The New Exotic Garden

The various plantings Will Giles discusses and illustrates in this book are extravagant - tropical boldness, hot colours and sculptural forms

Huge banana trees, bamboos of all sizes and colours, ferns, gingers, astonishing foliage plants, shrubs like the fabulous Brugmansia, are mingled with familiar exotics like begonias, hostas, clematis and dahlias. This is a very exciting approach to garden-building.

The book includes a directory of exotic plants and practical advice on their cultivation. However, these are not low-maintenance plants. Many have to be protected from frost: there are illustrations of the awe-inspiring precautions required to ensure the survival of a mature banana plant (build a kind of wooden cage out of pallets around it and stuff it with straw), and the more manageable plants may need to be transferred to a greenhouse for the winter.

All of this means that a full-blown exotic garden is not to be undertaken lightly. But the rewards, as Will Giles triumphantly demonstrates in the many beautiful shots of his own Norwich garden among the illustrations, can be immense.