Photography by Jim Powell for Gardenista.
The Garage Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show is one of the most photographed and shared gardens this year.
Mr. Kazuyuki Ishihara is a fixture on the Artisan Gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show.
The Garage Garden, or Senri-Sentei. The awards ceremony during Chelsea week highlights, in a superficial way, a difference in Eastern and Western culture, which has sometimes worked against Kazuyuki Ishihara.
Ishihara’s way with plants extends to hardware. The white interior of the building is also immaculately considered, with embossed swirls adding to the Art Deco feel.
Ishihara likes to tightly fill a small space, making it seem bigger.
Signature moss on the Senri-Sentei garden. In an interview with the Japanese Embassy that year he was asked whether he was ever frustrated by a lack of understanding among the London judges for what he was trying to do.
Verdigris copper lines the roof terrace and the round window at the side of the structure. Moss responds well to tweezer treatment and thrives in the humidity of Japan.
One of two window fountains which add light and movement.
Specimens of Japanese acer provide the base notes of color in shades of green and ruby red. They must soak up as much of the experience as they can on this visit, since it will never be repeated.
With layers of brilliance within a limited setting, the stories that Kazuyuki Ishihara tells with his gardens are a way of expressing what he sees as the spirit of Japan.