Private gardens in Japan

Walking the streets of Japan you get to see a variety of gardens as you would in any country. Japanese gardens have some common plants that can be seen time and time again especially in their traditional type gardens. This courtyard garden has a Rhapis excelsa along with a mix of trees and small shrubs. The trees are pruned to reveal the outline of the branches and to give a more artistic look to what would otherwise be just another tall tree or shrub. There's never too much repitition in the plantings. A tree such as a Podocarpus, a Cryptomeria or a Pinus is carefully shaped and placed along side of a smaller shrub - an Azalea, Ardisia or a fern set amongst some well chosen rocks.

Even when there is very little space, which is the case for a lot of Japanese residences, a number of pot plants are squeezed into every available spot. Chrysanthemums are one of the more popular choices along with plants like Nandina domestica often seen close to the front door of a house.

Glossy leaved evergreens dominate the traditional courtyard gardens of Japan along with a few flowering plants like Azalea kurume and Camellia japonica and sasanqua varieties. The Kurume Azaleas are generally clipped to get a dense rounded shape. Japanese gardeners nearly always use garden tools made in Japan - hedge shears, secateurs, garden scissors used for thinning the needles on the Pine trees along with different sickles for removing weeds from gardens beds.