International Gardens Tour
Japanese Garden
The Japanese Garden is named Seiwa-en, which means the garden of pure, clear harmony and peace. Designed with great care by the late Professor Koichi Kawana to ensure authenticity, this 14-acre garden is the largest Japanese strolling garden in the Western hemisphere.
A four-acre lake is complemented with waterfalls, streams, water-filled basins, and stone lanterns. Dry gravel gardens are raked into beautiful, rippling patterns. Four islands rise from the lake to form symbolic images. Several Japanese bridges link shorelines; families delight in feeding the giant "koi" (Japanese carp). Visitors are enthralled by cherry blossoms, azaleas, chrysanthemums, peonies, lotus, and other oriental plantings. For a more detailed tour of the Japanese Garden, click here.
Cherbonnier English Woodland Garden
The Cherbonnier English Woodland Garden is a quiet, informal garden that attracts people and wildlife alike. This area includes three vegetation layers, typical of a mature woodland - an upper tree canopy, a middle shrub layer, and a lower layer of herbaceous perennial plants and ground covers. In the spring, hundreds of woodland flowers including dogwoods, trillium, Virginia bluebells, winter aconite, and azaleas put on a massive display. Peak season of interest is from early spring through summer and into autumn.
Strassenfest Garden
Southwest of the Shoenberg Administration Building lies the Strassenfest Garden, which contains plants native to central Europe and Germany, as well as plants hybridized or discovered by native Germans. The garden features at the south end, a representation of Unter den Linden Boulevard, the main thoroughfare in Berlin which is lined with linden trees.
A bust of George Engelmann, cast by American Paul Granlund, is installed at the northeastern end of the garden. Engelmann, a German who moved to St. Louis, was a distinguished botanist. He served as Henry Shaw's scientific advisor and identified several hundred plants including the Chinkapin Oak, Coral Bells, and Virginia Creeper.
Grigg Nanjing Friendship Chinese Garden
The Grigg Nanjing Friendship Chinese Garden is modeled on the "scholar's gardens" of the southern provinces of China, near Nanjing, which are smaller and less ornate than the Imperial gardens of the north. This garden, designed by Chinese-born architect Yong Pan, is considered the most authentic of its size in the United States, and a showplace of absolutely extraordinary craftsmanship. The Grigg Nanjing Friendship Garden honors the fifteenth anniversary of the sister city relationship between St. Louis, Missouri and Nanjing, China. For a more detailed tour of the Chinese Garden, click here.
Bakewell Ottoman Garden
The Ottoman Garden, a unique quarter-acre walled garden, is particularly significant because there are no surviving examples of the gardening tradition of the Ottomans, which was developed between the 16th and 19th centuries in what is now Turkey.
Visitors' senses are piqued by the visually lush and peaceful setting, the fragrance of blossoms and herbs, the refreshing music of water, the earthy patina of surrounding walls and columns and the feel of antique brick and stone beneath their feet.
Various fountains and artifacts fabricated in Turkey for the Ottoman Garden provide a strong sense of authenticity. A stone pedestal fountain invites visitors to rinse their hands in the cooling water as they begin their tour. Oleanders lining the walkway lead to the central focal point, a shallow pool of water. Water spouts gently from the small jets along its rim, circling the stone water bowl in the center. A textured stucco wall with tiled roof, painted murals, decorations and birdhouses enclose one side of a patio, set off by the gentle sound of water spilling from the tiers of another fountain.