This gardening text revives Victorian sub-tropical gardening and shows how to produce exotic effects without a sub-tropical climate. It involves the use of exotic-looking, but largely hardy plants to create a tropical effect. It explains how to create a setting in the smallest of gardens. The exotic garden is full of huge, beautifully formed leaves as well as finely cut and often variegated foliage; it boasts spectacular flowers alongside silky evergreens; and it is rich in unusual features such as plants with bright crimson stalks or striking architectural shape.