Today’s Garden Ideas | Chinese Garden Ideas

Chinese Garden Ideas - The Japanese Alternative

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Some folks may confuse where these zen like gardens originate. But if you are searching for a beautiful garden that strives to bring all elements of nature together in one zen-like place, then you are looking for the Japanese garden. Here, small trees are shaped to look like ancient specimens; tiny boulders that represent mountains; a trickling stream that is supposed to be a raging river. And amongst this landscape are scattered plants, mostly evergreen, flowering shrubs, and ferns arranged in such a manner as to appear natural.

Japanese Garden

Garden Elements

To design a Japanese garden start with a water feature, either a small pond or stream. Add some well placed boulders around the

water keeping it as natural as possible. Place your trees amongst the boulders and around the water feature. Add some shrubs and ferns and other small plants.

Be sure to choose plants that work best in your growing zone. It is also a good idea to know what type of soil you have in your garden. Also take note of how much sun your garden area gets throughout the day.

Plants and Planting

Assuming you have your water feature and boulders in place it is time to set your plants into your garden. Begin with Japanese Maple. This tree will get up to 20 feet tall. It has burgundy or green leaves and blooms small purple flowers in spring and bright red, yellow, or orange leaves in the fall. This tree grows in zones 5-8.

The next plant you want to place in this garden is the bushy shrub Mountain Laurel. It will get up to 10 feet tall and has red, white, pink or bicolored flowers in the spring. Mountain Laurel grows in zones 5-9.

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Japanese Skimmia is the next plant you want to place in your Japanese Garden. This evergreen shrub has dark green leaves with a delightful aroma. The female plants will produce white flowers followed by red berries. If you want Japanese Skimmia to produce fruit grow both female and male plants. This bush does best in zones 7-9.

The final plant to add to this garden is the Common Polypody Fern. Plant this fern between the rocks you have placed throughout the garden. Common Polypody Fern gets up to 1 foot tall. It has pale green fronds and will spread rapidly over your garden and atop your boulders. This fern likes zones 5-8.

Pruning

Remember the key to the Japanese Garden is to make young plants look many years old. For the Japanese Maple Tree remove 1-3 lower branches and expose the trunk. This makes the tree look much older than it is. Prune your shrubs so they look dense and compact, once again giving the impression of great age.

Alternate Plants

Evergreens

If you would like to try some different Evergreen plants here are a few suggestions; Japanese Black Pine is a very dense tree with deep green needles. It will get up to 80 feet tall in zones 5-8. Remember you want to keep the tree small and compact so prune regularly. Japanese Holly of the variety ‘Helleri’ is another excellent evergreen. This plant is a shrub that spreads quickly. It has black berries in the fall and gets up to 4 feet tall and grows in zones 5-8. The Hinoki False Cypress shrub ‘Nana’, is a slow growing bush with dark green branches. It gets up to 3 feet tall in zones 4-8. The Japanese White Pine with its blue-green needles will get up to 50 feet tall in zones 4-7.

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Flowering Trees

There are some flowering trees that can work well in a Japanese Garden. Try Kousa Dogwood, in zones 5-8. In early summer this tree produces lovely white flowers. Kousa Dogwood will get up to 30 feet tall. Saucer Magnolia, ‘Lennei’ has purple flowers that bloom in the spring. This tree grows in zones 5-9 and will get up to 20 feet tall. Another flowering tree is the Japanese Flowering Cherry. In spring it blooms white or pink flowers. Japanese Flowering Cherry will get up to 25 feet tall in zones 5-8. Flowering Crabapple has lovely pink buds that open into white flowers. In fall it produces bright red apples. This tree will get up to 25 feet in zones 5-8.

Flowering Shrubs

If you want to try some flowering shrubs you might like Tree Peony. It has beautiful large white or red blooms in the spring. It can get up to 7 feet tall in zones 4-8. Heavenly Bamboo produces heavenly white flowers in the summer and red berries and leaves in autumn. At 6 feet tall Heavenly Bamboo prefers zones 7-10. Japanese Pieris is a shrub with white flowers and dark green leaves. At 20 feet tall, it is one of the tallest bushes in zones 6-8. Finally Sasanqua Camellia is a shrub you might want to try. The fall flowers are pink or white. This plant gets up to 10 feet tall in zones 7-9.

Perennials

There are several perennials that also fit right into the Japanese Garden theme. Of course Japanese Iris is a wonderful choice. The blooms come in blue, white and purple during late spring. Japanese Iris gets up to 3 feet tall in zones 4-9. Pachysandra has small white blooms in the spring. It gets up to 6 inches and grows in zones 4-8. Hosta, of the variety ‘Halcyon’ has pale lavender flowers in the summer with blue-green leaves. It will get up to 2 feet tall and grows well in zones 3-9. Japanese Primroses are another perennial that fits well in a Japanese Garden. It has white or pink flowers and gets up to 2 feet tall. Japanese Primroses grow best in zones 5-8.

To create a Japanese garden remember to keep it simple and elegant. Do not use a lot of plant varieties as that makes this garden look too busy. Focus on elegant looking foliage with intermittent blossoms. Be sure to choose some trees and shrubs as well as lower growing plants to keep your garden looking natural. You might want to include a simple bench or some flat rocks as a seating area. After all, with such beauty you are bound to want to spend time in this garden contemplating life.

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