Hakone Japanese Gardens

A friend and I visited the venerable Hakone Japanese Gardens in Saratoga today. Though we were quite early - the best time to go would be March or April for the flowering trees and vines, it was still lovely. Quiet. Peaceful. A good winter's day excursion. Here are photos I took. I don't have IDs for most as the garden didn't have signage but will add some thought in any case. It was a cloudy day so some of the photos don't reflect the beauty of the plants.

The top two photos show the small pond near the garden's entrance.We were a bit surprised at only seeing a handful of koi, though they were large.

We weren't sure which tree this is but we both admired the peeling bark.

Again, no certain ID for this tree but love the twisty branches and sky-reaching altitude!

The human perspective shows how tall this bamboo forest is. Lots of bamboo in the garden.

Most Japanese gardens feature elevation changes and there were plenty in Hakone. Here we're looking down on another stand of bamboo.

Above was one of the few trees in bloom, this an ornamental cherry. Love how the sun illuminates the delicate white blossoms. The lower photo shows how high up certain parts of the garden are, here looking back towards the entrance.

This allee will eventually be awash in Wisteria blooms but for now it gives the viewer a pleasurable view of the receding horizon.

I love natural moss and it is often a feature of Japanese gardens. Here's a nice patch under a deciduous tree.

Conifers are of course a feature of Japanese gardens and Hakone has an impressive collection.

Here's another elevated view, this tome towards the north part of the garden. There are lots of simple wooden buildings each, apparently, with its own meaning.

This delicate ornamental cherry provides foreground interest as one looks back down on the pond.

Another of the sculpted conifers found throughout the garden.

There were plenty of stone or cement statuary throughout the garden, a pleasing contrast found in most oriental gardens. Each has its own meaning.

We think this lovely variegated shrub is a Chamaecyparis of some kind. There were several throughout the grounds.

This gnarled pine tree displayed a unique and interesting character of its own.

Another ornamental cherry, which are found throughout the Bay Area and widely used as street trees.

There are hundreds of manzanita varieties so even my experienced companion wasn't able to ID this one. No matter. Just as beautiful without an ID.

One of the pavilions had some art on display, including this beautiful robe that I shot from outside through the window.

Dry gardens are a staple in every Japanese garden and Hakone had a nice little one.

Here's a closeup of how the crushed rock is raked in concentric circles around the rocks.

Here's a wider angle view of the area just in back of the pond. The garden was very well kept up, adding to the pleasing appearance.

A detail on one of the statuary pieces. Looks like a deer but could also be a mythic animal.

Twisty, gnarled branches on trees is often a feature in Japanese gardens.

These low deciduous trees are I suspect Japanese maples. I hope to return in spring when everything has leafed out.

One of the many 'houses' that populate the grounds.

Another twisty tree and perhaps another Japanese maple.

In the upper right and then lower down you can see a little waterfall. Water is an important element in any Japanese garden.

There were ample structures from which to view various parts of the garden, including this lookout with benches near the entrance.

Here's a photo from the above lookout, showing the garden stretching westward.

Life in Winter

It's not entirely true that winter gardens have been put to rest. at least not in the milder zones of the Bay Area. And especially not when one considers that evergreen shrubs and cacti or succulents can be just as beautiful in winter as flowers are in spring or summer. Beauty is of course always in the eye of the beholder. Here is a sampling of winter interest in my garden in mid-January, sampling from all corners of the horticultural palette.

Christmas cactus offers brightly colored flowers in winter, whether indoors or outdoors. This is the first flower on this specimen that was started from a cutting. Vivid!

Camellias are a great way to bring color into a mid to late winter garden. Here's my Camellia japonica 'Silver Waves.' Huge pure white flowers and yellow bosses make a great combo.

Though it isn't colorful right now, my front yard walkway bed is filling up with bulb shoots. There's tons of Dutch iris, Ipheions, Freesias and Sparaxis all up. The freesias are only weeks from blooming.

Winter is also the 'promise of spring.' Here is my Leucospermum 'Veldfire' filling up with fuzzy flower buds, the first of which will open in mid-February.

Median strips need not be wastelands. Here I have a Smoke bush as the central plant, plus a dwarf bottlebrush tree, Bouvardia and dwarf African honey bushes, and a host of perennials in pots, many with bulbs within.

Though not done intentionally, this 'difficult' area under a fir tree is now being populated with dwarf conifers in pots, as well as newly potted bromeliads.

I just noticed that my Aloe striata has the beginning of  a flower spike nestled in its center. It's beautiful in its own right but the orange flowers will provide lots of nectar for attentive hummingbirds.

Here's a shot of my planted dwarf conifer bed. It has matured into a densely planted bed, from what once were tiny specimens in a somewhat bare bed 8 years ago.

Aloe plicatilis. I never did find a home in the ground for this fan aloe so it's stayed in a 5 gallon pot. It's tripled in size in just 4 years.

Art is a nice part of the garden in any season but I appreciate it just a little more in winter. Here's my metal sundial, resting against the wrought iron railing of the front house.

This curious plant is a Dodonea sinuolata (the shrub on the right). Very different from the more instantly recognizable purple hopbush, this species eventually forms a mass of little red 'wings' (seen here) that are its seedpods or fruit. Their miniature size but proliferation gives the shrub a most curious look.

Rhipsalis variety. I love Rhipsalis for the tangled collection of multi-branching segments. 

Begonia acetosa. Here's the underside of my favorite Begonia of 2019. Large broad leaves are a vivid burgundy-red underneath, though that pleasure is normally hidden from sight.

My Daphne odora marginata is just now opening its first flowers. Famous for providing both winter color and that intoxicating fragrance, daphnes come in a variety of forms and even flower color.

Last week I took a somewhat hazy photo of my Camellia Frank Hauser. Here's a close-up of the flower, to show what all the fuss is about.

Impatiens apiculata. Though yet to bloom, this newly added Impatienns is growing quickly and filling out. It will eventually produce lovely 2-lipped orchid pink flowers.

Winter is also the bloom time for many Hellebores. Here's my H. argutifolius Pacific Frost. It has the signature green flowers of this species but here the leaves are speckled with white.

Bulbs native to South Africa, such as this Lachenalia aloides 'Orange,' are usually the first to bloom and Lachenalias as a group are often up first.  They offer up a range of colors in their tubular flowers, as well as many sporting spotted leaves or flower stems.

This photo isn't an attempt to capture the Hebe that takes up most of the photo but rather the tiny blue flowers of Salvia bullulata that are dangling in front. Robins-egg blue flowers aren't common and the petite tubular flowers add to this plant's charm.

Last week's entry was on bromeliads and here is one of them - Aechmea correia-araujoi. Its feature are the dark horizontal bands that decorate the undersides of the leaves.

My Helleborus Tutu didn't bloom for several years but made up for it this year by being the first of the japonicas to bloom.

Even bulbs sometimes have interesting foliage and that's certainly true for Babianas. The several clumps here show the signature 'pleated' leaves that make them instantly recognizable.

Many would not recognize this guy and if I said it was a jasmine that doesn't easily bloom you'd be forgiven for not seeing it as a jasmine. It's Trachelospermum asiaticum and it does indeed feature tri-color leaves (yellow, green and pink). VERY slow growing but makes a nice mat forming ground cover aver time.

Cyclamen variety. Nothing says winter color for shade like cyclamen. Lovely!