San Fransisco Gardens open this Weekend

The Eugene De Sabla Tea House and Garden

If you are fortunate enough to be in or near this wonderful city, then this weekend offers an extra-special opportunity to do dome serious garden visiting in San Mateo and Hillsborough.  The organised by the San Mateo Arboretum Society's this weekend's event is the 37th Annual Fall Garden Tour - tickets and more information via this link.

There are six gardens are open to the public, with the highlights being perhaps the San Mateo Arboretum itself and the Eugene J De Sabla, Jr Teahouse and Tea Garden.  The latter is a nationally recognized historic resource listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The garden is one of the only two remaining gardens designed by Makota Hagiwara, who also designed the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park.

The Gardens of Zuisen-ji Temple

Fading temple bell
The fragrance of flowers strikes
At evening.
(Haiku by Matsuo Basho)

Stephen Mansfield, the author of the recently published Japan's Master Gardens: Lessons in Space and Environment has penned an interesting article entitled 'Kamakura's historic 'flowering garden'', which is published in The Japan Times  tells of the gardens of Zuisen-ji Temple in Kamakura.

Hannah Carter Japanese Garden - Update.

Image from Save the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden

Back in January I posted about the threat to the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden in Los Angeles.  Sadly, the University of California is proceeding with its decision to sell the garden.  In response a coalition of interested groups and individuals - Save the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden - has been formed with the intent and aim of preserving the garden.

Please do visit their website - there is also a downloadable factsheet on this page - and see if there is any way in which you can help save this historic garden.

Japanese Garden at the Huntington Library reopens April 11

Alice's Garden Travel Buzz informs that, after an extensive restoration the nine-acre Japanese Garden at The Huntington Library, will open to the public once again on April the 11th, when it will also celebrate its centennial.

Chinese & Japanese Gardens - resources

The Classical Gardens of Suzhou have UNESCO World Heritage status; and here is to be found more on the individual gardens - scroll down past the bit in Hungarian if, like me, you are no linguist!

In Japan, the four Pure Land gardens of Hiraizumi are also on the UNESCO list as are the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto - but there is more on the gardens per se here - scroll to the bottom of the page and click the individual properties.  

Better still is  the Bowdoin College web site.  In addition to the historical information, what I really like about this site is the neat way that the photographs are integrated with the garden plans.

Hannah Carter Japanese Garden Update

*** PLEASE CIRCULATE ***

The furore and fury caused by the proposed sale of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden by UCLA shows no sign of abating.

The latest action to try to stop the sale is a meeting to be held by the Bel Air Association will hold a meeting  on Tuesday, Jan. 31, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Community Magnet Charter Elementary School, 11301 Bellagio Rd., Los Angeles.

For more information on the Bel Air Association meeting on Tuesday, call (310) 474-3527 or email baa@belaironline.org.

The Hannah Carter Japanese Garden Under Threat

Last week several newspapers including the Los Angeles Times (and here) and the  Beverly Hills Courier ran articles decrying the planned sale of the Hannah Carter Japanese Garden by UCLA. 


Named in honour of the wife of Edward Carter a former chairman of the University of California Board of Regents, the Japanese Garden was conceived by Nagao Sakurai and Kazuo Nakamura.  

The Garden Conservancy, which has posted a history of the garden, describes it as ‘an exceptional Japanese-style garden built in America in the post-World War II period’ that is ‘in critical danger’ and has urged UCLA to preserve the site.  The Garden Conservancy also asks that that should you wish to learn more about how you can help in this urgent situation, please send an e-mail to info@gardenconservancy.org.