Texas

Helpful sites, beautiful sights

Posted on July 24, 2019 by usjapanesegardens

In searching for information about Japanese gardens in the United States, I came across the Japanese Gardening Organization in 2012. A delightful fellowship developed as my husband and I visited several gardens I found through members of the Board of Directors.

(from 2012 visit) Bob Brackman, executive director, explains plans for the future of the San Antonio Botanical Garden to K.T. and Don in the azumaya completed in the 2005 renovation of Kumamoto En.
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

The web site of JGO developed into a photo-rich delight to the senses.

http://www.japanesegardening.org/site/

With the addition of chapters from Andrew Dean’s Complete Japanese Garden Handbook, the site has become information rich too.

Please give it a look.

North American Japanese Garden Association plans regional conferences in 2017

Posted on November 5, 2016 by usjapanesegardens

Descanso Gardens in Flintridge near Los Angeles will host the North American Japanese Garden Association regional conference in January 2017 Photo courtesy of Descanso Gardens

California and Texas will play host to regional conferences of the North American Japanese Garden Association in January and February 2017.

Saturday and Sunday, January 14 and 15, 2017 a regional conference will be held in Southern California at Descanso Gardens in Flintridge.

Marking the 50th anniversary of Descanso Gardens, the conference is designed to “explore the Japanese garden experience in Southern California in a two-day regional event featuring hands-on workshops, an exhibition, lectures on horticulture and history and expert-led tours of five Asian gardens,” said a release from the North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA).

“Descanso Gardens, just northeast of downtown Los Angeles, is celebrating the 50th year of its Japanese garden. Descanso is embracing the garden’s evolving form, its identity as a focal point for a multi-cultural community and its role in inspiring new artistic creation. For lovers of camellia, a familiar plant in the Japanese garden, Descanso is home to the largest camellia collection in North America.

“The Japanese garden at the nearby Huntington boasts a history over 100 years as well as a legacy of evolution and renovation seen in its restored Japanese House and a new tea garden. Two other large gardens in the area — the SuiHoen (Garden of Water and Fragrance) in Van Nuys and the Storrier-Stearns Japanese Garden in Pasadena — illustrate how Japanese gardens can demonstrate the sustainable use of water in even an arid climate. All of these gardens feature exceptional garden architecture that makes use of Southern California’s year-round warmth and indoor-outdoor lifestyle.”

For further information and to register, contact NAJGA at http://www.najga.org/Southern-California-2017

In February — 10 through 12, the Japanese Garden at Fort Worth Botanical Garden and the Meiners garden in Grand Prairie will host a NAJGA regional conference.

Fort Worth Japanese garden

The following text is quoted from the NAJGA web site offering registration for Texas events.

“The diverse topography of the state of Texas contains elements associated with both the southern and southwestern parts of the United States, from the rolling prairies, grasslands, forests and coastlines in the east to the deserts of the southwest. As big as the land itself is the canvas of myriad possibilities for expressing the landscape-inspired artistry of a Japanese garden in the Lone Star State.

“The Japanese garden at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden and a private garden located in the city of Grand Prairie illustrate the range of traditional and contemporary landscape artistry worked into that sprawling canvas. The 7.5-acre garden in Fort Worth incorporates both a traditional stroll garden with a water feature and two interpretations of the dry landscape style. The Meiners Garden in Grand Prairie is an example of the adaptability of the Japanese garden aesthetic, with its emphasis on responding to the environment in which the garden exists. The tea garden and the hill-and-pond garden are seamlessly integrated with the residence in traditional Japanese manner. A larger pond garden in the premises is a parallel ongoing project.

“These gardens illustrate how Japanese gardens are always a work in progress. On February 10, 11 and 12, the North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA) offers a rare opportunity for participants to both shape the future of these gardens and appreciate them through hands-on sessions. The sessions include the repair and maintenance of man-made and horticultural elements, the creation of a new water feature, and a day of learning with a focus on the tea garden tradition.

“This regional event is highly recommended for landscape and horticulture professionals in the south and southwestern US with an interest in Japanese garden design, construction and maintenance. For garden owners and other enthusiasts, the event provides an instructive inside view of two gardens in evolution that can relate to their own creation / maintenance concerns and garden study.”

Activities included in the workshops include: bamboo fence repair, shaping of wave-form foliage, preparing trees for transplant, head water and stream construction, tours and tea ceremony.

This event is eligible for CEUs (continuing education units) with professional organizations. See the NAJGA web site and registration form for more information.

http://najga.org/Texas-2017

Categories: California, Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Texas | Tags: camellia, Descanso Gardens, Huntington, NAJGA, regional conference | Leave a comment

Where do I find…..

Posted on October 19, 2013 by usjapanesegardens

The right tool makes any job easier. Finding the right tool can be something of a pilgrimage.

We are fortunate in Hilo to have Garden Exchange close at hand for bamboo splitters, hand forged pruners, and properly balanced hedge shears.

For those seeking carpentry tools as well as garden supplies, sewing kits, and bonsai equipment there are several wonderful places we visited on the mainland.

Friends in Phoenix, Arizona tipped us to Anzen Hardware in Los Angeles.

My husband’s father ran a hardware store in Texas. Anzen Hardware was a treat to visit.

