About Will Giles - The Exotic Garden by Will Giles - Norwich, Norfolk

A subtropical garden in a temperate climate

Will Giles

Wills father, Duncan Giles was very much a dig for victory gardener and when he moved up to Norwich from London after the war, he wanted to literally create the good life, where he grew many different types of vegetable and countless fruit trees such as apples trained neatly against the fence as u shaped cordons and espaliers. Peaches and nectarines were exotic additions as well as his personal tobacco patch for use in his large collection of pipes! There were also two ducks, sixteen chickens, dogs, cats, canaries, terrapins etc, etc.

When Will was seven and after much pestering, his father eventually gave him a small piece of land under an old Bramley apple tree and said. ‘If you can keep it weed free for one year, I will let you have a bigger piece of land next year.’

The land actually wasn’t much good as it was - as you can imagine - full of roots! Never-the-less Will grew many things with the experience he had learnt on his father’s large vegetable patch.

On a trip to Kew gardens with his grandmother Nellie Sefton, he fell head-over-heels in love with the Palm house with its huge leaved tropical plants, dripping with moisture and exotic intoxicating scents. For several years after this visit, Will pestered his father for a greenhouse which was eventually built for his 10th birthday - a marvellous hand built 8x16ft lean-to greenhouse facing south. Will soon filled it to the gunnels with exotic plants, though his father disliked paying for the winter heating bills!

Several years passed, and on leaving school with only one O level in art, he was told that he couldn’t get into horticultural school without more qualifications. Instead Will went to art school, where he specialised in photography and illustration. He became a well known and successful illustrator, eventually buying his present house in 1982, where he could revel in his dreams and eventually create an exotic garden that didn’t need a huge glass roof over it!

Television Work

In the early nineties Will Giles first TV appearance was on ‘Garden Calendar’ with Roy Lancaster, still his favourite garden presenter to this day! Shortly after this, Will was approached by Alan Mason, to appear on two episodes of ‘Gardens without Borders’ in Spain. Rather hot work in July! Probably the most fun he had was working with Lisa Davis on the first series of ‘Real Gardens’ filmed in the garden over ten weeks from spring to high summer. In the late nineties he appeared on two series for Anglia TV, ‘Grass Roots’ and ‘Inside Out’. Both were filmed at the ‘Exotic garden’ and other locations in East Anglia. In the chilly spring of 1999 Will appeared on C4s ‘Gardeners Gardens’ and actually had the pleasure of interviewing his own father. In 2000 Will Giles worked with Rachel De Thame on a garden makeover in Alexander Palace for a series called 'Small Town Gardens'. In the spring of 2001 he was despatched down to the ‘Eden Project’ to present a program for ‘The Open University’ on BBC2. A few years later Will met up with Rachel De Thame again to do a piece for Gardeners World on the ‘Exotic Garden’ here in Norwich. In recent years the garden was featured on ‘Country Lives’ with Chris Beardshaw and ‘I Own Britain’s Best House and Garden’ with Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen. It is also going to be featured in the August edition of the RHS Garden Magazine

'The New Exotic Garden'

In April 2000, Will Giles first book ‘The New Exotic Garden’ was published, where he extols the joys of this fascinating style of gardening. He contributes to a weekly gardening phone-in on BBC Radio Norfolk and writes for various magazines including ‘BBC Gardeners World’, ‘Garden Answers’ as well as various local magazines and newspapers including a regular column in the Eastern daily Press.

‘The Encyclopaedia of Exotic Plants For Temperate Climates ’

Will Giles latest book ‘The Encyclopaedia of Exotic Plants For Temperate Climates’ published by ‘Timber Press’, is a massive tome which covers over 2,500 species and cultivars (and 500 plus photographs) that can be grown in the UK and the Pacific North-western coastal States of North America and of course any part of the world that has a temperate climate. It is a must for enthusiasts and gardeners giving soil requirements and minimum temperatures for all entries. With our ever-changing weather, especially with climate change in mind, this exiting book shows you what can be grown now and in the future.

For the rest of my time, he is feverishly working in his garden in Norwich, creating hisown fantasy garden with the assistance of six cats and numerous garden slaves. Who said cats and gardens don’t go together!

During the winter months and into spring Will Giles likes to get away to tropical and exotic climbs leaving our cold damp British winters behind. This year he is leading tours for the Royal Horticultural Society to New Zealand and for the Natural History Museum to Sri Lanka in conjunction with Cox and Kings.