Wells Japanese Garden is a small

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 desig ...

located at 1608 Lindsay Street in

Newberry, South Carolina Newberry is a city in Newberry County, South Carolina, United States, in the Piedmont northwest of Columbia. The charter was adopted in 1894. The population was 10,277 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Newberry County; at one time it ...

. It is open daily. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1980. The garden was created by W. Fulmer Wells in 1930, donated to the city in 1971, and added to the

in 1980. It is currently being restored and maintained by the Newberry Council of Garden Clubs. The garden contains two ponds, concrete bridges in a Japanese style,

torii A is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred. The presence of a ''torii'' at the entrance is usually the simplest ...

, a

teahouse A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whic ...

, and a variety of indigenous and exotic flora including lotus,

Japanese iris The term "Japanese iris" encompasses three species of Irises cultivated in gardens or growing wild in Japan: ''hanashōbu'' (''Iris ensata''), ''kakitsubata'' ('' Iris laevigata'') and ''ayame'' (''Iris sanguinea''). Of these three species, ''I. ...

water lilies ''Water Lilies'' (or ''Nymphéas'', ) is a Serial imagery, series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionism, Impressionist Claude Monet (1840–1926). The paintings depict his Fondation Monet in Giverny, flower garden at Fond ...

crepe myrtle ''Lagerstroemia'' (), commonly known as crape myrtle (also spelled crepe myrtle or crêpe myrtle), is a genus of around 50 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs native to the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, northern Australia ...

dogwood ''Cornus'' is a genus of about 30–60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods, which can generally be distinguished by their blossoms, berries, and distinctive bark. Most are deciduous trees or shrub ...

, and

cypress Cypress is a common name for various coniferous trees or shrubs of northern temperate regions that belong to the family Cupressaceae. The word ''cypress'' is derived from Old French ''cipres'', which was imported from Latin ''cypressus'', the ...

. On February 12, 2012 at 12:12 the City of Newberry met with Senior Curator of The Presidential Service Museum, Martin CJ Mongiello, to accept a gift of a Matsu (pine) tree. Mongiello lived in Japan for many years and remembered visiting where President George H. W. Bush and Ulysses S. Grant each planted a Pine tree at the Tokyo famed Zojoji Temple. City officials at the meeting were Matt DeWitt and Jeff Shacker. Doctor Jerry Livingston, a local resident and former missionary in Japan of 40 years visited at 2:12 on the 12th to be introduced to the garden for the first time. Komatsu Corporation donated a sizeable fund to help with additions at the garden in 2012. Both Doctor Livingston and Mongiello have pledged to assist in the garden for 2012.

See also