Tea Gardens
At tea-service.com we love tea gardens. I visited my first tea garden over 40 years ago and have been enchanted by them ever since. This first magical tea garden was the Portland Japanese Tea Garden in Portland Oregon. My father first took me there in the spring of my seventh year. My father was a quiet man who worked at breeding roses as a hobby, and admittedly he looked for any excuse he could find to spend a day at a public garden and when he saw how much I enjoyed the Japanese Tea Garden our fate was sealed. He and I returned season after season, year after year, until I was 15. It was wonderful to see the gardens change season after season. In retrospect, this was a guilt pleasure for us. A chance to get out of the house, leaving the rest of the family behind because they simply were not interested, and learn about the plants and each other.
Noteworthy gardens – Tea and/or Japanese Gardens:
Japanese Tea Garden at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
It’s hard to believe I know, but the oldest Japanese Tea Garden in the United States doesn’t seem to warrant a website of its own, or even pages on the official site of the City of San Francisco. While it doesn’t occupy a lot of acreage, it is a very lovely garden and anyone visiting San Francisco that loves gardens in general and Japanese Gardens in particular will enjoy visiting it. Additional information about the garden can be found by clicking here.
Japanese Tea Garden – San Mateo
To some people San Mateo may seem like an odd place for a tea garden, but not only is there a Japanese tea garden in San Mateo – it is a very fine tea garden designed by landscape architect Nagao Sakurai of the Imperial Palace of Tokyo. This beautiful little garden is worth a visit.
Japanese Garden in the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Fort Worth Texas
Japanese Friendship Garden of San Diego
Shinzen Japanese Garden – Woodward Park Japanese Garden
Japanese Gardens at Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
Hannah Carter Japanese Garden at UCLA
Below are resources for planning and creating a Japanese Tea Garden or Tea House of your own!
