on to appreciate as you can see on your right.
From: Tropical America
Photographed: In the front border gardens at our home in Montserrat.
 Text and Photographs Copyrighted ©Krika.com 2008/2009
 

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