Amazon.co.uk Review
Will Giles reckons that British gardeners are ready to abandon the restrained good taste, subtle border plantings and generally muted palette of the traditional garden in favour of tropical boldness, hot colours and sculptural forms. He may well be right. The various plantings he discusses and illustrates in
The New Exotic Garden are extravagant indeed. 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, made unfamiliar again by their context. This is a very exciting approach to garden-building; and if your tastes lie in the direction of this kind of febrile self-expression,
The New Exotic Garden is highly recommended. It includes a directory of exotic plants and practical advice on their cultivation. No-one could pretend, however, that these are low-maintenance plants. Many have to be protected from frost: there are illustrations of the fairly 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. --
Robin Davidson
Product Description
A celebration of the exotic-style garden, where vibrant colour, dramatic architectural shapes and lush tropical leaves fill every available space. Experienced sub-tropical plant grower Will Giles proves how easy it is to grow lush and hot-coloured plants in temperate as well as hot climate gardens and that many 'tender' plants can easily survive cold winters. Besides chapters on the different types of exotic plants - from cool and lush to brightly coloured to drier Mediterranean-style gardens, there is also a practical guide to planting and maintaining exotics, as well as directory of key plants, organised by climate. A book that will inspire all garden lovers attracted to visually dramatic gardens of year-round interest that use plants which hint at warmer climates.
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