Sub-tropicals are the plants that let a Southern garden dream a little warmer than its zone. Bold of leaf and often extravagant in flower, they carry the look of the tropics into places that see real winter, coming into their own through the long, humid heat that makes so many other plants struggle. Some are hardy enough to stay in the ground; others are grown as you would a tender perennial, dying back and returning, or moving under cover for the coldest weeks.

In the landscape they are the garden's exclamation points. A single large-leaved specimen can anchor a bed or shade a terrace; massed, they turn a courtyard into something lush and enclosing. Sub-tropicals reward warm, sheltered corners, the south walls and protected patios where heat pools and cold drains away, and they pair beautifully with the finer textures of ferns and grasses that set off their scale.

We grow sub-tropicals because so much of the South sits on the knife-edge where these plants are just possible, and getting them to thrive is one of the real pleasures of the regional garden. Many are more cold-tolerant than their looks suggest, and part of what this collection offers is the knowledge of which ones will take a given winter, and how to carry them through it.

Site them for warmth and sharp drainage, feed and water through the growing season, and give the tender kinds a sheltered spot or a pot that can be moved. For companions, the broad foliage of our Palms and the woodland texture of our Ferns extend the same layered, green-on-green feeling, and our Edibles collection carries warm-climate fruit that keeps good company here.