Articles | Common Japanese Garden Plants

Flower gardens have, through out several periods, been human's attempt to reconstruct the aesthetic balance of nature. Japanese gardens are known to have been inspired by the symmetry of placid natural landscape and it's harmony with man. A Japanese garden can serve as your muse to create a splendid yet seemingly uncomplicated garden.

Garden flowers plants are one of the important parts of any garden design. A Japanese garden almost has similar concept with Chinese gardening, and also has similar choices and uses of garden flowers plants. This is because Japanese gardening is largely influenced by the Chinese art of gardening. The usual plants used in Japanese gardens are evergreen trees, deciduous trees, bamboo plants, aquatic plants, hedge plants, and groundcover plants.

In a Japanese garden, plants are strategically and sparsely placed creating a peaceful atmosphere of time and space. Likewise, these plants are usually trimmed in dome or circular shapes to reflect the landscape of hills and clouds. Most plants used to mirror this are bonsai Canadian hemlock, cedar, coastal redwood, Himalayan white pine and Japanese black pine. If the space for the garden is bigger there are some instances when these evergreen plants are grown tall instead miniscule bonsai.

This Japanese garden is, also, known for the use of miniature ponds, streams or lakes which further gives a relentless sense of passing time. Likewise, it is common to see bridges and pathways that cross the water which is used to connote journey. Hence, deciduous trees which grow well near watery area like scarlet maple, willow, water oak, tulip tree and maidenhair tree are often used as border or to complement these man-made bodies of water. Moreover, Japanese garden are, also, famous for depicting the ever changing season, deciduous trees for that are typically used since the leaves change to bright shades of yellow, orange and red seasonally before falling off. Besides deciduous trees; aquatic or wetland garden flowers plants like flowering rush, lotus, Japanese irises and Japanese sweet flag are, also, prominently used to complement the waters in a Japanese garden.

Supplementary garden flowers plants like yew, weigela, flowering quince, barberry and pittosporum, on the other hand, are frequently used parallel to walls, screens and gates that enclose a Japanese garden. This hedge plants are key to depict enclosure which is a basic concept of Japanese gardening. It primarily gives the illusion of a surreal remote sanctuary away from a chaotic world.

In addition, ground cover plants are used to give more color and texture to the flat or empty parts of the garden. This is, also, used beneath evergreen and deciduous trees, adjacent to pathways or ponds and rocks. Common ground cover plants includes moss, grass rush, sweet flag, ardisia, baby's tears and spurge.

These garden flowers plants give color, shape, texture and beauty to a Japanese garden landscape. Nonetheless, this kind of garden type needs constant pruning and cutting to maintain the very idea that makes a Japanese garden imperial.