Located on East First Street near the Japanese Village Plaza Mall, Anzen Hardware is full to the rafters with wonderful goods. Chefs seek this store out for its fine selection of quality knives. Sake makers come here for their supplies. There are bamboo brooms and gravel rakes for the gardener.

Fans call it an old fashioned hardware store for the handyman. Best of all is owner Nori Takitani who started as a high school part time worker in 1954. One of the elders of the community, he can be counted on for good service and advice.

My favorite purchase from this store (so far) were the vegetable seed packets along with good advice from Nori to put them in the refrigerator first “to wake them up” before planting.

Another seed source was the gift shop at the Japanese American National Museum a few blocks down the street. Kitazawa Seed packets and a well stocked bookcase were favorite attractions in the JANM store.

Contact the museum at: http://www.janm.org/

Or find Kitazawa Seed at: http://www.kitazawaseed.com/

To the north is Hida Tool on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley.

Bill waits for the doors to open early one morning.

Like Anzen, Hida Tool has crowded shelves, knowledgeable staff, and museum pieces on the wall. In addition to the store, Hida Tool has gone high tech with a web site.

http://www.hidatool.com/

As mentioned on their site, “Hida Tool was started in response to requests from San Francisco Bay Area woodworkers to get tools like those being used by Makoto Imai, who had come from Japan in 1978 after his 5-year apprenticeship in carpentry plus 9 years as a teahouse and temple builder. His were the hand tools of the builders of traditional homes and temples in Japan, including saws with both crosscut and rip teeth on the same blade, planes with wooden bodies quite different from those of European and early American wooden planes, and both plane blades and chisels forged by methods developed by the blacksmiths who created the famous samurai swords. These tools had a layer of very hard steel forged to a larger mass of softer iron, which allowed the formation in the tempering step of a harder cutting edge than was permissible in tools made entirely of similar carbon steel.

“The business was opened in San Rafel, California (north of the Golden Gate) in 1982 by Imai-san’s brother-in-law Osamu Hiroyama and Kip Mesirow, author of “Care and Use of Japanese Woodworking Tools” and former owner of a smaller Japanese tool store in Berkeley. Hida Tool Co. moved to our current location in Berkeley in the summer of 1984 with a greater variety of carpentry tools. Because of the interest in tools used for Japanese gardens, these became the second category of tools stocked. Kitchen knives, the third “specialty of the house,” also make use of the swordmakers’ technique of combining two different metals. A smaller number of other tools, etc., all imported from Japan, can be found on this website and in the store.

“Whether you enter through the front door, your computer email, or telephone, our staff at Hida Tool Co. will do our best to help you find the exact tool that you need within these specialties. However, still true to our origins, we carry no power tools, although we do stock a large assortment of drill bits for your hand or power drill.”

I purchased tools for fence building and knot tying plus exquisitely balanced hedge shears, camellia oil in a spray bottle, small sewing scissors, and handkerchiefs for fellow workers. All was shipped to me by the store and arrived in good order.

Wandering down the street from our hotel in San Francisco, we came upon Soko Hardware on Post Street. Another family-style hardware store carrying excellent culinary knives, garden supplies, woodworking tools, plus kitchen equipment, fine dishes, paper lanterns, and seeds among many other items.

Owned and operated by the Ashizawa family since 1925, Soko Hardware is now under the guidance of the third generation, Roy Ashizawa.

http://sfjapantown.org/soko-hardware/

A Yahoo reviewer noted of Soko Hardware: “The ceramics section holds a dizzying array of vases in aesthetic organic shapes, plates in all sizes and shapes, and platters suitable for a tea ceremony. Traditional finishes, such as oxblood and crackle glaze are the order of the day and the quality of everything is good whatever the price tag.”

Garden and museum gift shops are another source.

Heritage seeds from the time of Thomas Jefferson can be found in the gift shop at Monticello.

“…there is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me…” Thomas Jefferson said in a 1790 letter to his daughter.

Bamboo fabric gloves were a favorite purchase from the Chicago Botanic Garden gift shop.

Chicago Botanic Garden gift shop in the Visitor Center
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

An annual sale of bulbs got my attention in Denver.

Organic products of all kinds, including seeds, were available at Weatherford Gardens just outside of Fort Worth, Texas.

http://www.weatherfordgardens.com/

a sampling of products carried in the store
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

a small section of the seed shelves where I did my shopping
(photo by Bill Eger)

Where do you go to find that special thing for your garden? Comments are welcome.

Be nice! All photographs appearing in this blog are the property of K.T. Cannon-Eger or Bill F. Eger. All the photography on this blog is protected by U.S. Copyright Laws, and are not to be manipulated, downloaded or reproduced any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions without written permission. Copyright 2013 K.T. Cannon-Eger All Rights Reserved.

Categories: California, Fort Worth, Glencoe, Illinois, Texas, Virginia | Tags: garden supplies, heritage seeds, Japanese tools | 1 Comment

What else has been in the garden?

Posted on September 21, 2013 by usjapanesegardens

Tracks of wildlife are not uncommon at Sansho-en, the Elizabeth Hubert Malott Japanese Garden at Chicago Botanic Gardens in Glencoe, IL. This coyote track was found one morning near the shoin house.

What’s in your garden when you aren’t looking? Gardeners have to deal with more than the occasional insect infestation or small children climbing on stones.

Perhaps the coyote at Sansho-en was hunting something like the rabbits I noticed all over the lawn at Marston House in San Diego.

