Tag Archives: Japanese Maple

Complementary Trees and Sculpture

“Hokkeji and Japanese Maples”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

The early spring color of our Japanese Maples highlight our garden. These two frame in the Hokkeji lantern beside the Japanese garden entry path. We enjoy the nice flash of contrasting color as we enter the garden.

Japanese maples are one of my weaknesses. Heatherwood has several throughout the garden. However, whenever I see something a little different, I want to add it. We are at the stage in our garden development that I need to have patience and wait for some of our shade trees to grow to provide the right condition for some of the less sun tolerant species.

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The Japanese Maples Are Coming Out!

“Shin Deshojo & Kotoji”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

The Japanese Maples are finally leafing out! It may be my lack patience, but our Japanese maples seem to be late in leafing out this year. Their leaves are still in their opening phase, but it looks like all our Japanese maples made it through the bitter cold weather we had earlier this spring.

The Shin Deshojo is one of my favorite Japanese maples. I first saw one in a good friend’s yard in Seattle and fell in love with it. A little later my friends and I were walking through the Washington Arboretum and saw a mature Shin Deshojo in full spring glory. It was breath taking. A couple years later when my friends came to visit, they had a wonderful surprise for me. They brought me their Shin Deshojo as a gift for my fledgling Japanese garden. It struggled a couple of years during its transition from the mild Seattle climate to the harsh dry Yakima area. But it has survived and is now doing well. I added my second Shin Deshojo as our cornerstone tree when we built our waterfall and pond. It proudly graces our sitting area next to the pond.

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Late Winter Interest

“Japanese Maple”
Heatherwood Winter

There is still a lot of winter interest in Heatherwood. The skeleton structures of the Japanese Maples provide interesting winter forms. The reds, yellows, and greens of the evergreen plants provide highlights through the garden. Good weather is predicted through the first couple weeks of March. It’s time to get our and start our winter/spring clean-up and pruning.

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Heatherwood Japanese Garden Stroll #3

“Hana Matoi”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Across the path from the Hokkoji, a Hana Matoi Japanese maple, captures our strollers eye. It is planted on the hillside and surrounded with rocks, ice plants, and thyme. The vignette created by the maple and ground covers can be seen from multiple spots through out the Japanese garden. It is one of the key focal points of interest. Below are a couple of highlights:

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A Special Day

“Orangeola & Kotoji Abstract”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Today is a very special day full of sweet and happy memories of the past. Many times we spent the day walking through gardens around the areas where we lived. On our adventures, we were always keeping our eyes and mind open to observe the beauty surrounding us, both natural and man-made. We collected ideas on what we could bring home to our own garden.

Other years we would explore various garden centers and purchase new additions for our garden. We couldn’t wait to plant the new acquisitions. Here at Heatherwood, I have been able to draw on these previous experiences to develop a Japanese-influenced garden in part of our property. Strolling through Heatherwood takes me back to prior wonderful memories and stimulates me to enjoy the present and look forward to bright future days.

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The Guardian

“Kotoji, Waterfall, & Japanese Maple”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

I keep coming back to this view in our Heatherwood Japanese garden. The Japanese maples continuously change in color, shape, and texture through the revolving seasons. In time they will flow over the stream’s edge becoming one with it. The Kotoji Japanese lantern acts like a guardian over the stream stabilizing the scene with its graceful legs .

The Guardian
A Japanese maple gently bends,
Shielding the flowing stream,
As the guarding Kotoji overlooks.

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Persistent

“Japanese Maple in Snow”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

This Japanese Maple is persistent. It just will not drop its leaves. Most of our Japanese Maples have a similar habit. They add to contrasting colors in the winter landscape as well as provide interesting “nesting spots” for winter snow. If the snow gets too heavy, we do have to gently dust it off the fragile branches to protect them from breaking. Later in the early spring we also need to gently run our hands through the branches to remove the leaves on some of the trees to prepare for the fresh new growth.

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Hana Matoi #3

Hana Matoi Late Fall Growth
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

A few red and green leaves of late autumn growth contrast against the dried brown leaves of the spent leaves. Ice plants in their red and yellow winter color on the hillside frame the new leaves.

Below, the fragile disectum leaves of the Hana Matoi shade the spreading blue purplish green thyme below.

This concludes my Hana Matoi mini-project. Or does it? These six images in the last 3 posts were all taken on an overcast day. Early morning light and late afternoon light provide many additional perspectives. Different seasons display different colors. Snow, ice, rain, and dew create magical views. And there are always an abundance of opportunities for abstracts. An infinite number of images are yet to be discovered.

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Hana Matoi #2

Hana Matoi Looking Down
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

This post continues my Hana Matoi mini project. Looking for a different perspective, I walked up and leaned into the tree. I stood on my tip toes, held my camera above my head and took this image looking down through the top leaves to highlight the structure of the trunk and branches. It looks like a good spot for a bird to nest.

The image below is from a perspective of walking on a semi-hidden path adjacent to the main Japanese garden path. The Hokkeji pulls a visitor’s eyes to the Hana Matoi and the garden hillside.

Hokkeji and Hana Matoi
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

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Hana Matoi #1

Hana Matoi Japanese Maple
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

I love my morning walks through the garden with my camera. Many times I stop and take a photograph of something I have taken several times before. A couple of days ago I decided to give myself a little challenge to take purposeful photographs of some of our Japanese maples from a different perspective than I have before.

I walked around the little Hana Matoi from different directions and distances. I took close-up and distance images. I climbed above and got down on my hands and knees to just check things out. I used the tree as my primary subject and as a background. I used my feet as my zoom lens. After about an hour, I had around fifty images of different perspectives. I decided to make a small mini project of six images to attempt to characterize our little Hana Matoi Japanese maple.

The above image portrays the Hana Matoi near the entrance of Heatherwood’s Japanese Garden looking east. The maple welcomes visitors to the garden and introduces them to what is to come.

In the image below, the Hana Matoi bids the visitors goodbye as they round a bend and start to exit the garden.

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