Bill Albert has lots of hobbies, such as photography and stained glass, to keep him inside his dark garage on a summer’s day. And that’s why the retired assistant Ohio state auditor likes it when he emerges into the hot sun.

“It’s like the Wizard of Oz,” he said, referring to the moment in the iconic film when Dorothy opens the door in black and white and steps into the colorful wonderful, land of Oz. “That’s what it’s like.”

If Dorothy were “Margaritaville” singer Jimmy Buffett.

Because when Mr. Albert, 70, opens his garage, he doesn’t see the yellow brick road, but a lush garden with a zigzag path that could be “an out of the way place in the Caribbean,” not in northwest Ohio — Waterville to be exact.

Mr. Albert’s garden astounds many people who are surprised that these exotic plants can grow in this climate.

In fact, when the master gardener sent photos of his layout to Fine Gardening magazine, he said the editor was skeptical. “The editor couldn’t believe it was Ohio.”

Daniel Plath, owner of Plath Garden Services, said going tropical in Toledo isn’t far-fetched.

“Actually, many tropical plants are perennials in their native environment,” he said by email. “If grown outside here, they are generally treated as annuals or brought inside for the winter. Some also grow from bulbs or tubers that, when properly stored for the winter, can be planted the following year.”

In Mr. Albert’s garden is musa bajoo, a Japanese banana plant with trunk-like stems, a couple of varieties of ornamental grasses, succulents, hibiscus, elephant ears, canna, hibiscus, croton, colocasia, coleus, castor bean, amaranthus, begonia, princess lily, tibouchina, and more. Bright Talavera pots hold a variety of plants, and colorful pottery parrots swing from perches.

There’s even a screened outdoors room lined with wainscotting from the erianthus revanae, a bamboolike stalk, which Mr. Albert uses for a variety of projects. The cabana-like building is a place from which Mr. Albert and his wife, Donna, and admiring guests, can survey the scene.

And, he said, “The evening is special.”

Winding zigzag through this garden scene is a path made of wooden pallets. The path weaves so the traveler can’t see all of it at once, Mr. Albert said, kind of like the way he planned his garden, and kind of like the path of his life.

Because of an autoimmune disease that affected his liver and made him very ill, Mr. Albert had to undergo a liver transplant that gave him back his health. To memorialize the donor, Mr. Albert built and erected a Japanese torii. “It signifies the sun shining through a split in the mountains and a pathway to life. It’s the reason the garden is here.”

He and his wife have lived in Waterville since about 1980, and at first, his backyard was like any other expanse of green grass.

Mr. Albert wanted to fill in the yard, but what he didn’t want was a short-lived burst of color.

“All the garden tours take place in June, because the flowers are in full bloom,” he said. “And then that’s it.”

Checking the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Map, Mr. Albert discovered that most of Ohio is now in Zone 6, which stretches as far south as St. Louis and as far west as Albuquerque, N.M., where the winters are especially harsh.

The difference, he deduced, was soil. Northwest Ohio has better soil than New Mexico. So why wouldn’t those plants grow in this region?

At first, Mr. Albert turned to succulents, fleshy leaved-plants that store water, thus thriving in bright sun and semiarid regions, including plants such as aloe vera, echeveria, cotyledon, jade plants, and cactus.

“There are only three states in the United States that do not have cactus, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Ohio has prickly pear.” The prickly pear, he said, is a common cactus with yellow flowers.

But there was still something missing on his sunny lawn: color, like the plants that grow on the sunny islands in the Caribbean.

He decided to go tropical. Or something like that.

“There’s tropical and there’s tropical-like; something that looks tropical but can survive here.”

The result has taken a little bit of work and a lot of trial and error, Mr. Albert said.

“It’s all about getting the mind-set,” he said.

His first venture was the banana plant — it isn’t a tree, he said. He had hoped, but never expected, bananas as he tended to it. When the weather turned in October, Mr. Albert cut it back and covered the planting with leaves, which, at that time of year, are plentiful. He never expected to see bananas.

The plant survived and thrived. When he uncovered his garden in spring, he counted at least 130, but he said that it would be more by now.

And this year, he found a banana on one of his bushes.

“I’ve waited 10 years,” he said, describing his disappointment when one of the neighbor children plucked it from the bush.

Some of the bushes are about 16 feet tall.

He has added cannas, elephant ears, and amaranthus, all started from cuttings and from seeds.

He said he especially loved the amaranthus, otherwise known as Joseph’s Coat. It used to be prevalent in the area, he said, but the plant is becoming scarcer.

But not for him. “I harvest the seeds by the thousands, millions, really,” he said.

His garden continues to grow, thanks to careful tending and plants dropped off by a relative or given to him by neighbors.

But one has to use common sense when it comes to planting, Mr. Albert said. Just because a plant has pretty leaves or lavish color doesn’t mean it should be planted.

Some of these plants will “take over the vegetation,” he said, referring to Kudzu, a beautiful coiling vine from southeast Asia that was introduced in the South in the 19th century and has spread like wild since.

Certain bamboos are moderately invasive, which means he doesn’t plant them near water sources or next to each other.

So what happens when northwest Ohio weather turns bitter and snowy, unlike the winter in Florida?

By October, Mr. Albert begins the process of pruning and covering bushes and plants with layers of leaves. He said any of the potted plants that are tropical and at least Zone 9 or higher will go indoors after drastically pruning them.

His family room can become crowded.

“It’s a very depressing view come Nov. 1,” Mr. Albert said. “Everything is whacked out and piles of leaves are everywhere.”

But then in December, in his family room, he is surrounded by the tropics, especially as the bird of paradise bursts into bloom.

Come May, however, Mr. Albert is busy reviving the tropical scene in Waterville, certain it will continue to delight him and impress guests through October.

First Published August 22, 2017, 4:35 p.m.