The Exotic Garden, Norwich

Step into the one-acre Exotic Garden and you are transported from the middle of Norwich to the tropics – instead of terrace houses, you expect parrots to fly from the palm trees.
The Exotic Garden is one man’s fantasy brought to life. Owner Will Giles developed a passion for tropical plants when he was a small boy. When he was seven, his dad gave him a rough piece of land under an apple tree, telling him to “dig for victory”. Everything he grew had to be functional, and so it was a revelation when his grandma took him to see the hot house at Kew Gardens – he instantly fell in love with the big-leaved plants.
He started collecting houseplants, and soon had more than 100. It was when he watered some on top of the television, which blew up, that his dad gave him his own greenhouse, despite still believing it was only
a “passing phase”.

South-facing site in Norwich
For 15 years Will lived in flats, and fed his love of gardening by doing up the communal gardens. Then in 1982, he came across the site for his Exotic Garden, a rundown house and garden on a one-acre south-facing slope in the centre of Norwich – he bought it for £28,500. The garden hadn’t been touched for years and was waist-high in brambles, nettles, tree saplings, bindweed and ground elder. The plot had been used as a dumping site for bedsteads, bikes and many other rusting items.
Will started in one corner of the garden and cleared the space inch by inch. The oak trees and hedging around the edge of the garden were left to provide shelter and create the garden’s own unique micro climate. Everything else is new, with the plants mainly grown from seed. Will experiments constantly with exotic plants, both hardy and tender, to find ones that will grow and thrive in the garden.

The garden as a stage set
Using mainly reclaimed materials, on a minute budget, the garden now looks like a stage set of the tropics. Rather than growing fruit and vegetables as he did as a child, Will now grows purely for pleasure. Most of the inspiration for the garden comes from his love of travelling to exotic climes. Houseplants not only survive but thrive in the garden along with a vast collection of vibrant-coloured bromeliads, lush tree ferns, brugmansias and gingers. There is even a tropical weed bed!
When Will started there was little information available on this style of gardening, so it was all rather experimental and he quickly discovered that many plants were not so tender as first thought. The garden structure is formed by Colocasia esculenta with its spectacular foliage, and the banana Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’, with vibrant splashes of red on its leaves. These form the backdrop to the more tender spring planting. Most exotics grow quickly, forming a jungle by high summer, which often needs hacking back in September. Will has also experimented with growing spider plants (chlorophytum), tradescantia and Begonia venosa outdoors. The jungle-like feel is enhanced by Will’s pride of exotic cats, who lounge about in the undergrowth.

Don't go for the instant garden
“Most of the time it makes sense to choose smaller plants rather than opting for an instant garden with bigger specimens”, Will advises. “Take time to garden, unless you’re already 70, in which case go for it!”
He paid £400 for a fully-grown trachycarpus 17 years ago. At the same time he planted a cheaper, trunkless version next to it. Now the smaller specimen is twice the size of the more expensive tree. Will believes plants become “bonsai-d” in pots, and that it takes years for their roots to grow normally again.
An unusual feature in the garden is the waterfall. A pump continually recycles the water from a trough, so that it flows down the flint wall behind. Soaking wet ferns, busy Lizzies, begonias and maidenhair ferns poke out from between these rocks, beneath the flow of water. Will puts plug plants in the cracks and they thrive.
This is one area of the garden where the plants do not need watering, but elsewhere many varieties are kept in pots and watering them takes at least an hour every day. Even when there is regular rain the garden needs watering, because all the large foliage keeps water off the roots.

Up in the treetops
The crowning glory of the garden is the giant tree house that is nestled in the limbs of an old oak tree. Up in this tree house you can see for miles across Norwich’s skyline. It
is strange to think that if you looked back the other way you would be able to see a miniature jungle and a tree house!
Will tries to do something new in the garden every year, but is running out of room for his plans. Now he is considering digging out
a cave system in one area to add to the theatrical and exotic feel.

Home for drought-lovers
A new area for drought-tolerant plants (xerophytes), such as cacti, agaves and aeoniums, has been created at the highest point of the garden. Originally this space was taken up by a large tree, but the council gave permission for it to be cut down after it became infested with leaf miner moths. Now the area is flooded with light. Will’s creation is an arid landscape crossed with sunken paths. The raised beds are made from local flint and are filled with gravel and sand to help with the drainage. Here nothing gets fed or even watered.
Will explains that frosty weather is rarely a problem for these plants
– heavy rainfall is more of an issue. The whole lot got drenched in the summer of 2007, but everything still survived.
There are occasionally minor problems with blackfly and vine weevils, but this year caterpillars have been a big problem, and Will has been experimenting with a homemade mixture of diluted garlic, chilli and eucalyptus bark. This will be watered around the plants for as a deterrent.

Organic by default
The garden is organic by default – blood, fish and bone and chicken manure are used to feed the plants mainly because these are the cheapest fertilisers to buy. This is applied in one major feed in spring.
One of the major attractions of the garden is its individuality. The space is filled with quirky fragments of gothic sculptures and reclaimed structures. In one corner is an original Victorian summerhouse, bought for £50, while a 19th century pergola was found in the undergrowth, so Will rebuilt it to create a long tunnel, with a self-fertile kiwi fruit growing over it.
The garden comes into its own in September and October, when the gingers produce large, colourful flowers and everything springs to life, just when other gardens are closing down for the winter. So why not prepare to be amazed, and visit The Exotic Garden this autumn?

Visitor information
The Exotic Garden, 6 Cotman Road,Thorpe Norwich, Norfolk, NR1 4AF Tel. 01603 623167
info@exoticgarden.com, www.exoticgarden.com
Open Every Sunday afternoon from June 20-Oct 26, 1-5pm Admission £4.

Will Giles has written the ‘Encyclopedia of Exotic Plants for Temperate Climates’, which is published by Timber Press. For more information, tel. 01476 541080 or visit www.timberpress.com