Late one afternoon, rabbits covered the lawns at Marsden House in San Diego at the upper end of Balboa Park.

Late one afternoon, rabbits covered the lawns at Marston House in San Diego at the upper end of Balboa Park.

Birds seem to cause the most difficulty for gardens with ponds, especially birds that eat koi like a heron at Fort Worth and another at San Antonio’s Sunken Gardens at Brackenridge Park.

Focused, this fast beak scooped up several small fish from the pond at Sunken Garden in San Antonio.

A wary goose halted momentarily at the end of the path near the plum viewing arbor at Missouri Botanical Garden. Geese leave behind copious amounts of waste making paths into minefields.

Ducks join koi in the pond at Ro Ho En in Phoenix, competing for food.

But of all the critters we came across, furry or feathered or two-legged, the smallest seemed to cause the most problems. My husband was unfamiliar with squirrels and chipmunks and was taking a lot of photographs. Horticulturist Benjamin Carroll at Sansho-en noticed this and commented that Bill “wouldn’t find them so cute when you see the damage they do.”

This bold fellow owned the path at the Anderson Japanese Garden in Rockford IL.

Waterfront squirrel in between Battery Park and the wharves in New York City

Photos in this blog otherwise uncredited are by K.T. Cannon-Eger.

Categories: Arizona, Glencoe, Illinois, Missouri, Rockford, San Antonio, St. Louis, Texas | Tags: koi, pests | Leave a comment

First NAJGA Journal published

Posted on May 26, 2013 by usjapanesegardens

The first issue of the Journal of the North American Japanese Garden Association features a view of the tea deck at Sho-Fu-En in Denver Botanic Gardens.
photo by Bill F. Eger

The first issue of The Journal of the North American Japanese Garden Association arrived in our mailbox the other day and it’s gorgeous! Within heavy cover stock are more than 60 pages of well written, beautifully illustrated articles.

Topics in this inaugural edition include an extensive article by Robert Karr on The Garden of the Phoenix in Chicago — which article has been translated into Japanese. The story celebrates the 120-year history of the garden and looks toward the future with plans for mass plantings of cherry trees in the lagoon nearby.

It is followed by a detailed account of a garden now gone: Middlegate Japanese Gardens of Pass Christian, Mississippi by landscape architect Anne Legett.

As Journal editor Kendall Brown points out, “The former garden’s bright future and the latter’s forlorn state signal the fragility of gardens and the need for careful stewardship.”

Six regional gardens — Birmingham, Alabama; Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California; Kumamoto-en in San Antonio, Texas; Sho-Fu-En in Denver, Colorado, the Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden on the campus of California State University Long Beach and Portland Japanese Garden in Portland, Oregon — offer comparative and contrasting views on several questions surrounding the topic of master planning. NAJGA executive director Diana Lawroe analyzed results of questions, interviews and documents, pulling together a cogent and insightful article.

A Living Friendship of Flowers details horticultural challenges in observing the centennial of the Japan-U.S. Cherry Blossom Gift. Case studies include Chicago Botanic Garden, Fort Worth Botanic Garden, and Waimea Hawaii.

An article on interpretive education offers case studies on docent tours, ephemeral and permanent signs, and new technologies such as cell phone guides.

Jill Raggett, Ph.D., is a specialist in the emergence of Japanese style gardens in the British Isles, historic garden restoration, and biographies for the Japan Society. This distinguished speaker offers her view of the first conference of NAJGA — Connections — held October 2012 in Denver, Colorado.

Finally there is a book review of a reprint of the 1940 work by America’s first Japanese garden expert Loraine E. Kuck, well known to Hawaii garden folk for her books and garden designs here. Miyuki Katahita-Manabe, Ph.D., of Osaka notes in her review: “The reprinting in 2012 of Loraine Kuck’s The Art of Japanese Gardens, first published in 1940, provides an opportunity for reassessing this important book that introduced many English-language readers to the cultural history of Japanese gardens.”

The Journal is a benefit of NAJGA membership. It was made possible through the support of The Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership. Japanese language translation service were provided by Matsuda, Funai, Eifert & Mitchell, Ltd.

NAJGA is a professional non-profit membership organization dedicated to the advancement and sustainability of Japanese gardens throughout the United States and Canada. Founded in 2011 with input from more than 200 Japanese garden professionals, NAJGA focuses on the Horticulture, Human Culture, and Business Culture of Japanese gardens through a variety of programs and services. NAJGA membership is open to everyone.

For more information, go to http://www.najga.org

Cover photo for The Journal by Bill F. Eger. Comments on this and other articles in this blog are welcome.

Categories: Alabama, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Texas | Tags: cherry blossom trees, NAJGA | 1 Comment

Quiet Beauty: The Japanese Gardens of North America arrives on bookshelves worldwide

Posted on May 13, 2013 by usjapanesegardens

cover photo by David Cobb of the hexagonal yukimi style lantern at the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle

A new look at Japanese gardens in North America — Quiet Beauty — provides the viewing public with detailed information and delightful photographs on 26 peaceful places across the continental United States and into Canada.

Author Kendall H. Brown is a professor of Asian art history at California State University Long Beach. Photographer David M. Cobb is a member of the North American Nature Photography Association, Garden Writers Association, and Professional Photographers of America.

