In “Visionary Landscapes,” Kendall Brown profiles the lives and gardens of five designers born in the mid-20th century – three in Japan, two in the United States – who have practiced their craft primarily in North America. The new gardens they have designed, mostly in the last 30 years, are pushing the evolving concept of Japanese-style gardening.
Hōichi Kurisu is perhaps best known regionally as the curator of the Japanese Garden in Portland from 1968-1972. After he left the garden, he stayed in Portland and his company has thrived in designing, building, and even maintaining mostly residential gardens in that area and inspiring gardens throughout the country.
A couple of years ago, I was fortunate to hear David Slawson, another of the profiled designers, speak at the Cleveland Botanical Garden and see the garden he designed there. Brown describes Slawson’s gardens as presenting “a greater awareness of regional landscape gained from having seen it beautifully manifest in microcosm.”
The examples in this book show that the expressions of traditional Japanese garden design are subtle, but this also gives more options. We live where most Japanese plants thrive, but not all gardeners are so fortunate. For example, after listening to the talk, a librarian colleague of mine was excited that she could incorporate Slawson’s ideas to her home desert garden in Phoenix.
Excerpted from the Fall 2018 Arboretum Bulletin.