"The Subtropical Garden; or, Beauty of Form in the Flower Garden" by W. Robinson is a late 1800s gardening book promoting the use of subtropical plants, which encourages gardeners to think beyond just colorful flowers and appreciate the beauty of plant shapes and sizes. The book begins by setting out the groundwork for a new way of envisioning gardens, explaining how to mix different plants together to create stunning natural effects, rather than relying on big blocks of the same plants. It stresses how important choosing the right plants and arranging them thoughtfully is, and how anyone can do it, even in cooler areas, using plants that can survive the weather showing how simple it is to make beautiful gardens with a variety of plants.

The Subtropical Garden; or, beauty of form in the flower garden.
By W. (William) Robinson
Discover a path to creating visually captivating gardens by embracing form and diversity.
Summary
About the AuthorWilliam Robinson: was an Irish practical gardener and journalist whose ideas about wild gardening spurred the movement that led to the popularising of the English cottage garden, a parallel to the search for honest simplicity and vernacular style of the British Arts and Crafts movement, and were important in promoting the woodland garden. Robinson is credited as an early practitioner of the mixed herbaceous border of hardy perennial plants, a champion too of the "wild garden", who vanquished the high Victorian pattern garden of planted-out bedding schemes. Robinson's new approach to gardening gained popularity through his magazines and several books—particularly The Wild Garden, illustrated by Alfred Parsons, and The English Flower Garden.
William Robinson: was an Irish practical gardener and journalist whose ideas about wild gardening spurred the movement that led to the popularising of the English cottage garden, a parallel to the search for honest simplicity and vernacular style of the British Arts and Crafts movement, and were important in promoting the woodland garden. Robinson is credited as an early practitioner of the mixed herbaceous border of hardy perennial plants, a champion too of the "wild garden", who vanquished the high Victorian pattern garden of planted-out bedding schemes. Robinson's new approach to gardening gained popularity through his magazines and several books—particularly The Wild Garden, illustrated by Alfred Parsons, and The English Flower Garden.