Released by the esteemed publishing house Tuttle Publishing, this beautiful book offers history and invites thoughtfulness on how these gardens came to be and what they offer to us now. Insightful text is accompanied by more than 180 stunning color photographs and a few reproductions of antique postal cards.

In the introduction — Places to Dream — Dr. Brown notes, “Japanese gardens or, more accurately, Japanese-style gardens, in North America offer distinct pleasures. In contrast to the cacophony of cities, the anonymity of suburbs, and even the anxiety of deserts or forests, these gardens can provide beautifully controlled environments. In artful landscapes we lose ourselves in a path woven around a pond and a harmonious stone arrangement; we delight in the variegated colors of graceful koi and the bright hues of blossoming plums; and we are calmed by a stream’s gentle murmur and the dappled greens of moss. Another kind of pleasure is contextual and social rather than sensory and psychological. Japanese gardens in North America are often found where we least expect them, and in places unknown in pre-modern Japan. Thus we feel a special delight in discovering a ‘dry garden’ of stones and sand at a museum, a lush pond garden on a college campus, or a waterfall-fed stream garden in a hospital. Those familiar with gardens in Japan may also enjoy Japanese-style gardens intellectually, noting creative plant substitutions or thoughtful ways of interpreting Japanese design principles within distinctly North American spaces.”

Dr. Brown takes three eras posited by garden historian Makoto Suzuki of the Nodai Institute, professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture, and expands them to five: the age of world fairs and expositions, building bridges, innovation by adaptation, expansive visions and traditions transformed.

During the past ten years. I have read many articles by Ken Brown and have heard him speak at several conferences. I serve on the editorial board of the North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA) which editorial board he chairs. In person, I can verify that Dr. Brown delivers a substantial amount of information in a short amount of time — all of it masterfully accompanied by photographs, post cards, newspaper clippings and other visual aids along with a good sense of humor and split second timing. There are times I have felt he is delivering information faster than I can absorb it so I am delighted to have such a beautiful volume I can savor at leisure.

I have a special appreciation for David Cobb’s photographs. My husband and I have been to many of the places depicted and know what it takes to get the perfect image of that spot. So many of Cobb’s shots are truly breathtaking.

back cover photo by David Cobb of the Japanese garden at Fort Worth Botanic Garden in Texas

Gardens featured in Quiet Beauty: The Japanese Gardens of North America are:

the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco California 1894;

Japanese Garden at the Huntington Botanic Garden, San Marino California 1911 (also 1968, 2011);

Maymont Japanese Garden, Richmond Virginia, 1911 (1977);

Japanese Hill and Pond Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York 1915;

Hakone Estate and Garden, Saratoga California 1918;

Shofuso Japanese House and Garden, Philadelphia Pennsylvania 1958;

Japanese Garden at the Washington Park Arboretum, Seattle Washington 1960;

Nitobe Memorial Garden at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver B.C. Canada 1960;

Japanese Garden at the Blodel Reserve, Bainbridge Island, Washington 1961 (1978, 1986);

Portland Japanese Garden, Portland Oregon 1963;

Japanese Garden in San Mateo Central Park, San Mateo California 1965;

Nikka-Yuko Japanese Garden, Lethbridge, Alberta 1966;

Nishinomiya Garden in Mani to Park, Spokane Washington 1974;

Japanese Garden in the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Fort Worth Texas 1973;

Shomu’en at Cheekwood, Nashville Tennessee 1990;

Seiwa’en at the Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis Missouri 1977;

Sansho’en at Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe Illinois 1982;

Shofu’en at the Denver Botanic Gardens, Denver Colorado 1979;

Suiho’en at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, Van Nuys California 1984;

Seisuitei at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chanhassen Minnesota 1985 (1996);

Anderson Japanese Gardens, Rockford Illinois 1978;

Japanese Garden at the Montreal Botanical Garden, Montreal Quebec 1988;

Tenshin’en at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Massachusetts 1988;

Roji’en in the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, Delray Beach Florida 2001;

R0ho’en in Margaret T. Hance Park, Phoenix Arizona 2002; and

Garden of the Pine Wind at Garven Woodland Gardens, Hot Springs Arkansas 2001.

Marvelous additions in the appendices include garden contacts and a select bibliography including books, journals and websites plus a listing of 75 important Japanese gardens in North America, five of which are in the state of Hawaii.

The Hawaii gardens appearing in this list include:

the Cultural Gardens at Honolulu International Airport 1967;

Imin (East West) Center at the University of Hawaii-Manoa 1963 (teahouse 1972);

Byodo’in Gardens, Kaneohe Oahu 1968;

Japanese Garden and Teahouse at Kepaniwai Park, Wailuku Maui 1968 (teahouse 1972); and

Lili`uokalani Gardens, Hilo Hawai`i (1917).

Lili`uokalani Gardens on December 17, 1944 from the library of the Hawaiian Historical Society in Honolulu

For more information on Quiet Beauty: The Japanese Gardens of North America and other books available from Tuttle Publishing, please consult the web site

http://wwwtuttlepublishing.com

For more information on the North American Japanese Garden Association, please consult the web site:

http://www.najga.com

Categories: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Missouri, Texas | Tags: David Cobb, Japanese garden, Kendall Brown, NAJGA, Tuttle Publishing | 5 Comments

New Japanese garden surrounds Dallas high rise

Posted on July 25, 2012 by usjapanesegardens

A modern take on the Japanese stroll garden is forming around the plaza level of the Trammell Crow Center in the art district of Dallas. Designed to expand the footprint of the Crow Collection of Asian Art, a free museum across the street from the Nasher Sculpture Center, this garden shows a different aspect around each side of the building. One side of the building features a stone arrangement, another a dry riverbed, another a shady grove or bamboo thicket, yet another a karesansui or flat landscape traditionally with raked gravel.

