Comments regarding Top Tropicals LLC

Our first plant order was a grafted gardenia Aimee in 2006. We've been regulars since. We gave their fertilizers ( liquid and granular) a try this year and they are as unbelievable as the plants they grow and ship. We've been "that neighbor" before we started using their supplements this year and can't wait for next summer. Quality, punctuality, friendliness are always super.

The newsletter breaks our hearts as there is always something we want and have no more room.
Many thanks and may God continue to bless you all.

I've ordered from them numerous times the plants are large and healthy. As I'm in Pennsylvania I've only visited there website. Well I finally got a chance to visit there today. Wow the people are friendly and helpful and quite knowledgeable. Of course I purchased several plants. A special shout out to Onika what a nice person to deal with. Plus the cats who can resist the cat. All in all wonderful nursery and plants I highly recommend.

I ordered a Michellia Champaca tree as they seemed to be one of the only retailers selling this plant online and at a decent price at that. The plant was shipped out in good time and what I received was an about 15 inch tall cutting with a few healthy leaves. IT's been about 2 months since I received the plant and it's still doing pretty well.

I placed 3 different orders this year. One for a black sapote, the next a "Dwarf Hawaiian" starfruit, and most recently, a Wurtz avocado. They all arrived a little droopy from being in a box, but I followed the instructions enclosed with each order for repotting and care. The starfruit and black sapote both now have new growth, and are out on my deck for the summer. I just received the avocado about a week ago and it is potted and acclimating on my shady side porch. It's looking good so far. If it does as well as the other 2 trees, I will be well pleased. Top Tropicals has loads of information about the plants they sell on their website, that I have found it both interesting and useful. I have been well satisfied with the plants I have received.

Place my first order to Top Tropicals and today received my Aphelandra hartwegiana. It arrived well packaged and in good shape. 3 gallon plant is about 2 feet high. Plant was also shipped when I requested.

They sent great plants. 1 was damaged in shipping and 1 was missing. They replaced both with healthy plants. Couldn't have asked for anything better.

My experience with Top Tropicals is good. I live up north, and bought 2 mango trees a couple months ago. They came in very nice condition - the plants were healthy and they were packaged well. It's winter now and I had some questions about their care indoors (less than perfect conditions). I e mailed by the "contact" form, and got a response back from Anna almost right away. Anna and Kristi patiently worked with me to answer all my questions. So I have to say I received excellent customer service from them.

I love shopping online at Toptropicals nursery. I ordered plants last year also and all survived in winter except piper betel.It was quite expensive plant & I had received it in a good condition. Having passion for gardening, I transplant baby plants on to a bigger pot all the time and I understand that plant undergo stress as they are living beings. I placed an order for the same plant and it came in a good condition and survived.
This year also I ordered many rare plants including Rangoon Creeper etc,. Barleria Cristata was damaged during transit and did not look like it would survive. It didn't survive. I called Top tropicals and explained. They were also disappointed that it got damaged but they assured they would reimburse the amount if the plant did not survive. After a couple of weeks, I sent a picture and they credited the full amount back to my credit card. I am happy to have found the top tropical nursery because they have a good collection plus they shipped what exactly I ordered. Both Zoe and Anna have been responsive and I am pleased with their service. For my plant garden needs, top tropical nursery is my first choice.

So I've been ordering trees online for some time now .. I have to let everyone know how great Top Tropicals is ! I have almost 50 fruit trees ! And let's say I wish I would have found Top Tropicals sooner! I love the quality they send me ! And there selection WOW (: There customer service is excellent! Thank you Zoe ! If your interested in any tropical trees I strongly suggest TOP TROPICALS! (:

I'm so happy with my baby Annona trees. I have had 100% germination from all seeds that I've ordered from Top Tropicals. I wish that I could include pictures with this review. Annona will flower and fruit in less than three years. I'm very much looking forward to fruit from all of these beautiful little trees.

After reading the negative reviews of TopTropicals.com, I reluctantly ordered a Euphorbia punicae from them in April 2015, because they were the only vendor I could find with large plants of this slow growing species.

When the plant arrived there was significant healed damage about 1/3 of the way through each stem. I photographed the scars, emailed TopTropicals and was a bit surprised that they replied within a few hours.

TopTropicals customer service (Kristi) was very pleasant, and replaced the plant, with a high quality specimen.

