- Posted by Mei

Location:E El Camino Real,Mountain View,United States

I have been working on my own garden for the last several months. It was a major undertaking since I had to get rid of tons of concrete pavings that were improperly sloped. The front yard is mostly finished and here is a comparison of the before and the after:

Most of my clients know that I always recommend against front lawns, and I have to admit that the fresh patch of green did look nice and clean. Unfortunately, it takes too much water and maintenance in our Mediterranean climate. In the long run, I hope that my feature-rich new garden will appeal to more people with its low water usage, diverse plants, and functional living space.

Here are a couple more photos from my front yard. The fountain is hack job of a table-top fountain and a large pot from IKEA. My wife and I did it together since we could not find any ready-made ones that would satisfy both of us. It has been a big draw for neighborhood birds as soon as I set it up, and very few people can resist the joyful charm of seeing birds thrashing and playing in water.

First are some classical themed ones. The slides could use some camouflage.

Then there are some whimsical ones:

Plus a number of modern ones with the top right one being my favorite for its intricate organization of space, which reminded me of the best man-made hills in Classical Chinese Gardens.

My son’s favorite is this one called Oblique House designed by Barbara Butler Artist-Builder, Inc.

Coincidentally, Paulownia is the only wood of choice for making the traditional Chinese zither, or Guzheng (古筝). Here is a short Youtube video of a Chinese maestro playing a favorite piece: The Fishermen’s Evening Song (渔舟唱晚).

Next is the brand new Summerwinds Nursery branch in Santa Clara on El Camino Real. It is very clean, well organized, and well stocked with a few uncommon plants such as Abies koreana “Silberlocke” and Opuntia santa-rita. I wish them best of luck and hope that they keep stocking more exotic plants.

Getty Villa is modeled after Villa dei Papiri, a first century Roman villa that got buried during the same Mt. Vesuvius eruption that engulfed Pompeii. The most iconic view of Getty Villa is its outer Peristyle with a long reflection pool wrapped by columned porch. While taking these photos, I congratulated myself for signing up for an early arrival as the garden is very tranquil and magical in the soft morning light with only a few tourists. What I was not prepared for, however, were the following architectural details that reminded me of similar treatments in traditional Chinese gardens.

For example, the walls are lined with open windows of various lattice designs. In China these are called “Leaky Windows” (漏窗) since they let in rain and air. These do serve a functional purpose of ventilation, but the lattice work elevates them to artistic garden features. Here are some photos from The Getty Villa (top row) and The Surging Waves Pavilion (沧浪亭) in Suzhou, China (bottom row):

The ceilings at Getty are also well decorated with two styles of carved flowers alternating, as shown on left below. To its right is an example from the Summer Palace (颐和园) in Beijing. Why are the floral theme and square grids so similar?

The most surprising similarity is these trompe-l’oeil murals covering the top half of the walls. Getty’s murals have uniform composition and a lot of common elements, yet there are also fine details that are unique to each panel, such as little birds and small lizards.

Here is one mural from the Summer Palace in Beijing:

What I find amazing is that both Roman and Chinese artisans chose to incorporate images of antique vases in their murals. My guess is that these vases add a sense of age and elegance and their simple forms were perfect for demonstrating 3-D shading and perspectives.

Now what about all these similarities? Believe it or not, there is active study on the trades and connections between the Roman Empire and the Chinese Han Dynasty. Chinese silk and Roman glass did manage to reach the other party via land and sea. A lot of the Chinese architectural details I showed can be traced back to that era, although very few hard evidence still remain since the Chinese built mostly with wood that did not last as long as the Roman’s stone works. It is quite likely that these design ideas were shared among the two greatest civilizations of that period, but who first came up with the ideas may have lost in history forever. Those ideas might have been independently developed after all, similar to convergent evolution in plants. For us it is just simple joy to happen upon these parallels.

It was Dan Hinkley the renowned plant explorer who first brought this plant back to the U.S., but while his fellow collector from UK has had it available at Crug Farm Nursery for quite some time (For plant lovers, it is painful to see many other exciting Schefflera species exclusively available there), Schefflera taiwaniana never went into trade here. A certain large seed company may played a part when they bought Dan’s independent nursery, Heronswood, and subsequently moved it to the East Coast.

The fortune has finally changed a couple years ago, when Monrovia and Dan teamed up to offer a line of collector plants including S. taiwaniana. It is scheduled to be widely released in spring 2012, but a few plants has gotten out last year (2010) and it caused quite a stir among serious gardeners in the Pacific Northwest.

Last November (2010), I was pleasantly surprised to see a pair of this plant at a local nursery in South San Jose. One was taken home for trial (above left) with the other left for fellow enthusiasts. Now imagine my surprise when I visited this nursery again in March 2011 and saw that the other plant was still there. Guess there may not be as many plant nuts as I thought in the South Bay, or at least they do not frequent this particular nursery. So in order to encourage the nursery to stock more exotic plants I bought this other one (top right) as well.

Another hardy Schefflera I am trying is S. delavayi (穗序鹅掌柴, below left) from Cistus Nursery. It has wide leaflets that will develop heavy indentation when mature. An even more recent acquisition is a dainty Schefflera microphylla (below right) from the San Francisco Botanical Garden, when its director Don Mahoney gave a talk to my local plant group, The Western Horticultural Society. This plant is from Luzon island of the Phillipines and it is not hardy outside. But its small size will come in handy when I take it in during winter. Trial propagation has already started and so far it has been very promising.

Here is a group shot of the three Schefflera species I grow. For scale, S. taiwaniana on top is in a five gallon container.

Here is a group shot of two small scheffleras and one close relative Metapanax delavayi (梁王茶), also from Cistus Nursery. This photo is very recent and one can see the light-colored new leaves on S. delavayi.