The time of the greatest flower show in the country is fast approaching; the Chelsea Flower Show is probably the most anticipated flower show in the country and as any gardener worth his salt knows this is the place that many gardening trends and ideas originate.

I shall be there on the Monday and together with Thordis Friedrikson, Ian Roofe and the BBC Radio Norfolk team, will be be bringing you some of our impressions of just what is on offer.

Last week I started to tell you about some of my favourite plants that lend an exotic look to the garden. I am lucky to have some heated glass so that I can overwinter some tenderlings but many people cannot, so I have also included some plants that can be grown from seed such as annuals that will give you the 'look'. Eucalyptus are easy from seed and as it is their juvenile foliage that is best for our purpose we can, if necessary, treat them as bedding plants. Eucalyptus gunnii is the most easily found but E. perriniana, known as the spinning gum, is also good. It has perfoliate foliage where each pair of leaves is joined to make a perfect disc around the stem. The tips of the new foliage are tinted pink before taking on a glaucous cast.

Geranium maderense is unashamedly tender. Last year I put some plants in the border in the greenhouse in the Diamond Jubilee Walled Garden. This is unheated but they have come through the winter unscathed, and now I cannot wait for them to flower for this is a real spectacle from which they do not recover but die of exhaustion. However, they are easy to grow from seed and make such a spectacular spherical structure with their glossy, much-divided leaves above their old stems which, as they die, bend down to the ground - thereby propping up the stem of the plant rather like guy ropes. This also makes a very good pot subject but, only for your largest pots - in fact half-barrels might be only just large enough for it!

Another seed-grown plant that is relatively easy is the Chinese Foxglove tree, Paulownia tomentosa. This is a large growing tree but if it is allowed only a single stem which is stooled by cutting it back to ground level each spring, the single resultant shoot will have enormous leaves, as much as 90 cms (3 feet) across, which is exotic enough for anyone. You should allow your tree two to three years to establish before attempting this.

Mina lobata is an endearing annual climber that is closely related to Morning Glories and like them it abhors cold nights. This is a very good reason to delay sowing their seed until the beginning of May, so hopefully by the time the plants are large enough to be planted in the garden the evening temperatures will be kinder. Mina climbs to around two metres (6 feet) and is usefully employed in the garden by allowing it to scramble over plants that have already had their day such as the cut stems of delphiniums, in fact anywhere you like really. I particularly like it scrambling through the thin, wiry and curiously square, stems of verbena bonariensis where its clusters of cream and red flowers, shaped like bunches of small bananas, display themselves perfectly.

Of similar habit is another scrambler although, this time a little shorter at 1.2 metres (4 feet). Rhodochiton atrosanguineus has curious flowers that are a sinister shade of deep plum-black. The flowers do not last for long but, as these emerge from a deep purple, bell-shaped calyx, when the petals drop it is this that remains for many weeks giving an exotic effect looking like a small Tiffany lampshade. As a climber it is never too heavy for its host, so may be left to wander hither and yon. This is not the easiest plant to grow for to give of its best, it really needs treating as a biennial, sowing during the summer and overwintering under frost free glass before planting out the following year.

An easy plant that requires good soil and plenty of space is the annual Castor Oil Plant, Ricinus communis. This has large palmate leaves which on the form 'Carmencita' are bronzed and beautiful with bright red seed capsules. It will easily grow to 1.5 metres (5 feet) tall and will need staking but it is worth the effort!

Zinnias can always be relied upon to give an exotic feel provided the weather is kind, for coming from Mexico they revel in heat and dislike cold, rather like me! Again these need not be sown too early and the middle of May is about right. Their seed is large enough to be sown individually into cell trays and once large enough the resultant seedlings can be potted on and held until a spell of warmth when they may be introduced into the garden. They have a cousin called Tithonia rotundifolia which has the same requirements.

It makes a large plant often up to 1.8 metres (4 feet) tall, with its flowers an unashamedly loud orange with petals that sometimes fold back towards the stem resembling a Mexican sombrero. The foliage is somewhat coarse being a dark, dull green that in the heat of the day can hang, looking limply glabrous but as the day cools they recover.

Finally from seed, Cyperus papyrus which if sown early in the year can grow up to 2.5 metres (8 feet) in a single year. This tender rush has all the connotations that you would expect with the Egyptian papyrus and is a member of the sedge family. Best grown under glass until all danger of frost is passed and the climate is settled it loves a large container and permanently wet feet, in the garden here we sometimes grow it in large tubs which are completely submerged where it makes a substantially exotic specimen. I have tried keeping them through the winter but they are difficult and so easy from seed each year, that there is little point.