Email from Yokohama

by Alex Endo

Yokohama - near Tokyo Alex (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

During the last ten years, many Australian flowers and plants have been introduced into Japan. This year, one of the most popular new Australian flowers is a flannel flower.

The soft silver-grey leaves having a dense covering of pale woolly hairs and the petals which are flannel-like in texture is very attractive. A beauty which we Japanese people have never seen in a Japanese flower.

It seems to be very difficult to raise flannel flowers in the sultry climate of the Japanese summer. But the
potted flannel flower is blooming for a long time under the eaves of my house entrance, the place is not
getting wet in the rain and not in full sun. I put together a flannel flower pot with other several pots.

These plants are Astelia and Trachelospermum asiaticum 'Ougonnisiki'.

The rainy season usually ends in July in Japan. However, the rainy season still continued this year and damage from the downpour occurred in various places in Japan . In Yokohama where I live, the rainy season was over in July, but came back again with cloudy skies every day.

Under the cloudy skies, a lot of kangaroo Paw flower and Grevillea were blooming. I had bought the kangaroo Paw seed when I was travelling around West Australia five years ago.

The Kangaroo Paw planted in the big containers have safely passed the Japanese winter under the eaves.

I also tried to plant a Kangaroo Paw stock in the ground to pass over the Japanese winter, and I found that Kangaroo Paw could survive over winter.

Kangaroo Paw flowers may become popular garden plants in Japan in the future. You can see Kangaroo Paw over the rose in this picture.

I planted a lot of plants in my small garden. As a result my garden has gradually become like a jungle. The photo is the garden seen from the veranda of the first floor. The cutting branch of the eucalyptus is paved as an accent in the Australian bricks terrace.

On the bottom left side, you can see the bright green leaves of Melaleucarevolution Gold. On the upper side, moving clock-wise, a blue container is Agave schidigera Lem, kangaroo paw, dahlia, agapansus and tree fern dickosonia Antarctica. On the bottom side are pots of the roses.

See you next month,
Alex

Email from Yokohama by Alex Endo

Email from Yokohama

by Alex Endo