I ordered a 3-gallon grafted Eugenia uniflora, and there was an issue that occurred with the shipping of this plant. I contacted customer service, and while it took some time for this particular plant to again be available in their inventory, they sent a replacement. It's in beautiful shape, and already sending out new growths a week later. I am very pleased.

There are so few sources for many of the tropicals this nursery carries, I would hope that other hobbyists who have order problems contact customer service before using harsh words here. I, for one, would certainly like to see this nursery continue offering the tremendous selection of hard-to-find plants!

I ordered a jatropha berlandieri. I was expecting it to arrive as a bare caudex with no roots or foliage. I was surprised when it arrived in a plastic pot with a rootball, foliage and flowers! It was also larger than I expected. They put forth a lot of effort to pack the plant for shipment. The pot and soil were clear wrapped to contain the plants roots and soil. The foliage was barely wilted. I was really impressed with their detailed information sheet that was included. It clearly explained how to repot the plant as well as things to do and not to do to insure the plant thrived. I would not hesitate to purchase from them in the future.

I live in Kendall Florida on 1/2 acre and I have about 200 fruit trees. Every tree is 100% perfect and that includes about 50 citrus trees.
I have bought around 25 mango and avocado and citrus trees from TT. I just recieved 3 Mango trees yesterday from TT. So I have planted 200 fruit trees over 8 years from many sources both locally and as far away as the panhandle. Nobody preps their trees like TT for shipping and this makes it so easy to get into the ground it's insanely fantastic. I'll explain this in a minute. Every tree I have ever recieved from TT has almost always been higher quality than for example Pine Island Nursery just a few miles from here. Better than any local nursery around here or anywhere else in this country of ours. (I did get a few avocado trees from CA.) And speaking of avocado trees, the ones from CA came with 2-3 days shipping. The ones from TT get to my house in a day. The difference on Avocados is huge because avocado trees do not do well in shipping and all a nursery can do is pack it well and send it very fast or you lose lots of leaves and possible death. So if you are not one day away pay more and get your trees alive.
So TT removes some of the soil at the rootball and packs the existing soil very tight and puts a plastic tie around the trunk to hold the saran wrap that they wrap tight around the rootball. They don't bareroot it and they maintain the integrity of the rootball. This is so much better and then they have a bamboo support inside the ball ready to tap into the ground and the truck and bamboo are covered with a sleak sleeve.
OK the tree arrives and you don't have to dig such a big hole like if it came in the pot this is good. Then you place the tree in the hole and push or tap the bamboo deep and this 100% stabilizes the tree perfectly straight and this makes it so easy. When you remove the sleave you see your beautiful healthy tree. Then you fill in your soil and the fact that the tree is super stable makes the rest so easy when you press down on the sides to firm up the surrounding soil.
It is such a pleasure to recieve and plant trees from TT. Every time I got one I've been super pleased.

Although almost 28% of customers have recorded their dissatisfaction with Top tropical LLC, I still was desperate enough to find a source for a fruit trees I had set my eyes on and took the risk of ordering them. Their response was rather prompt and when they shipped the items during a risky cold weather spell in the region, I inspected them carefully upon arrival to find that their packaging was impeccably proficient, using several different materials including cellophane tape, LDPE, tie-wraps, bamboo stakes, reinforced scotch tape and a liberal dose of Styrofoam peanuts! Indeed, their prices are on the higher side but if the quality of their merchandize deserves those prices, I'd be a happy camper. Only time will tell when the plants begin to bear the awaited fruits. In the meantime, I tend to think that they have delivered on my expectations.

The nursery is close to me so I went there in person. I was looking for Dichorisandra thyrsiflora Blue Ginger. Their website had three on Friday and on Monday just one plant was left. There are two or three shade houses full of plants. I went to the office and Kristi looked up my plant on their computer and then talked to a man with an ATV who took off to find my plant. In the meantime Kristi took me over to a shade house where my wife had a few plants to ask questions about. Kristi wrote the names down and ran back to the office. She came back with the information about the plants and the prices. In the meantime the ATV came back with two different dichorisandras, the one I wanted thyrsiflora,and the pendula variety. I decided to buy both, plus my wife found a brugmansia sanguinea 'red angels trumpet' and a 3 gallon pot stuffed with neomarica caerulea iris. I also picked out a Eucalyptus deglupta. The shadehouse we were in was well organised with pictures above most of the plant sections identifying what they had. For the most part it looked like a normal nursery. Kristi was helpful and friendly and if she didn't know an answer about a plant she looked it up on the computer. Another person in the office named Tiffany was also very friendly. For the life of me I don't know why this nursery has all the bad reviews? Yes, the prices are a little high, but the pot of iris we got has at least 10 plants in it if we divided it. Not over stuffed or potbound, just full. The plants are all as good looking as plants we've purchased at one of the many Fairchild Tropical Garden's plant show and sales. Before you think I'm a relative or something, this is the only time I have been there. I will be going back to shop when I am looking for plants no one else has. I've never ordered from them through the mail, but from what I saw, I wouldn't hesitate to do so.

