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...

Suzhou and its gardens

If you're a garden historian visiting China, there is one destination that matters most and that is Suzhou. Known as the 'Venice of ...

Gardenhistorygirl goes to China!

The lack of posting lately has been due to a trip to China...not the trip itself (I am now sucessfully blogging from Tianjin), but the prepa...