The plaza where we entered the garden.
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

“I have always considered the Crow Collection a museum without walls. In Asia, art and the environment coexist naturally. This garden will be a place for Dallas Arts District visitors to find art and Asia in unexpected places,” said Trammell Crow, president of the Crow Family Foundation. “I am grateful to our partners at Crescent (Real Estate Holdings) for giving us the perfect canvas for expansion.”

plaza view to the right of where we entered
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

The Dallas Arts District web site notes, “The Trammell Crow Center was deigned by Skidmore Owings & Merrill partner Richard Keating in 1984. Corporate offices are located on the upper levels of the building, and retail on the ground floor and mezzanine level.

dry riverbed makes the turn and continues toward the plaza
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

“In 1997, the Crow Family Foundation made the decision to share with the community one of the most important collections of Asian Art in the United States. A 12,000-square-foot space adjacent to the Trammell Crow Center was renovated, creating four light-filled galleries that evoke traditional aspects of Asian architecture in a museum without walls.”

bell tower awaits the installation of a bell
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

Planning for the new garden began by 2009, the year John Powell made a presentation on the design to the Women’s Council of the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden spring meeting. Extensive installation work began in 2011. The new sculpture garden is slated to open later this year. When we visited in June, the sculpture had yet to be placed.

a base awaits sculpture from the Crow Collection of Asian Art
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

We parked beneath the office building — nearly empty on a Saturday morning — and took an elevator to the lobby level where security directed us to the garden and gallery beyond.

a suggestion of karesansui with a yotsume-gaki style bamboo fence and clipped shrubs

It was a Frisbee competition that first took garden designer John Powell to Japan in 1993 and he fell in love with the gardens. He launched an intensive study of Japanese garden design, construction and maintenance and in 1997, he attended the first Japanese garden seminar provided by the Japanese Garden Research Center at the Kyoto University of Art Design. This was followed by internships with Suzuki Zoen in Niigata, and at the Adachi Museum of Art in Shimane Prefecture. He was the first westerner to train as a gardener at Adachi.

Powell has become a respected part of the Adachi garden family and in 2006 spoke in Austin at the Taniguchi Garden Revitalization committee on Gardens of the Adachi Museum. This was part of a speaking tour with Wataru Takeda, Section Chief of the Business and Public Relations Department at the Adachi Museum of Art and, for the California presentations, Kiyoharu Mori, Deputy Director of the Adachi Museum of Art. The presentation also was given at The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, The Crow Collection of Asian Art, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, The Japanese Friendship Garden of San Diego at Balboa Park, The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and Merritt College in Oakland.

hide and reveal — a passageway leads to a pond and a shady grove

grove of maples on the building side and a bamboo thicket on the street side

To learn more about The Adachi Museum of Art, visit their web site: http://adachi-museum.or.jp/e/index.html

a secluded pond
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

Powell is in demand as a workshop presenter and speaker for organizations such as the 6th International Symposium of Japanese Gardens in San Diego, the International Conference on Japanese Gardens Outside Japan in Long Beach and the Maple Society North America Branch.

Equisetum hymenale artfully disguises a utility area
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

Powell and his wife Becky are partners with David and Pat Bergman in Weatherford Gardens Nursery and Landscaping, an organic nursery and garden store located at 2106 Fort Worth Highway in Weatherford, Texas, featured in a previous blog entry.

details, details

The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art is located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas. The Crow Collection is a permanent set of galleries dedicated to the arts and cultures of China, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia. The museum offers a serene setting for both quiet reflection and learning.

details, details

Admission is free. The Crow Collection of Asian Art is open Tuesdays – Thursdays (10 a.m. – 9 p.m.), Fridays – Sundays (10 a.m. – 6 p.m.), and closed on Mondays. For more information, please go to www.crowcollection.org or call 214-979-6430.

For further information or a look at aerial photographs of the office building, visit the web site: http://www.trammellcrowcenter.com/

stone arrangement near the bell tower

The Crow Collection’s European sculpture pieces formerly displayed in this area were re-located to the Old Parkland campus.

Unless otherwise credited, photos in this blog are by K.T. Cannon-Eger. Click on any image to see it full size.

Categories: Dallas, Texas | Tags: Adachi Museum, Crow Collection of Asian Art, John Powell, Trammell Crow | 5 Comments

Plant and design resources in the Fort Worth area

Posted on July 25, 2012 by usjapanesegardens

For years as a subscriber to Journal of Japanese Gardening, John Powell’s name was familiar to me through his articles. The quality publication is now known as Sukiya Living.

In 2009, Powell was a speaker at the International Conference on Japanese Gardens Outside Japan sharing the stage with landscape architect Ron Herman and garden artist David Slawson. Their panel was titled “Bringing it all together: maintenance, growth & design.” His presence on the agenda was one of the reasons I chose to attend that formative conference in Long Beach.

