Email from Yokohama
March 2009
by Alex Endo

Alex (Akira) Endo lives in Yokohama, Japan. He spent five years in Australia and during that time developed a love of the plants that regularly grow in Australian gardens. Alex has planted many of these plants in his home garden. Each month he shares his gardening experiences with Global Garden readers.

Flowers are beginning to bloom in Japan.
Acacia is blooming in my garden. Acacia flowers tell us "spring has come". Recently, Acacia from Australia has become a very popular flower in Japan. Acacia is the best for the modern garden because both the flower and the leaf are beautiful.
Acacia is called as Mimosa in Japan. Only a few Japanese people know that the Acacia is the national flower of Australia.

There is a popular television program called "Gardening" in Japan. It is broadcast in the morning of Sunday every week.
There is also a monthly reference magazine used as a teaching text in conjunction with the program. Acacia flowers are featured in the March edition. It is proof of how popular the acacia is in Japan. This reference magazine is one of the most popular monthly magazines in Japan, with 600,000 magazines sold every month. There is a special nursery where many kinds of acacia are grown in Japan, and the photographs from this magazine were taken in this nursery. This nursery is named Rare Plants Japan, and managed by Mr.Shigeki Gyoutoku. The URL is http://www.page.sannet.ne.jp/chama/index.htm . This page is written in Japanese only but you can still enjoy photos of several Acacia flowers.

By the way, it is said that the most famous spring flower in Japan is the cherry blossom and it is the Japanese national flower. We can see cherry blossoms every where in Japan in April. But people also love plum flowers in early spring. It begins to bloom roughly in February, and blooms almost simultaneously with the Acacia. Also Japanese people love salted plum fruits. This is very traditional food. The other day I went to one of the famous plum garden 'Oumebaigou' in suburbs of Tokyo.

See you next month,
Alex
 

Note: Alex recently visited Australia and took the opportunity to see the Australian garden at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne. It is a must see for lovers of Australian plants.

1. Wattle blooming in Alex's garden.
2. Japanese gardening magazine featuring Acacia.
3. Cherry blossom in bloom.

Alex's website "Alex's Garden Party" is at:
http://www.geocities.co.jp/SweetHome-Brown/1908/index_e.html

You can contact Alex at:  xalex@f06.itcom.net  (Note: Please delete the first X in the address.)