If you have any general comments you’d like to make to the site, please post them here. Right now I have no mailing list, but as time goes on I’ll provide more options. I do try to respond to any reasonable comment left on the site. Let me hear what you have to say. Tom
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Recent Articles
- Endangered Calanthe orchids from the Izu Islands, C. izu-insularis and its hybrids
- A dwarf white orchid flower from Central America, Epidendrum trialatum
- Cypripedium parviflorum v. parviflorum, the small yellow lady slipper
- Where to buy lady slipper orchids online – North American sources
- Ipheion ‘Rolf Fiedler’, a true blue spring star flower
- Cypripedium parviflorum v. pubescens, the large yellow lady slipper
- Cypripedium reginae, the showy lady’s slipper
- The moccasin flower, Cypripedium acaule
- The ribbon fern, Pteris cretica, and two brake fern buddies
- Cypripedium kentuckiense, the southern lady’s slipper orchid
- View all
I’m reposting this comment from Jon, a gentleman who just moved to Japan:
“Ohayo gozaimasu. I just found your website and I can’t wait to go through it. I just moved to Sendai, and my family will be following shortly, for a three year work contract. I’ve already found two species growing wild, Dendrobium monilififorme on an island in Matsushima Bay, and Spiranthes sinensis in a weedy lot three blocks from my hotel in Sendai. I’m tuned into spotting Sprianthes since they’re growing as lawn weeds in my yard in Florida.
Again, thanks for putting up the site, and I’m looking forward to reading your articles. Do you have a mailing list that updates when articles are published?
Jon”
Hey Jon,
Welcome to Japan! I’m guessing you are helping sort out the mess after the tsunami (given your new location). I also see you lived in Florida – my old home as well. I lived mostly in Gainesville, but also did stints in Port Charlotte and Miami.
Just like Florida, you will find that Japan is home to many orchids. The Spiranthes are as weedy here as they are in Florida. It is cool you got to see Dendrobium moniliforme up in Miyagi – that population is the farthest north it is found naturally these days and represents the farthest north any true epiphytic orchid lives in the world (all thanks to warm water currents from the south plus the huge, warm Pacific Ocean).
Enjoy the site!
Thanks. Actually, I’ve been hired as a pilot with a Japanese airline on a three-year contract. We’re from Destin, a lovely place, and we plan to move back when my contract is over.
I have a pond in my backyard, so not only do we have Sprianthes, but also Calopogon tuberosus and Pogonia ophioglossoides, as well as the bug eaters Sarracenia flava and a few Droseras. We did have a clump of Habeneria repens bloom one year but I haven’t seen it since. Native orchids have always been my favorite, and I can’t wait to see what I can discover in Hokaido.
Jon
Tom
I’m writing from the Kansai region. I’ve lived in Kyoto for the past three years and I’ll reside here indefinitely. In the States, I was trained as a professional horticulturist, did my own design-build work, loved working at nurseries, and held a two-year+ gig as a taxonomic assistant at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Despite all of that experience, in Kyoto I find my plant identification skills – and all other related skills for that matter – settling somewhere down into the sump of my memory, far beyond recall. I’d like to hear from you about what resources you use for learning and identifying plants here in Japan. Are you using the same references you did in the States? Are you reading dichotomous keys in Nihongo? Are there books or online resources in English focused on Japan’s flora? I’ve searched for all of the above. I do appreciate the Yama-Kei books, though my reading speed is glacial, at best.
よろしくお願いします。
Hello Archer (your English name?),
When I came to Japan 10 years ago I had very little knowledge of Japanese plants whatsoever. I did do a lot of plant hunting back in the states, particularly in the southeast. I took a number of plant ID courses, dendrology, and even paleobotany. While I was trained as a zoologist, worked in a microbiology lab for years, and had a short stint as a high school science teacher, my love has always been plants. That is the reason I am doing this blog, my love of plants.
Toward that end, I endeavored from the start of coming to Japan to learn everything I could. Glacial is a funny word to use because my situation was even worse – how to learn when I possessed no language skill at all? Well, it took time. I bought books, talked to people who would bother with me, and used online resources (in Japanese) to decipher, piece by piece, what I was looking at. Luckily, I had a lot of practice from my experiences in the states. Dichotomous keys! Ouch… To my knowledge, finding good information in English about the vast majority of plants treated here is a hopeless task.
Many plants are pretty easy to ID – most orchids for instance, while others are not. Ferns for example can be a real mess – I haven’t tried to wade too deeply into that maelstrom, just skirt the edges. The number of look alike species for the common fern Polystichum polyblepharum, for example, is staggering. You literally need to have all the distinguishing characteristics outlined for each species and head off to the woods for perfect IDing. Fortunately, that has never been my interest. I intend only to introduce the reader to what is around based on my own real world experiences. Virtually everything I write about is based on my experiences here, either cultivating or finding whatever plants I deem interesting. That is what I offer on Botany Boy.
Tom
I’m reposting this message from Clark Lawrence:
“Hello and warm October greetings from Mantova, Italy.