John Powell and David Slawson talk shop at the 6th International Symposium of Japanese Gardens hosted by the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego in October of 2010. This conference is held once every two years, sponsored by The Garden Society of Japan and The International Association of Japanese Gardens Inc. The 2012 conference will be held in Australia.

We saw each other again in San Diego in 2010. Every time we had a chance to chat, he invited me to visit the next time I was in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Powell is a Japanese style garden builder and pruning specialist from Weatherford, Texas. He is a graduate of West Virginia University with a degree in Forestry. Currently he is the co-owner of Weatherford Gardens Nursery and Landscaping, located at 2106 Fort Worth Highway in Weatherford west of Fort Worth.

a sampling of products carried in the store
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

As noted on the nursery’s Facebook page: “In 1997, David & Pat Bergman, and John & Becky Powell purchased Mann Nursery. We re-named it Weatherford Gardens, and have been here ever since. We ditched all the chemicals and went organic in 1999, and it has been our real pleasure to sell only quality plants and organic materials to our gardening enthusiasts all over North Texas.”

a small section of the seed shelves where I did my shopping
(photo by Bill Eger)

Information sheets on soil types, deer resistant plants, drought tolerant plants, etc. line one bookshelf while new products such as woolen pockets for green walls are featured in the larger room.

“We do a lot of residential landscaping, and our landscape designer John Powell specializes in Japanese garden design. He has studied in Japan, and garden building is his passion.”

rock arrangement and plantings between the parking lot and the store

a sample waterfall to one side of the nursery
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

“Whether we install it or you do it yourself, our highly efficient and knowledgeable nursery and landscaping staff work to provide the best plants for your installations, and the highest professionalism and insight in any troubleshooting along the way,” the information page on Facebook concluded.

There was a nice sale going on the day we were there. Too bad these won’t fit in the backpack!
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

beautiful maple foliage and seeds
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

To learn more about Weatherford Gardens Nursery, visit them on Facebook http://en-gb.facebook.com/WeatherfordGardens?sk=info or at their store and nursery 2106 Fort Worth Highway, Weatherford TX 76086 or phone (817) 341-0152.

To learn more about the 7th International Symposium on Japanese Gardens: Japanese Gardens in the 21st Century to be held in Sydney Australia September 1-3, 2012, contact Imperial Gardens Landscape, PO Box 200 Terrey Hills, NSW 2084

web address: www.imperialgardens.com.au

and e-mail: enquiries@imperialgardens.com.au

All photos not otherwise credited in this blog are by K.T. Cannon-Eger. Click on any image to see it full size.

Categories: Fort Worth, Texas | Tags: Adachi Museum, John Powell, nursery | Leave a comment

Magnificent shapes and color at Metro Maples

Posted on July 24, 2012 by usjapanesegardens

Part of designing, installing and maintaining any garden is knowing where to go for quality plant material. This is particularly true of Japanese gardens.

At the beginning of our trip, we were thrilled to find Bill Hudgins’ Lush Life Home and Garden in the Buckhead area of Atlanta, Georgia. Hudgins is known for the 200-plus varieties of maples he’s collected.

At the mid-point of our journey in Fort Worth, I was quite literally jumping up and down and clapping my hands at the variety I saw when Bill and I drove in to Metro Maples on South Dick Price Road.

There are more than 15,000 maples from which to choose — more than 100 varieties of Japanese and Shantung maples including several patented varieties such as Acer truncatum ‘Fire Dragon’ — in sizes ranging from one-gallon pots up to 45-gallon pots.

Variety and abundance were the words of the day at Metro Maples in Fort Worth.
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

(photo by Bill F. Eger)

a weeping variety
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

Self-described “owner, grafter, salesman, yard man, hose dragger, web updater, bookkeeper” Keith Johansson has been seriously collecting maples, azaleas and rhododendrons in hot climates for 27 years. Jeri Bisel, his wife, and Scott Hubbel, the intern who came for two weeks in 2007 and stayed, round out the full-time crew at Metro Maples. All were on hand the day we visited.

I truly appreciate Keith’s attitude, perhaps best summed up with this remark: ” When walking through the garden, no king ever had it better.”

Scott Hubbel, Keith Johansson, and Jeri Bisel pose near sample plantings around a koi pond, the water from which is used for irrigation.

The company maintains an excellent, informative web site: http://www.metromaples.com/

Metro Maples does not ship. The nursery is open to the public from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Saturdays. Monday through Friday, appointments must be made.

entry sign
(photo by
Bill F. Eger)

the driveway that set me dancing

Keith is the current president of the Maple Society, North America Branch. The fifth international maple symposium plus post-conference tours will be held in Seattle and Portland in October. The conference is October 19-21 and the tour October 22-24. For more information, go to the web site of the Maple Society: http://www.maplesociety.org/

All photos in this blog that are not credited to others are by K.T. Cannon-Eger. Click on any image to see it full size.

Categories: Atlanta, Fort Worth, Georgia, Texas | Tags: Bill Hudgins, fifth international maple symposium, Keith Johansson, maple | Leave a comment

Fort Worth garden should be seen every season

Posted on July 21, 2012 by usjapanesegardens

The Japanese Garden at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden is worth a return visit, in my opinion, every season of the year. Every season has its joys. The variety of plantings and styles of Japanese garden at Fort Worth offer that special kind of joy to all.

I visited two years ago in the spring, took 100 photos in an hour’s time, and have been mentioning it to my husband ever since. Our recent visit this summer, his first, entranced him as much as my first visit did me.

