A1 Gallery

Dendrobium is a huge genus of orchids. It was established by Olof Swartz in 1799 and today contains about 1,200 species. The genus occurs in diverse habitats throughout much of south, east and southeast Asia, including China, Japan, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia, New Guinea, Vietnam, and many of the islands of the Pacific. The name is from the Greek dendron ("tree") and bios ("life"); it means "one who lives on trees", or, essentially, "epiphyte". In 1981, Briegar reclassified all terete-leaved Dendrobiums from Australia and New Guinea into a new genus, Dockrillia. The Winika orchid from New Zealand was formerly D. cunninghamii, but has now been moved into a monotypic genus Winika. In 1989, Clements upgraded the D. speciosum complex into individual species; similarly, the D. bigibbum complex (which contains the well-known Cooktown Orchid of Australia, D. phalaenopsis) has recently been split up.  Source

Shishi-odoshi (lit. means "scare the deer" in Japanese). In a wide sense, it refers to Japanese devices made to scare away birds and beasts damaging agriculture, such as the kakashi (scarecrow), naruko (clappers) and sozu (see below). In a narrower sense, it is synonymous with sozu. Sozu is a type of water fountain used in Japanese gardens. It consists of a segmented tube, usually of bamboo, pivoted to one side of its balance point. At rest, its heavier end is down and resting against a rock. A trickle of water into the upper end of the tube accumulates and eventually moves the tube's centre of gravity past the pivot, causing the tube to rotate and dump out the water. The heavier end then falls back against the rock, making a sharp sound, and the cycle repeats. This noise is intended to startle any herbivores such as deer or boars which may be grazing on the plants in the garden.  Source

Camellia japonica (the Japanese camellia) is one of the best known species of the genus Camellia. Sometimes called the Rose of winter,  it belongs to the Theaceae family. It is the official state flower of Alabama. In the wild, it is found in mainland China (Shandong, east Zhejiang), Taiwan, southern Korea and southern Japan.  It grows in forests, at altitudes of around 300 to 1,100 metres . Camellia japonica is a flowering tree or shrub, usually 1.5 to 6 metres  tall, but occasionally up to 11 metres  tall. Some cultivated varieties achieve a size of 72m² or more. The youngest branches are purplish-brown, becoming grayish-brown as they age. The alternate leathery leaves are dark green on the top side, paler on the underside, usually 5 to 11 centimetres  long by 2.5 to 6 centimetres  wide with a stalk (petiole) about 5 to 10 millimetres  long. The base of the leaf is pointed (cuneate), the margins are very finely toothed (serrulate) and the tip somewhat pointed.  Source

Hydrangea  is a genus of 70 to 75 species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, the Himalayas, and Indonesia) and the Americas. There are two flower arrangements in hydrangeas. Mophead flowers are large round flowerheads resembling pom-poms or, as the name implies, the head of a mop. In contrast, lacecap flowers bear round, flat flowerheads with a center core of subdued, fertile flowers surrounded by outer rings of showy, sterile flowers.  Source

Camellia japonica  is one of the best known species of the genus Camellia. Sometimes called the Rose of winter, it belongs to the Theaceae family. It is the official state flower of Alabama. In the wild, it is found in mainland China, Taiwan, southern Korea and southern Japan. It grows in forests, at altitudes of around 300–1,100 metres. Camellia japonica is a flowering tree or shrub, usually 1.5–6 metres  tall, but occasionally up to 11 metres tall. Some cultivated varieties achieve a size of 72m² or more.  Source