A Wistaria Garden by Mortimer Menpes. 1901. Watercolor. Source: Japan: A Record in Colour, facing p. 110. One of several paintings by Menpes featuring wisteria (spelled with an "a" instead of an "e" in the book). "In Japan there are flowers blooming all the year round," says Menpes:
the country is a veritable paradise of flowers. When a certain flower is at its height, whether it be the wistaria, the chrysanthemum, or the azalea, that is a signal for a national holiday, and, dropping business and all such minor considerations, the whole of Japan turns out and streams through the parks and through the country to picnic in the sunshine, under the flowers. [98]
He is right: even in winter there are flowers such as camellia, cyclamen, winter peonies and surprisingly early daffodils, and, by plum blossom time in very early spring, it may be warm enough to picnic among them. — Jacqueline Banerjee
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Bibliography
Menpes, Dorothy. Japan: A Record in Colour. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1901. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California Libraries. Web. 2 July 2019.
Created 2 July 2019