Email from Yokohama
May 2009
by Alex EndoJapanese bonsai tree

Yokohama - near TokyoAlex (Akira) Endo lives in Yokohama, Japan. He spent five years in Australia and during that time developed a love of the plants that regularly grow in Australian gardens. Alex has planted many of these plants in his home garden. Each month he shares his gardening experiences with Global Garden readers.


Hi Friends

In Japan, May is one of the most exciting months for Japanese gardeners. The gardens are covered with fresh green and many flowers.
The other day I visited the Omiya bonsai village in the Tokyo suburbs, where a lot of bonsai gardens are gathered in a special area. As I know the bonsai is popular in Australia, I will report about one of the bonsai gardens in the Bonsai Village this month.

 
I visited Seikouen which is one of the most historic bonsai gardens in Omiya Bonsai village. A lot of wonderful bonsai have been exhibited in Seokouen. You can see a wonderful bonsai on an English language web site. The URL is : http://www.seikouen.cc/bonsai1/cafe/cafe1.html
Ms. Kaori Yamada, is still young but she will inherit this historic Bonsai garden. She is very famous as the anchor of a popular gardening program on NHKTV. She also has a bonsai classroom which is targeted mainly at the young generation.
 

When I entered the garden, I was enchanted by the beautiful bonsai that made a lot out of small flowers like the rose bloom. I asked one of the staff the name of the tree. He kindly explained that this Bonsai is a Hawthorn tree and a native of China.

I asked the staff if they had stock of the Hawthorn tree seedling, and bought one seedling. I am dreaming that this seedling will grow up and show a splendid bonsai appearance like this photograph someday.
The young staff member, he is probably a trainee Bonsai artist, mentioned that he wants to go abroad and make Bonsai popular with many people in the future. He is especially interested in Australia. I hope his dream will be come true in the near future.
I am a beginner in bonsai but I would like to raise Australian native plants as Bonsai. I think perhaps some of the Australian plants which have a small leaf such as melaleuca are suitable for bonsai.
If you travel to Japan, I recommend that you come over to the Omiya bonsai village. I hope that Bonsai culture will play the role of promoting the friendship between Australia and Japan.

 

See you next month,
Alex

 

 

Copyright protected (text & photos Akira Endo)
Address all copyright enquiries to Global Garden 

Alex's website "Alex's Garden Party" is at:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SweetHome-Brown/1908/index_e.html

You can contact Alex at:  xalex@f06.itcom.net  (Note: Please delete the first X in the address.)

Global Garden http://www.global-garden.com.au

 

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