I recently ordered a(1) rainbow eucalyptus that arrived in excellent condition, extremely well packed, that i subsequently exported to Jamaica( within two weeks of arrival) in its original packaging. This plant has thrived in Jamaica, springing from 24" to over 6ft. in three months. This company has excellent customer support and professionalism. Regret the negative comments, give them a try again people, lets keep planting!!

i ordered one tree about a week ago....3 gallon size.
it came today, well packed, looking very healthy and a VERY good size, 4' at least.
i'm completely happy with my purchase.
sorry to see all the negative comments here but mine is a positive.

I ordered 4 items recently and they all came in great shape, well packaged and lush. It is disappointing to hear all the negatives, since my experiences (1 order per year over the last 5 years) have all been good.

I have ordered several times from this company. Most of the time seeds, but a few plants. One time I ordered a plant that took a long time, with no updates on delivery. But when they finally sent the plant, they also sent a bonus plant to make up for the delay. I mostly order seeds, and last order was missing a pack. I notified them and they quickly sent out another pack. This company has a wide selection of tropicals, and is a pleasure to deal with.

Just received my Cordia sebestena tree today (10-11-2012) and it is in perfect health. I ordered the 3 gallon pot size plant and the tree is nearly 5 feet tall which was unexpected. Nice healthy green plant with a sturdy trunk.

The tree arrived in a tall slender box, root ball was sealed in clear plastic and still moist, the tree was supported in the box by a bamboo stake, the upper portion of the tree was wrapped in tube mess to protect the leaves and branches which was really a nice touch, and the box was full of packing peanuts as well. No other company I have ordered from has ever taken this much care when shipping me a plant.

Will definitely order from them again!
-Michael King

I must concur with the other positive reviews. I have placed at least 8 orders to them over a 3 year period and not once was I disappointed! I just received a passiflora and a dwarf brazilian banana. Both were the largest plants I have ever received, in fact, MUCH larger and in perfect shape. A month before, I received 2 mangos, also in perfect shape. To be fair, I have never e-mailed or called for customer service, I found their website to have a lot of good cultural information. I know their prices are more expensive, but the plants are so much larger, at least based on my experience, that they are worth it. Based on my experience, I personally cannot say enough good things about this company.

I've recieved 3 orders from TT this spring and summer. a "3 gallon" brugmansia "super Nova" huge, branched plant with a 2 inch stem. It's blooming twice a week after a month in it's new pot. Thai adenium, perfect caudex, budding out now. Huge Condo Mango, no flowers yet, but next year? All were underpriced specimens, well pruned and grown hard. Perfect shipping, fast delivery to Northern Michigan.

Posted on June 21, 2012, updated August 2, 2012
Posted on June 6, 2012, updated June 21, 2012
Posted on March 23, 2012, updated June 6, 2012
Posted on March 23, 2012, updated March 23, 2012
Posted on June 27, 2009, updated March 23, 2012
I have always been happy with the plants I ordered from TT.
They arrive 3 days from the shipping date in good condition with planting instructions, and they are always larger than I expected. Also, their website is great. Green Thumbs Up to Top Tropicals

My own experience with TopTropicals extends over about 3 years and probably north of a dozen orders worth many hundreds of dollars. My experience with this company has been uniformly positive. Plants typically arrive within 24 hours of ship-notification given my location in central Florida. They have without exception arrived well-packed and healthy. My only encounter with customer service involved double mailing of their magazine and was easily resolved to my satisfaction when I explained the situation by email. I consistently buy from TT for two reasons. First, although I'm no botanist and I have no authority to judge, the TT website seems to be science-based and to contain a really astonishing amount of information that is convenient to use. Second, TT sells plants that tend to be larger and more mature than those sold by other sellers. Naturally these are more expensive to buy and ship than smaller plants. Logee's for instance sells smaller, younger plants. (I order from Logee's as well as TT and have had nothing but positive transactions with them too, including customer service.) I'm not a shill for Top Tropicals nor do I suggest that critical comments aren't warranted. I'm just relaying my personal experience and it's been very good. Now, lots of my plants don't survive, but that's because of my relatively salty location 600 feet from the Atlantic and because I tend to have a brown thumb. With respect to salt-tolerance, I've concluded that guides and lists only take you so far. You have to try the plant exactly where you live. If it dies, well, one reason is you're too close to salt water. But you'd be surprised what works that's not supposed to. On the second issue, brown thumb, you just have to keep trying.

