Growing Cacao & Chocolate Gardening
Meet the tropical tree behind chocolate, learn how I have grown Theobroma cacao in Indiana, and explore a garden inspired by the colors, fragrances, flavors and story of chocolate.
My fascination with cacao goes back to the late 1990s, when I began experimenting with growing Theobroma cacao far outside its tropical home. I have grown cacao from fresh seed, kept the trees as tropical container plants in Indiana and watched my own cacao tree flower.
Chocolate gardening grew from that experience into something much larger: the cacao plant itself, the plants that smell or taste like chocolate, chocolate-colored flowers and foliage, and the history and horticulture behind one of the world's most familiar foods. This growing center brings those resources together and will continue expanding as the Exotic Gardening archives are restored.
Start Your Chocolate-Gardening Journey
1. Meet Cacao
Start with my own Theobroma cacao story and see what happened when I grew the chocolate tree in Indiana.
Read My Cacao Story →2. Grow From Seed
Cacao seed is unusual and short-lived. Learn how I germinate fresh Theobroma cacao seed.
Germinate Cacao Seeds →3. Build a Chocolate Garden
Go beyond the cacao tree and explore the idea of a garden filled with chocolate-inspired plants.
Explore the Chocolate Lover's Garden →I Grew a Cacao Tree in Indiana—and It Bloomed
Growing a rainforest tree in the Midwest has been a long-running experiment in humidity, warmth, light, fresh seed and patience. The story behind my cacao plants is one of the things that makes this part of Exotic Gardening especially personal.
Grow the Plant Behind Chocolate
Theobroma cacao is a tropical understory tree with very different needs from an ordinary temperate garden plant. These resources are the starting point for understanding the plant, propagating it and seeing how cacao has grown under my Indiana conditions.
What Is a Chocolate Lover's Garden?
A chocolate garden can be much more than one cacao tree. It can bring together plants with chocolate-colored flowers and foliage, chocolate fragrance, chocolate flavor associations and tropical plants connected to the story of cacao. This section will grow as more of my chocolate-gardening material is organized and restored.
A Chocolate Lover's Garden
By Sheri Ann Richerson and Thomas Leo Ogren
A Chocolate Lover's Garden takes the chocolate-gardening idea beyond cacao itself and into a landscape inspired by chocolate through plants, horticulture and imagination.
Available in hardback, paperback, Kindle and Audible formats.
Find A Chocolate Lover's Garden on Amazon →
Amazon Associate disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Reader Circle Welcome Bundle
If you want more than the book alone, the Reader Circle Welcome Bundle brings together A Chocolate Lover's Garden with additional reading and extras in one shop bundle.
Bring Growing Chocolate in Indiana to Your Group
Growing Chocolate in Indiana is my live presentation about cacao as a living plant and what I have learned from decades of growing it far outside the tropics. The presentation connects horticulture, the story of chocolate and real-world growing experience.
It is available for garden clubs, libraries, horticultural groups and special events.
Chocolate Gardening Connects Across Exotic Gardening
Cacao sits at the intersection of several of the site's growing ecosystems. It is an edible crop, a rare tropical plant, an indoor tropical for gardeners outside cacao-growing climates and a fascinating seed-propagation project.
Decades of Growing Chocolate Far From the Tropics
This growing center is being built around my own long-running cacao experience, photographs, videos, propagation experiments, writing and presentations. As the historical Exotic Gardening archives are restored, more of that material will be connected here instead of disappearing inside decades of old posts.
The goal is to preserve the story while continuing the experiment: growing the actual plant behind chocolate and exploring all the strange, beautiful and delicious directions a chocolate-inspired garden can take.
