The Exotic Garden: Designing with Tropical Plants in Almost Any Climate by Richard R Iversen

The idea of mixing tropical plants with perennials and hardy annuals has been around since Victorian times. It is now enjoying a newfound popularity because tropical plants are more widely available. Gardeners who want to bring the lush beauty of tropicals to an existing garden, or who want to create an authentic vintage garden, will delight in TheExotic Garden. Although tropicals are novelties in temperate climates, they can successfully be grown anywhere. Iversen shows how tropicals can easily be used as annuals to perk up a garden with color during non-blooming seasons. The author's expert advice shows how to grow tropicals in beds, borders, and containers, select and combine plants, and use the tools of color, texture, and form. Plus, there are special overwintering tips and a full color glossary of more than 100 plants. Editorial Reviews Amazon.com Review There's nothing new about the temperate gardener's love of hot tropicals: the not-so-secretly sensual Victorians planted lavish, whimsically shaped beds full of palms, giant reeds, and angels' trumpets, many of which still survive. (Of course, manual laborers were easier to come by in the 19th century.) This book shows not only how to re-create this sort of tropical bed and border, but how to fake it on small city plots and patios with tropicals planted in sizeable containers. Author Richard Iversen, who has gardened professionally in Barbados as well as on Long Island, New York, says, Popping a banana plant into the soil next to an azalea may look exotic, but it doesn't make an exotic garden. His emphasis on color, texture, and form turns this from a book on novelty gardening into a fine garden-design book. If you crave a bed of exotic plants and are willing to do a bit of extra work, you can grow ficus and canna in Cleveland or Vancouver, but it is important to realize before taking on a tropical garden project that growing them is a year-round proposition, while enjoying them is a six-month pleasure; in colder climates, such as those colder than zones 7 or 8, many tropical and subtropical plants must winter over in a heated area such as a garage or greenhouse. Iversen is good at imparting this kind of careful detail, showing when to dig up tubers and how to store them, and including a picture demonstrating how early spring bulbs can share the garden with later-blooming tropicals. A glossary of 100 tropical plants at the book's end will get gardeners with a passion for the lush and dazzling off to a great start. --Barrie Trinkle From Publishers Weekly Aimed at gardeners who, horticulture writer Iversen believes, crave something new and different but still focus on times past, this book reprises the Victorian passion for banana trees, elephant ears and a host of other cold-defying tropical plants. And who better to guide temperate gardeners in tropical matters than a Caribbean transplant? A longtime horticulturist in Barbados, Iversen now resides and gardens on Long Island, where he insists tropicals are as easy to plant and grow outdoor as a tomato or zucchini. When the author thinks tropical, he thinks fast, flamboyant and fabulous foliage. Most plants mature by midsummer to become autumn showstoppers, and garden design emphasizes foliage and texture over color. Favoring a totally tropical setting, the author spotlights the popular 19th-century lawn beds and garden enclosures, mentioning little about mixing tropicals with traditional American/English perennial, shrub and annual borders. Although gardeners may be awestruck by the absurd scale of plants that defy our prim garden conventions, a chapter on container gardening shows how space need not constrain the dramatic effect of tropical plantings. In smart, spirited prose that suits his subject, Iversen may convince even skeptics that you don't need a jungle to grow plants from the jungle. Included is a 100-plant glossary and 234 color photos. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Publishers Weekly Aimed at gardeners who, horticulture writer Iversen believes, crave something new and different but still focus on times past, this book reprises the Victorian passion for banana trees, elephant ears and a host of other cold-defying tropical plants. And who better to guide temperate gardeners in tropical matters than a Caribbean transplant? A longtime horticulturist in Barbados, Iversen now resides and gardens on Long Island, where he insists tropicals are as easy to plant and grow outdoor as a tomato or zucchini. When the author thinks tropical, he thinks fast, flamboyant and fabulous foliage. Most plants mature by midsummer to become autumn showstoppers, and garden design emphasizes foliage and texture over color. Favoring a totally tropical setting, the author spotlights the popular 19th-century lawn beds and garden enclosures, mentioning little about mixing tropicals with traditional American/English perennial, shrub and annual borders. Although gardeners may be awestruck by the absurd scale of plants that defy our prim garden conventions, a chapter on container gardening shows how space need not constrain the dramatic effect of tropical plantings. In smart, spirited prose that suits his subject, Iversen may convince even skeptics that you don't need a jungle to grow plants from the jungle. Included is a 100-plant glossary and 234 color photos. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Lush tropical foliage and exotic flowers may be a distant dream for most gardeners, but this new book proves otherwise. Iverson (horticulture, SUNY at Farmingdale) shows how anyone in practically any climate can have a luxuriant tropical garden in his or her own backyard by bringing houseplants outdoors for the summer. Iverson covers the basics, including how to design a garden using color, form, and texture; create tropical beds and borders; and prepare the ground for tropical plants. Although these plants rejuvenate with maximum benefits by being placed in the ground, gardeners with space limitations can sucessfully grow them in containers. Iverson provides tips on the right kind of container, soil requirements, fertilizing, and watering. Individual plants such as cannas, castor beans, and elephant's ears are covered in detail. While not as beautiful as William Warren's Tropical Plants for Home and Garden (Thames & Hudson, 1997), this book does win points for its clear writing and should be welcome in all gardening collections.APhillip Oliver, Univ. of North Alabama Lib., Florence Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the Author Iversen teaches at the State University of New York at Farmingdale, where there's a new Tropical Garden in the Ornamental Horticulture Display Gardens.