Horticulture shock
Creating a patch of paradise in southern Japan may appear effortless for the Gardening World Cup contenders, but it's not all sunshine and roses. Julian Ryall gets a behind-the-hedges look at what it takes to make the cut
The very nice lady from New Zealand is rattling off Latin names at machine-gun pace and describing the fundamental connection between a plant (the name of which I can’t spell correctly), the life force of the water feature and the significance of the charred exterior of the pine walls.
Every so often, she pauses, turns to me and asks, “You do see what I mean, don’t you?” And I mumble a variant of, “Yes, of course. It’s remarkable. The relationship …” and let the phrase shrivel up and die as quickly as one of the plants I occasionally sow in the patch of scrubby ground at home that I have the temerity to describe as “my garden”.
Leaving my replies ambiguous seems to be fine with Xanthe White, however, because she has so much enthusiasm for a milieu in which she clearly excels; she has just been awarded the gold medal and lifted the Best Design Award at the 2012 Gardening World Cup.
A steady stream of fellow contestants, awe-struck Japanese wannabes and husbands, apparently dragged along by green-fingered wives to the show gardens on the first day they are open to the public, stop by to congratulate 36-year-old White. They ask pertinent questions, nod sagely when she starts with the Latin names of plants and discuss lines of flow, transitions and the difficulty of sourcing native New Zealand shrubs in southern Japan.
It would be fair to say that, as a Tokyo-based news journalist who generally covers politics, disasters and Japan’s latest row over the Senka… er … Diaoyu Islands, I’m out of my depth here. But while I may not be able to tell the difference between a philodendron and a sprig of parsley, I can appreciate something that incorporates colour, beauty and attractive design elements.
And plenty of people who visit this event fall into that category.
The Gardening World Cup, held annually at the slightly surreal Huis Ten Bosch theme park – a vast replica of a Dutch town, complete with windmills and canals – celebrated its third anniversary last month.