This seven and a half acre site was a watering hole for cattle, a gravel pit, a dump, and a squatters’ camp before Scott Fikes, former Botanic Garden director, and Charles Campbell, former director of Park and Recreation came up with and pursued the idea in the late 1960s. Kingsley Wu, a graduate of the University of Tokyo, was commissioned to finalize plans, according to a garden brochure, and construction began in 1970. After many clubs, companies and individuals put in their time, talent and treasure, the garden opened in 1973.

The resulting collection of gardens offers a pleasant stroll from the main gate through the free courtyard garden to the ticket office to the green and cool delights beyond.

: The main gate was designed by Albert S. Komatsu and dedicated to Scott Fikes in 1976. The gift shop is off to the left.
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

A little history on the early designers

The main gate was designed by Albert Komatsu and Associates, an architectural firm founded in 1959 and later known as Komatsu Architecture. Alfred Komatsu was a well known, award-winning and highly respected architect in Fort Worth. He helped found the Society of American Military Engineers post in Fort Worth (SAME) and in 2011 was its oldest living founder.

The main gate was dedicated to Scott Fikes in 1976. Fikes retired in 1975 after serving 17 years as the Fort Worth Botanical Garden’s director. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II and was a member of the National Society of Landscape Architects. He passed away in 2002.

Charles Boyle Campbell was a landscape architect by training. He was 39 years old when he accepted the position in Fort Worth as director of parks in 1962. Two years later, the parks and recreation boards were merged and Campbell was named director of the new department.

“Throughout his quarter-century of service, he was a strong advocate for the creation of green space, and during his tenure, city regulations were amended to require residential developers to set aside parkland in their subdivisions. During the years he served as director, the number of parks increased from 57 parks on 2,872 acres to 163 parks with 9,923 acres,” said Susan Allen Kline in the book Images of America: Fort Worth Parks. Campbell retired in 1987 and passed away in 2006.

Steve Huddleston remarked on Kingsley Wu on the occasion of the 75^th anniversary of the Fort Worth Botanic Garden: “The major project in the garden during the late ‘60s and early ‘70s was the construction of the Japanese Garden, a 7.5-acre garden that is now the crown jewel of the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. In 1968, the city employed Kingsley Wu, professor of environmental living at Texas Women’s University, to design a master plan for the Japanese Garden. The three major pools were staked and then 454 cubic yards of concrete were poured to line the pools. A waterfall, spillways, and islands were fashioned in and around the pools. Patterned after the Ryoan-ji in Kyoto, the meditation garden was built in 1970.”

a school group enjoys the classic karesansui
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

Among new plantings this spring are cherry trees, the gift of the Japanese Embassy to mark the centennial of Tokyo’s gift to the United States of more than 3,000 cherry trees planted at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.

“The most reliable and readily available variety of flowering cherry is the ‘Kwanzan’ (Prunus serrulata ‘Kwanzan’),” says Scott Brooks, senior gardener at FWBG. He oversees the 7 ½ acre Japanese Garden there. “It’s capable of reaching 25 feet in height with branches that start out upright and then spread horizontally. It has 2-inch-wide, rose-pink flower clusters. Newly planted trees produce a good showing of flowers, although bloom improves as the trees mature.”

Another variety that does well here, Brooks says, is Yoshino (Prunus x yedoensis), the variety Japan gave to the United States in 1912. It’s a fast-growing tree that can reach more than 30 feet. Although the young trees do not produce a lot of flowers, mature trees bloom profusely.

Springtime crabapple bloom with new maple leaves near the pavilion in 2010

Brooks came to the garden in 1982 as a groundskeeper. By then many of the original trees had matured. The garden was clotted with vines and undergrowth. Tunnels had formed where the original designers had created paths.

Brooks set about the hard work of carefully uncovering what Fikes, Campbell, Komatsu and Wu had created, traveling several times to Japan. There gardeners steeped in 1,500 years of tradition taught him: “If you’re the keeper of a Japanese garden, you need to think about removing something every year,” he said.

dry stream
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

Brooks now is the senior gardener. He showed us through, with that ever watchful gardener’s eye for something amiss or out of place, and spoke of the delights and challenges of this ever changing scene.

Sister City

Nagaoka and Fort Worth have an active and dynamic Sister City relationship, celebrating 25 years this year in October. Mayor Betsy Price and Councilman Danny Scarth will lead a delegation to Nagaoka, Japan, to join in their fall festival October 2 to 12.

In the 1990s, Nagaoka, donated an authentic Mikoshi (a gilded and lacquered palanquin) to Fort Worth, which is currently on display within the Mikoshi House. Several trees, including pines and flowering cherries, were similarly donated.

Mikoshi — a gift of Sister City Nagaoka

view out the door of Mikoshi House

Mikoshi House in the spring of 2010

In 1997, Mr. Shigeichi Suzuki, a landscape architect from Nagaoka, donated plans for a karesansui-style addition to the garden.

“When I received the plans, they were in kanji and metric,” said Brooks chuckling. “That was a wonderful challenge figuring that out.”

The addition was completed in 2000, and is now called the Suzuki Garden. It is a modern counterpart to the nearby classic karesansui of the same design as the abbot’s quarters of Ryoanji in Kyoto.

