Wang Tingna's Gardens of the Hall Encircled by Jade

I have been searching, without success, for an online version of the Chinese garden classic, 'Yuan Ye' to share with you. Completed...

The trees of Myoung Ho Lee

Given the emphasis on the shape and form of individual plants in the Oriental gardening tradition, it is perhaps not surprising that the cre...

Chinese gardens - the naming of the pavilions

Another of my 'take-home' ideas from China is the naming of garden buildings, often connected not only to a sensory experience but a...

Chinese gardens - Serenity, and the importance of an open center

With the latest scientific manuscript written and submitted I can at last return (with relief) to the contemplation of gardens, and to some ...

Chinese gardens - the plants

First, there's not as much bamboo as one might think. And when there is, it is of a common sort, none of the exotic varieties that have ...

Chinese gardens - a few details

Beautiful bamboo plant labels used in Suzhou. I searched in vain for some of these to bring home...the lack of a free market shows in my utt...

Chinese gardens - the floors

Well, they aren't grass. One of the several reasons Chinese gardens can seem so alien is that there is very little of the greensward tha...

Chinese gardens - fenestrations (windows and doors)

All of this would be exceedingly claustrophobic were it not for the extensive use of windows and doors to relieve the solidity of the divisi...

Chinese gardens - Layers of Enclosure

It is with some trepidation that I embark on commentary within a garden tradition so different from my own. But if I can't completely un...