Visit to Cheekwood, 27 August 2011

Last month before leaving Nashville after attending the Middle Tennesee Hosta Society's August meeting, I spent several delightful hours at Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art. Here are some pictures from my visit, mainly from Cheekwood's Japanese Garden. In addition to wandering the grounds, I had a wonderful lunch at Cheekwood's fine restaurant and purchased several items (including a neat set of stainless steel miniature plant tools) from its gift shop. It was a great end to a very enjoyable trip.
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Here is the Cheekwood website's description of the Japanese garden there:
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Japanese Garden, Shomu-en
Shomu-en, the pine-mist garden, is a place of quiet and meditation, a refuge from the outside world. The lantern at the gate is a symbol of enlightenment, and the gate always stands open as a sign of welcome. The garden is in four parts. The roji, or crooked path, slows your progress and invites observation. Then you pass another gate into the dark bamboo forest, intended to turn the mind inward. A third gate takes you into a grassy courtyard with gingkos, maples, and a carved basin where water falls from a bamboo pipe into a rock basin. Ascending the wide steps and entering the pavilion, a great body of water, symbolized by raked gravel, comes into view. It contains granite islands and is surrounded by stunted pines seen on a distant shore. A stream comes down the mountainside and graceful maples complete the peaceful scene. Rest here and let your mind travel through this island of tranquility.

Hostas are native to Japan, Korea, and China, and there were a number of very nice specimens to see at Cheekwood, both in the Japanese Garden and in other areas.
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