I ordered "Brunfelsia americana - Lady of the night"...arrived perfectly packaged & undamaged. I would highly recommend this company not only for the extra care taken in the packaging, but the large size/fullness/health of the plant.
Regarding the ordering process…When I ordered Brunfelsia seeds/shipped out the same day/received them in about 3 days. When I ordered plants, it took about a week for the order to be ready to send out…but once it was picked up by UPS, it only took 1 day for the delivery.

I've only ordered seeds, mostly Ipomoeas, from Top Tropicals thus far.They were a little slow in arriving,about two weeks, but they germinated readily and are now vigorous plants.I certainly would do more business with this company. They sell good, viable seeds.

Posted on October 15, 2010, updated November 8, 2010
I ordered a Jade vine and a Red Jade Vine from top tropicals and I received the plants less than a week later. The plants arrived in decent condition, the leaves were perfect, the roots less so. I'll keep everyone updated on the progress.

Mike gave a complete refund for an order that was not acceptable to our condo board and did so promptly.
I was appaled and abhorred at the decision to disgard and trash the order with out my knowledge or approval.
Mid winter at 34 degrees I was in an angry rage in a huge dumpster searching for the plants. They were in bad shape but all are exquisite now. Order from this company if you need a rare plant or something unusual you can be assured the material is worth it in the end!!! People Mike is a GREAT person professionally and if you give him respect and dignity you will have your plant king and dom.

Ordered a Mangosteen. Received a good quality product.

I've ordered couple of rare flowering plants from them, which i've been looking up in their site for long time. Couple of days since i placed the order, it was shipped and we received very healthy plants in another two days. The packaging was so great and not even one single leaf was damaged. We are very happy with the order. We were so benefitted by the reviews in this site about various online nurseries and felt i should contribute about my experience too. Thanks for all the contributors.

Great company and lovely healthy plants. Only "negative" is all the wonderful plants that I keep finding in the info section but can't find anywhere online. It is very tempting to want just about every thing on the site info only or the merchandise. This year I am going to use the wish list and hope to get lucky. Their plants are always well packed and delivery is prompt.

I found Top Tropicals using a web search for a particular plant. Sure enough they had it plus another I had been looking for. I immediately checked Garden Watchdog ( as I always do! ) and found that though there were a couple negatives mostly they seemed pretty petty so I ordered.
My plants arrived within a week. I have to say the packaging was some of the best I have ever received. The plants themseves were beautiful and healthy.
Living in a very remote area I depend on mail order and Garden Watchdog and I would most certainly order from Top Tropicals again.

So far I've only ordered from this company a couple of times, but have been very pleased with the results,

I ordered a hard to find vine from TT I had actually ordered the same vine from a different source 2 different times and both came delivered dead in 2.5 inch pots. I found that TT had the same vine so I went ahead and tried ordering it hoping for a better outcome ( a living plant that is ) I spoke to Mike who inquired on weather I was able to accomodate this finicky pet so I didn't waste my time or money.
He recommended an alternitive if I couldn't.
I assured him I could and the phone order was placed.
I received a confirmation the next day that it was sent and it arrived the following day, less than 24 hours from being sent.

The plant I received was indeed alive...very alive!!! Well rooted and a good size (far bigger than aloha tropicals dead 2.5 inch pot) plus well packed!!
I live within 100 miles of this nursery and hope to visit and see all he has to offer, his website makes for a great wish list.

Thanks Mike

I ordered a Jasminum sambac Grand Duke from Top Tropicals. It was my first order from them and I was very impressed.
The plant was on sale, it arrived promptly and was in excellent shape. The root was wrapped and the plant was wrapped in mesh surrounded by popcorn. It was packed to perfection and arrived that way. The plant is huge and has many new starts with buds on them. I am very pleased with Top Tropicals and would not hesitate to order again from them.
I would recommend them to anyone.
I hope someday to be lucky enough to get the Jasminum sambac Grand Duke - Supreme from them.