I am an American gardener living in northern Italy, recently moved out of a castle after an earthquake destroyed the place (and garden) I was working on… I love Japan and japanese plants, especially woodland stuff, and so have come across your fern information while trying to identify a plant I bought in Japan a couple years ago, but lost the name of…
At any rate, I am thinking about making a shady, ferny garden of Japanese delights in a former cow barn near Mantova, and would love your ideas and maybe help in creating an impressive collection.
My garden and blog are here: http://www.galeazzagarden.tumblr.com and the association I run is here: http://www.galeazza.com. We’re still in the process of making the new, post-earthquake website for the new place, Corte Eremo.
Best wishes and many compliments for your beautiful website,
Clark Lawrence”
Hey Clark,
Thanks for the comments. I heard about that terrible quake and also the unusual summer storms that devastated the gardens of Villa Taranto. I am glad to hear of your plans would be happy to make suggestions.
Did you find your fern on my site? I’m afraid most I have written about so far are wild types, many of which are not usually found in western gardens.
Best of luck with your gardening endeavors.
Tom
I’m reposting this message from another page:
“Love your website and your youtube videos. I’m in the Navy, although a pacifist and a plant lover. I’ll be going to Sasebo in June on 2013 and looking forward to hiking and learning about the native flaura of Kyushu. If you’re interested in a hiking buddy my girl and I love the outdoors and have plans to do a lot of exploring when we come down to Sasebo. Let me know if you’d like to go hiking next year, I’d love to join you if you have room on your exploration!
Cheers,
Mike McJohn”
Hello Tom
Your Utube plant hunts are kyomifukai. Thank you for them. My husband Kazuo and I lead garden tours to Japan but I have been asked to put together a tour for the Fern Society here in the Pacific Northwest as well as for some folks from England. I usually bring only 10 people. Would you be available to take us on a fern hunting hike one day. You would be compensated for your time of course plus any of your expenses would be covered, food, travel, and or lodging. These folks are not interested in much sightseeing. They only want to wander around forests, mountains, etc. and
are very enthusiastic to say the least when it comes to plants. Seems as you are too you might enjoy them. Hope to hear from you!
Marilyntsuchiya@comcast.net
Hey Mike,
Glad you like the site. Kyushu is full of interesting stuff, but you have to know where to look for the more unusual species. Much of the lower mountains have been completely cut over and in many cases replanted in conifer plantations – Cyrptomeria and Chamaecyparis mostly (~56% of them in Kyushu). They are pretty barren, but there are pockets of nice forest in between.
Sure, give me a call when you come. I’m sure we can meet up for a hike or two. Nagasaki Prefecture has some nice places to visit.
Tom – Great job with the site! Enjoyed your coniogramme article. We grow and offer a number of these, but have never seen a variegated form of C. japonica. Hopefully a trip to Japan in the near future. If you ever have an interest in trading or sharing spores, let me know. Thanks.
Have just stumbled upon your site…wonderful plants and information. I’m a fern nut and just have to ask: how does one obtain the spores to try to propagate some of the ferns. I also have terrariums, so some of the smaller ferns may really love the conditions. Looking forward to any information that can be provided….Thanks, Judy
Hey Tom,
I too stumbled onto your Kikuchi Gorge pages and loved them.
So much that representing my workplace I designed and led a tour of Canadians to visit there (for a couple of hrs) last November. WOW. and thats not the Fall color I’m referring to. We went up Mt Aso day before and I made a note to come back, Fall of 2014. We (another nursery owners group) want to roam the hills and forests a bit and study the native plants. Also we’ll revisit Yakushima. Outstanding place, have you been? I’m building some good connections there. But yet have none on Kyushu. Would love to try some nursery visits anywhere but precious little info – what say – any tidbits would help, cheers/kanpai desu.
Hello again Tom,
I wrote to you a while back, asking if you could help me identify a grass I managed to grow from seeds I got in Japan last year (or the year before, I can’t remember)… at any rate, it was a kind of Carex, but I’m still not sure what kind.
I can’t remember if we were in touch before or after the earthquakes, but the news is the castle where I was living near Bologna was destroyed in may of last year, and I have moved to a new place, where I hope to make a mossy, ferny garden inside an abandoned cow barn. It’s coming along slowly. I waould like to add ferns, and I recently learned a place not too far from here sells Japanese ferns.
I also wanted to ask you if you would like to take part in a documentary about moving the garden of Galeazza to this new place – and then maybe again to a final destination as yet to be found.
I really like your videos, and scribble down all the names in Latin and Japanese as they appear, as I would likek to add as much as I can.
Do you think I could get Lygodium japonicum to grow up in the barn?
My blog to get an idea of the space is hortushorreidottumblrdotcom.
Look forward to getting back in touch!
Clark
Hi Tommy,
I am a bit confused as I see that my last comment is stuck in the middle of Nov. 2nd 2012 and as you haven’t replied I wonder if you didn’t see it yet? Anyways, that tour I talked about is for members of the Hardy Fern Foundation here in the Pacific Northwest and the British Pteridological society. I am trying to put together an itinerary and it would be fantastic if you could guide us on a couple of hikes, compensated of course! The tour is in 2014 but my husband Kazuo and I will be in Japan this fall; maybe we could meet up in your home town?
Marilyn Tsuchiya
Sorry Marilyn,
Been madness here lately. I will email you soon.
Tom