In urban Japan, many people live in high-rise apartments or condominiums. As a result, many residents use potted plants to connect with living Nature. In urban areas, large-scale public gardens are also highly popular, as are heated conservatories filled with colorful begonias, orchids, and other exotic tropical plants.
In the countryside, where individual homes are more common, immaculate gardens are invariably maintained by professional gardeners, who are especially skilled in the hand-pruning of trees and shrubs.
In retirement, keen amateur plant-lovers also devote endless hours to the cultivation of miniature trees (盆栽, bonsai), to the formal discipline of Japanese flower-arranging (生け花, ikebana), to the cultivation of perfect chrysanthemums (菊, kiku) for autumn flower shows, and to personal collections of Japanese iris (花菖蒲, hana shōbu), azaleas (ツツジ, tsutsuji), camellia (椿, tsubaki ), etc.
And then there are occasional and quite unexpected specialist examples, that differ sharply from the traditional view of Japanese gardens. For example, close to Odawara City, a retiree who swapped a hectic Tokyo-based lifestyle for a peaceful gardening experience, has created a beautiful ¼ acre (290坪) rose garden, that contains 200 Floribunda varieties (フロリバンダ·バラ), 100 Hybrid Tea varieties (ハイブリッドティー·ローズ), 70 Climbing roses (つる·バラ) and Shrub varieties (つシュラブ·ローズ), and 100 Miniature varieties (ミニ·バラ). The stated aim of this home-based garden is “to enjoy colorful roses as long as possible”, and this brings great pleasure not only to the owner and his wife, but also to the many flower-loving enthusiasts who visit this garden.
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