Other gardeners enjoy the scent of soil and ripe tomatoes, and bunches of proteas or roses. They plant what they love, or what those who love them have given them. And then there are those who are just passionate about plants.

Their gardens will be beautiful, not for any aesthetic talent, but because almost all of the plant world is beautiful.

Our garden is reasonably gorgeous just now because although I have minus artistic ability, the sages, belladonnas et al have multiplied over the years, and tree ferns and pomegranates are just naturally lovely.

But my pride just now are the plants that no one notices until I haul them over to admire them ... even though I know the pause as they look at the spiky yellow-fruited Kei apples, the thorny red-fruited finger limes or the date palms is not awe, but an attempt to find a few words of appreciation - a bit like the pause when I try to find the words to congratulate someone on a game of golf.

This column is for plant devotees, for those of you who want to plant something wonderfully unusual just for the joy of seeing how it grows, or even if it will grow in your garden, in our climate.

The tiny dwarf daphne cneorum, for example, only grows to 10cm high and 30cm wide, and prefers sunny hillsides. It is a mass of tight pink blossom all spring, with repeat blooming if you remember to water it, or we have a year when it rains. It is as deliciously scented as all the daphnes, but possibly better.

The cook who has almost everything needs a yuzu (Citrus junos), a Chinese citrus used in many Chinese and Japanese recipes. The cold-tolerant tree will grow to about three metres but can be kept pruned much lower, and the abundant fruit tastes a bit like a lemon but with a touch of mandarin sweetness and grapefruit tartness.

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One of the new dwarf macadamias, like Mini Maca, might also fit the bill. It grows to about 1-2 metres, fruits in about three years from planting, grows in dappled shade to full sun and can be harvested all autumn winter and in to spring. Kids love hunting for the nuts, which fall when they are ripe.

The balcony orchardist might like a dwarf loquat. They grow to about one metre, look cute and provide months of colour, with big juicy fruit. Spectacular and hardy, they are also excellent as an easy-care fruiting hedge.

Dwarf Red Shahtoot Mulberry is a show-off plant, with spectacularly long dangling fruit like the tasteless White Shartoot mulberry, which looks dramatic but tastes of nothing in particular. The red ones are quite tasty, though the dwarf black is better.

If you have only a tiny lawn or want a groundcover or garden edging, Japanese Blood Grass is a real showstopper, wonderfully hardy and extremely bright. I'm never sure whether I adore it or it's a bit too much, like the most massive dinner-plate-sized dahlias.

The most showy plant I've seen recently is the Cassabanana. The bush grows about two metres high and has gigantic 60cm-long and 15cm-wide red to brown fruit. It is more like a very sweetly scented melon than a banana, and needs a sunny spot sheltered from cold wind, regular watering and lots of admiration. The seeds are poisonous, so avoid growing them where kids or pets might eat them.

You are better off with a dwarf red banana - both the fruit and the plant are smaller than Cavendish and other common bananas, and ours has survived nicely for three years in the garden with no care at all, next to a sugar banana which has a - ta da! - a large bunch of fruit almost ready to pick. The bunch presents a conundrum though - the longer I leave it, the sweeter the fruit ... but the sweeter the fruit, the more aromatic they will become, and so attract the fruit bats, who will guzzle the lot overnight, about two metres from my bed, thus keeping me awake as well as pinching my bananas.

But at least I will be sure they are appreciating them.