I've ordered a variety of plants from TopTropicals 4 or 5 times and have always been happy with them. They always come well packaged and in good shape. They have a great selection and are always getting new interesting plants. I really enjoy all the information they provide in their catolog even for plants that are not currently in stock.

I ordered some Miracle Fruit(Synsepalum dulcificum) plants from TopTropicals. Everything went very smooth and Mike was very helpful. Both orders went through timely and I was pleased with the way the plants were packed.

They also have a lot of good information on their website. Their care sheet on the miracle fruit plant was very good compared to others that I've read and I'm sure the care sheets on their other plants are equally as good.

I ordered from Top Tropicals on May 15. I received a shipping notice on May 21st. I emailed Top Tropicals when I realized they had shipped this order before a long holiday weekend, expressing concern that the transit time for the plants could be extended from 2 days to almost a week if the plants did not arrive on a Friday. That's because Monday was Memorial Day. Mike's first response back to me was "plants you had ordered can spend 2 weeks in box without any problems." The package was scheduled to arrive by UPS on Friday and they incorrectly routed the package. The plants did not arrive until the next Tuesday - meaning that they spent 6 days in transit. I emailed Top Tropicals and let them know that when they shipped this order - a total of 100.00 dollars - they could have been more considerate of the long holiday weekend when they picked the shipping date and the fact that I paid for mature plants I expected to arrive with a short transit. I let them know about the UPS screw up and told them I mainly was asking them to work with me in case any of the plants didn't make it. I also expressed my opinion that they could have shown more consideration for the ship date they picked before shipping this expensive order before a long holiday weekend. I never mentioned anything about wanting a refund. I had already repotted the plants and I also told Mike about the condition of each plant. The Ponytail Palm had about 50 percent of its leaves brown and scorched-looking, the Night Blooming Cereus had mainly broken leaves and the few undamaged were fairly brown. I told him the worst looking plant was the Kalanchoe pinnata - which had only 2 leaves at the top of a long stalk - and that was a plant advertised as a 1 gallon, bushy plant - a big bald leafless stalk that I paid 20 dollars for. Mike wrote back "I very sorry that you're disappointed and I apologize for that. We had failed your expectation, UPS had failed, plants had failed... I'm sorry for that. Please pack these plants back to the box and ship them back to us." No, Mike, these plants did not fail me - they just spent a week in the box because they were mailed before a long holiday weekend! I immediately wrote Mike back and told him that I thought these plants would "make it" except maybe for the Kalanchoe pinnata and that I never expected a refund. The Night Blooming Cereus would not be the large healthy plant I paid for - but made the concession that it would probably recover. I asked him more than once if I had paid for 2 day shipping so I could get that amount back from UPS since I did not receive 2 day shipping from them because of their screw up. He never answered that particular question. I told him that I did not want a refund, that I was perfectly willing to try to help these plants survive. I asked him questions about the Kalanchoe pinnata - describing the long stalk with only 2 leaves at the top - and if they would replace it for me if it didn't make it - well that's when I received no further communcation from him on this. As I mentioned, the last email was over 2 days ago. All I wanted to hear back from Top Tropicals is if they would be so kind to replace this one plant that looked so bad. I guess if I wasn't willing just to ship all the plants back, it did not matter to them what happened to the plants. Look at the reviews here. Almost over 40 percent are not good. That is a track record that obviously needs some improvement! And I don't consider it acceptable or good business to not respond to a customer like me that says "I am willing to work with you on this." If Mike does email me back and says he'll replace the 20.00 dollar Kalanchoe Pinnata - the big stalk with no leaves - then I'll come back here and make a record of that. If he refuses to respond to the emails where I have gone out of my way to work with them on this shipping screw up and their lack of consideration to pick a ship date before a long holiday weekend, well I'll come back and record that non-response as well. I had read in some of these other reviews here that if you have a problem with Top Tropicals - well they want to wash their hands of you! Mike did offer me a refund after beating his breasts about everyone failing me but is not willing to let me be generous and keep these plants, only asking him to replace a big stalk bereft of leaves? I would like to tell Mike that I get the sense that he is someone that tries really hard at what he does but is not willing to just meet someone half-way if Top Tropicals could have been just a little more considerate in their handling of particulars - in this instance it was shipping an expensive order of plants before a long holiday weekend.