Reflections on a Tateshina Meadow

I first met Miss Kay Yamada at Chelsea Flower Show a few years ago when she created a garden called Reflections on a Tateshina Meadow. It was a delightful naturalistic garden based on the mountain meadows north of the Barakura English Garden. I especially remember the delicate yellow Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus she used in the garden, and I bought one for my own garden soon after the show on a garden tour to Normandy. Its fragrant yellow blooms were open when we left for Japan and seeing it in the garden reminded me of Reflections on a Tateshina Meadow and I wondered if we would have the opportunity to see these beautiful flowers in the wild.

Yesterday was another great Adventure in Gardening for me. Ra and I took a local bus up into the mountains to visit the Tateshina meadows. We travelled for about an hour and a half climbing steadily through paddy fields, gardens filled with cloud trees moss and azaleas, then through forests of Cornus controversa, Acer palmatum and a host of other familiar garden treasures in their natural habitat. We spotted wisterias high in the trees, actinidia, akebia and amazing ferns. As we climbed higher the trees thinned before falling below the road, here the hillsides are covered with soft orange azaleas, their sweet fragrance floating through the windows of the bus.

Then we moved up into the clouds which lay softly over the meadows, we walked amongst carpets of convallaria, polygonatum, hostas, violas and irises, osmunda ferns - unbelievable. The hemerocallis were still in tight bud but the other treasures more than compensated for their tardiness. We were aware of the mountains around up shrouded with mist and thought that we would only be able to imagine their majesty. Then the sun broke through the clouds and the cloud lifted to reveal the most spectacular landscape. It was quite breathtaking and i really can't believe that we have had the opportunity to experience this wonderful part of the world and view its natural treasures at such close quarters.

What a day! We managed the bus, without getting too lost! We met some lovely people - yes we speak different languages but it doesn't seem to matter. We saw so many different species - I just wish I'd kept a note of them all - but then again I doubt I'll forget them.