Untitled by wakingphotolife This is the time when the Cherry Blossom Festival in Japan usually begins.  See here. The Japanese word for cherry blossom is Sakura. This ornamental tree is known in Latin as Prunus serrulata. During the Cherry Blossom Festival, there is the beauty of the experience of seeing all the trees in bloom […]

The article below has been going around the internet and is being posted so that TheGardenLady readers can see what creative gardeners can accomplish. To see more of the art check out this site or this site. Stunning crop art has sprung up across rice fields in Japan. But this is no alien creation – […]

The strongest flavored tea made from the Camellia sinenses leaves is called black tea or red tea.  Black tea is the tea which was most commonly sold over the years in the US by brand names like Tetley, Lipton or “Good Morning” organic. Black teas are made from “fermented” tea leaves. What is called fermentation […]

Bonsai bon·sai  n. pl. bonsai is the art of growing dwarfed, ornamentally shaped trees or shrubs in small shallow pots or trays. Bonsai appeared first in China over 1000 years ago but once bonsai was introduced into Japan in around the 12th century- some say earlier, the art was refined to an extent not yet […]

TheGardenLady has just returned from a two week tour of Japan with an artist who was raised in Fukuoka but now lives in the US.  She knows Fukuoka very well and takes small groups with her to visit the area around Fukuoka which included Nagasaki and Kyoto. TheGardenLady was most interested in the flora and […]