is the Japanese word for "garden trees". Niwaki is also a descriptive word for highly "sculpting trees". Most varieties of

plants Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclude ...

used in

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desi ...

s are called ''niwaki''. These

trees In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are u ...

help to create the structure of the garden. Japanese gardens are not about using large range of plants, rather the objective is creating atmosphere or

ambiance Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to: Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds * Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere * ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby * ...

. The technique of niwaki is more about what to do with a tree than the tree itself. While Western gardeners enjoy experimenting with a wide range of different plants, Japanese gardeners achieve variety through training and shaping a relatively limited set of plants. Trees play a key role in the

gardens A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

and

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...

of Japan as well as being of important spiritual and cultural significance to its people. Fittingly, Japanese gardeners have fine-tuned a distinctive set of

pruning Pruning is a horticultural, arboricultural, and silvicultural practice involving the selective removal of certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots. The practice entails the ''targeted'' removal of diseased, damaged, dead, ...

techniques meant to coax out the essential characters of ''niwaki''. ''Niwaki'' are often cultivated to achieve some very striking effects: trees are made to look older than they really are with broad trunks and gnarled branches; trees are made to imitate wind-swept or lightning-struck trees in the wild; ''

Cryptomeria japonica ''Cryptomeria'' (literally "hidden parts") is a monotypic genus of conifer in the cypress family Cupressaceae, formerly belonging to the family Taxodiaceae. It includes only one species, ''Cryptomeria japonica'' ( syn. ''Cupressus japonica'' L ...

'' specimens are often pruned to resemble free-growing trees. Some designers are using ''zoke'' (miscellaneous plants) as well as the ''niwaki'' to create a more "

natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

" mood to the landscape. Most

traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

garden designers still rely primarily on the rarefied ''niwaki'' palette. The principles of ''niwaki'' may be applied to garden trees all over the world and are not restricted to Japanese gardens.

Plant types

The plants used most commonly in Japanese gardens today include: * Japanese black pine (''

Pinus thunbergii ''Pinus thunbergii'' (syn: ''Pinus thunbergiana''), also called black pine, Japanese black pine, and Japanese pine, is a pine tree native to coastal areas of Japan (Kyūshū, Shikoku and Honshū) and South Korea. It is called () in Korean, () ...

'') * Japanese cedar (''

'') * Camellias including sasanqua (''

Camellia sasanqua ''Camellia sasanqua'', with common name sasanqua camellia, is a species of ''Camellia'' native to China and Japan. It is usually found growing up to an altitude of 900 metres. It is an evergreen shrub growing to 5 m tall. The leaves are bro ...

'') * Many other flowering varieties (''Camellia japonica cvs'') * Japanese evergreen oaks (''

Quercus glauca ''Quercus glauca'' ( syn. ''Cyclobalanopsis glauca''), commonly called ring-cupped oak or Japanese blue oak, is a tree in the beech family (Fagaceae). It is native to eastern and southern Asia, where it is found in Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, nor ...

'', '' Quercus myrsinifolia'') * Gardenia ('' Gardenia jasminoides'') * Sweet osmanthus (''

Osmanthus fragrans ''Osmanthus fragrans'' (lit. "fragrant osmanthus"; Chinese: , ''guìhuā'', and , ''mùxī''; ; Shanghainese: ''kue35 ho53''; ja, 木犀, ''mokusei''; hi, , ''silang''), variously known as sweet osmanthus, sweet olive, tea olive, and fr ...

'') * Japanese maple ('' Acer palmatum'') * Japanese apricot (''

Prunus mume ''Prunus mume'' is an East Asian and Southeast Asian tree species classified in the ''Armeniaca'' section of the genus ''Prunus'' subgenus ''Prunus''. Its common names include Chinese plum, Japanese plum, and Japanese apricot. The flower, long ...

'' and others) * Yoshino flowering cherry ( ''Prunus × yedoensis'' 'Yoshino') * Japanese aucuba (''

Aucuba japonica ''Aucuba japonica'', commonly called spotted laurel, Japanese laurel, Japanese aucuba or gold dust plant (U.S.), is a shrub () native to rich forest soils of moist valleys, thickets, by streams and near shaded moist rocks in China, Korea, and ...

'') * Japanese andromeda (''

Pieris japonica ''Pieris japonica'', the Japanese andromeda or Japanese pieris, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to eastern China, Taiwan, and Japan, where it grows in mountain thickets. This medium-sized evergreen shr ...

'') * Winter daphne (''

Daphne odora ''Daphne odora'', winter daphne, is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae, native to China, later spread to Japan and Korea. It is an evergreen shrub, grown for its very fragrant, fleshy, pale-pink, tubular flowers, each with f ...

'') * Japanese enkianthus (''Enkianthus perulatus'') * Satsuki azalea (''Rhododendron cvs.'')

References

{{Authority control Japanese style of gardening Landscape architecture