Japanese Maples And Your Serene Space

Japanese maples, or momiji, are an essential part of your garden. Because of the wide variety of colors and sizes that they come in, there are many different ways to add them to your own garden.

Grand Island Serene Gardens is particularly fond of Japanese maples and our Garden Center specializes in them. There are so many aesthetic and calming benefits of having them in your garden. Even potted with the right vase and displayed inside they make a great interior decoration.

In autumn their colors come to life. Similar to the Japanese cherry blossom though, their beauty is symbolic of impermanence and change. Some species do keep a deep red, almost maroon, color all year round though. These trees can add a great deal of sophistication to your landscape. Allowing the leaves to lay also helps create the atmosphere.

They often have a beautiful array of reds and oranges, and although not a maple, I know many people in Japan also love the gold and bright yellows of the Ginkgo Tree. Here you can see how it has laid a golden blanket over the whole shrine in this picture I took deep in the mountains of Nara.

Japan has gone to great lengths to display their momiji. It has become custom in autumn in Japan to visit these temples and parks that host a colorful nighttime light show. Visiting these places has become a major tourist event, so beware of that if you are planning a trip to some of the famous temples around that time. Some of the gardens get really crammed with people, which can take away from the serene experience.

However, there are a lot of lessons we can learn about nighttime garden lighting and creating a beautiful garden you can enjoy at night as well. If you have a large enough pond, they can enhance the scene by creating a reflection of the leaves.