Notable cold-hardy Asian plants: A double pink weeping Higon cherry (Prunus subhirtella ‘Pendula Plena Rosea’); B Spiraea thunbergii; C Prunus ‘Shirotae’; D non-running hardy bamboo Fargesia nitida; E Rhododendron mucronulatum; F R. m. cv.

 

The Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, designed in 1894 by Makoto Hagiwara, is the oldest such garden in the United States. Hagiwara imported one thousand flowering cherry trees along with other native plants from his East-Asian homeland. He lived in and cared for the gardens until 1942, when he and his family were forced into an internment camp.

The best known U.S. planting of Japanese trees is around the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C., a man-made inlet created in the late nineteenth century. The view is dominated by the Jefferson Memorial to the south, and in early April by flowering cherries around the banks. In 1912, the people of Japan gave 3,020 trees to the people of the United States. The original gift included nearly a dozen varieties, but is dominated, today, by pinkish white Yoshino (Someiyoshino). The cherry tree, or “sakura,” is a symbol of the fleeting nature of life. In Japan, the celebration of the trees peaks not when they bloom, but when the blossoms shatter and litter the ground with pink and white petals.

When we think of Japanese gardens, we picture the elements of the style: cloud-pruned shrubs, moon bridges, statues of Buddha, stone lanterns, bamboo fences, koi ponds, and waterfalls. Alternately, the quiet, contemplative Zen gardens with floors of carefully raked gravel come to mind.

As for Japanese plants, North America and Europe must have been connected to those islands long ago, for many Western species have counterparts there. The overwhelming number of analogous species occur in the eastern United States in genera such as Jeffersonia, Podophyllum (mayapple), Arisaema (Jack-in-the-pulpit), Pachysandra, Viburnum, Asarum (wild ginger), and even the cherry trees (Prunus spp.).

You cannot establish a true Japanese garden outside of Japan, but like many of the places that inspire us, we can adapt special features in the Japanese style to our home landscapes. Consider certain concepts: enclosure, reduced scale, controlled angles of view, and symbolism. Nature is revered, distilled, and presented in miniature. Another feature is “borrowed scenery.” You may not have a snow-capped mountain in the background of your garden, but neighboring trees can be “brought” into the landscape with thoughtful framing.

Western notions like symmetry are eschewed—mirroring in a natural landscape only exists in reflections in water. We may not be able to decipher all aspects of the subtle symbolism, but the overriding ethic is clear—produce an entire “world” in a garden.

The cherry blossom holiday celebrates petal fall.