Suzuki Garden
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

The tea house at the end of the pond was built as a memorial to the late Mary K. Umstead, secretary to the Horticulture Division. It was rebuilt this past year using plantation-grown ipe as a more lasting, sustainable tropical hardwood.

Mary K. Umstead Tea House, rebuilt in the past year

A new barrier free approach to the pavilion area offers visitors a closer view of the main waterfall. The Shinto-esque pavilion area offers several structures available for rental for special celebrations and weddings.

new waterfall view
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

Behind the pavilion area, a small staircase leads to a plaza. Out of view to the right is barrier free access to the same area.
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

moon-viewing platform and amphitheatre
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

“The ‘Moon-Viewing Deck’ is a creative adaptation of the Ginkakuji temple’s famous ‘Kogetsudai’ sand cone. Fort Worth’s version is intended to be an interactive karesansui exhibit, in which visitors may ascend the flat-topped cone via steps, and view the composition from above. A ‘Taijitu’ (a yin-yang symbol), lies embossed in exposed-aggregate concrete at the summit. This highly unusual (but fun) addition to a Japanese garden is ultimately a cosmological symbol of Chinese origin. It also has other interpretations, including its most important contemporary association with Korean culture, and as a metaphor for oriental mysticism in American ‘Pop’ culture. The exhibit also features an amphitheatre that is countersunk into the same platform as the cone. Together, they serve as a performance venue for the garden’s two annual festivals (matsuri), and as a moonlit chapel for weddings,” Brooks said

Paths

In all, there are nearly 6,000 linear feet of stone, brick, wood, aggregate concrete and asphalt walkways in the garden, three pools and a couple of waterfalls including a small one in the corner of the entry to the gift shop, seven crossings over water, multiple fish food dispensers, an abundance of healthy koi in the ponds and plants to occupy the eye and mind.

gift shop in the spring of 2010

gift shop in the summer 2012 — note the impact of recent drought on the pond water level
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

Treasure Tree gift shop occupies a waterside structure reminiscent of medieval Japanese architecture. The well stocked store is operated by the Fort Worth Botanical Society. Proceeds benefit the continuing development and preservation of the garden.

The garden is included in the Fort Worth Botanic Garden web site http://fwbg.org/gardens/japanese/ and maintains its own Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fort-Worth-Japanese-Garden/168365139854742 on which Brooks has included several detailed guides to the plantings in multiple scrapbooks.

Operating hours during standard time are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and during daylight saving time 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily except Christmas. Admission fee for adults is $4.50 on weekends or $4 on weekdays; $3 for children ages 4 to 12. Children ages 3 and under are admitted free. Unsponsored children under 13 are not admitted. One adult may sponsor 5 children.

For additional information, call (817) 871-7686.

enticing benches
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

Photos with no credit line in this blog are by K.T. Cannon-Eger. Click on any image to see it full size.

Several videos of the Fort Worth Japanese Garden are featured on YouTube. Here is a short one from the spring festival http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqj2KIb-DQs

and a longer piece featuring spring blooms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FWsA2UCqUY

another featuring a summertime stroll with emphasis on the koi http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ysysau35U

a taiko performance of Ujigawa by Dondoko Daiko at the 2009 fall festival http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upJ-5udVI4s

and one longer narration from winter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dZCKCbo378

A personal note:

There’s something really wonderful about garden friends: you speak the same language, share similar goals, and in the best of times have the same taste in movies and jokes. Scott Brooks is one of those wonderful garden friends.

We met briefly in Long Beach, California, in spring of 2009 at the International Conference on Japanese Gardens Outside Japan. A year later, I stopped off in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on my way home from my mother’s death in Florida. My cousin dropped me off at the garden gate and I began my wandering in a somber mood.

Pretty soon, I was engaged by the collection of gardens – entranced by proportions, variety and trimming of various plantings.

Scott Brooks at work in 2010

As I wandered down the right side of the garden, I noticed maintenance going on at the left side of the pond. I kept catching glimpses of this man in a black t-shirt pushing a wheelbarrow. When I finally came even with him, I asked the perennial gardener’s question, “What are you working on?” “Re-doing the water pipe to this basin,” he replied “Have you been here long?” I asked. “28 years since 1982.” “Say, you look familiar….” and when we got to Long Beach as common ground he exclaimed, “You’re that lady from Hawaii.”

forsythia near the pag

Later, as I approached the end of the path to meet up with my cousin at the gift shop, there was a splash of yellow by the pagoda – forsythia, one of my mother’s springtime favorites.

The Long Beach conference not only formed fast friendships, it led to the formation of the North American Japanese Garden Association (NAJGA). Fort Worth hosted one of the regional meetings that led the group from initiative to association.

The organization hosts a web site http://www.najga.org/cfm/index.cfm and a Facebook page. NAJGA will host Connections 2012, a conference for garden professionals and enthusiasts in Denver, Colorado, October 12 through 14 with a one-day advance design workshop on October 11. The conference is geared toward three topics every garden deals with: horticulture, human culture and business culture. Contact NAJGA for further information and to register.

pagoda designed by Albert Komatsu
(photo by Bill F. Eger)

Categories: Fort Worth, Texas | Tags: Albert Komatsu, botanical garden, Charles Campbell, gate, gift shop, Kingsley Wu, koi, maple, NAJGA, pagoda, path, Scott Fikes, Sister City | 2 Comments