Features to Expect in a Japanese Garden
21.07.2023 - 22:41 / awaytogarden.com
I KILLED, OR AT LEAST MAIMED, ITS UPRIGHT COUSIN. TWICE. But the prostrate-growing Japanese plum yew, Cephalotaxus harringtoniana ‘Prostrata,’ just keeps happily stretching its legs—and arms—on my back hillside. A handsome, heat-tolerant conifer that creates a sprawl of semi-glossy green groundcover in the shade…even though it’s many times wider than any book or other reference promised.More of a good thing, I guess you could say, and also deer-resistant.
The Japanese plum yew has linear, dark green flat needles that resemble its namesake’s: the yew, or Taxus. Those are its needles and also its male reproductive structures, below; ‘Prostrata’ is all-male, and therefore makes no female seed-producing structures.
While Taxus is deer candy, though, Cephalotaxus is rated as not to their liking by experts from geographic areas as diverse as North Carolina State University, California-based Monrovia Nursery (a giant wholesaler), Rutgers University (New Jersey), and Michael Dirr in his various reference books.
It’s also rated as hardy for Zones 6-9 in most references, but I can say that Cephalotaxus has lived more than decade in my Zone 5B garden.The plum yew I failed with was the fastigiate form, C. harringtoniana ‘Fastigiata.’ In my usually snowy winters, its distinctly vertical branches got splayed open again and again, and the shrub never really recovered its handsome columnar stance, so I dug it out. Not dead, technically, but so badly maimed that I knew we weren’t meant for each other longterm.
With ‘Prostrata,’ though, it’s been nonstop success. At about 2 to 3 feet high, it makes a handsome underplanting for large trees, or cascading down a shady or semi-shady bank (top photo). Books say it can be more like 3 feet tall,
Features to Expect in a Japanese Garden
The Japanese poetic work, ‘Manyoshu’ published in 759 AD but written 300-400 years prior selected 7 flowers for Autumn. This corresponds to the 7 Herbs of spring reported on an earlier post.
Ornamental Japanese Maples are widely available for planting in your garden. The autumn colouring makes these trees spectacular when planted en mass in a woodland or Japanese garden setting.
Despite my garden being full to overflowing after the spring rain I have decided to create a new area for a Japanese Garden. When starting a new project I was advised to have a name that may colour the end result. I opted for the grand title of ‘Japan Land’Â This will be a long term project and I won’t rush it as I have on other projects in the past.
London Holland Park’s water feature in Kyoto Garden.
The Japanese have a long and detailed affair with fruit tree blossom. Apricots, Prunus armenaica and Plums, Prunus salicina are well known to western gardeners but what of Mumes.
Japanese maple or Acer palmatum are popular trees and small shrubs. They are grown for an attractive habit and dramatic foliage.
Read Japanese Maple root and branch review
My ‘Samurai garden’ is a small homage to a full blown Japanese garden. I was attracted to Japanese gardens when I attended a talk at our local garden society. (They are often good events to pick up tips or special plants. I belong to a couple but only attend if there is something of interest.) After starting on my project I was surprised how many Japanese gardens there were to visit or spot when walking around.
There are two common species of larch Larix kaempferi (aka leptolepis the Japanese Larch) and European Larch Larix decidua. As the name implies the Larch looses their tufted leaves in autumn. They grow in most conditions but do not like wet or chalky soil
Holland Park has some Zen like features but fails my Zen test. The classic elements of a successful Zen are stone, sand or gravel, water, plants and space. Then there is a question of balance between yin and yang. Cramped or cluttered gardens inhibit the flow of spirit so space is potentially the key ingredient of a Zen garden.
Japanese camellias (Camellia japonica) are one of the most recognized evergreen shrubs planted in Southern gardens. As the common name implies, these beauties are native to the Orient. The first ones were introduced to South Carolina by a Frenchman, André Michaux, who was a botanist to King Louis XVI. Michaux developed the first botanical garden in the South near Charleston in 1786. He shared his camellias with his neighbor, Henry Middleton, who started his landscaped gardens at Middleton Place in 1741. One of the original plants survives at Middleton today, a beautiful double red camellia ‘Reine des Fleurs’ (Queen of Flowers).