From the Nara and Heian periods (710-1180), beautiful flowering wild plants and plants imported from China began to be given as gifts and planted in gardens. In the pursuit of ever more exquisite and rare examples, cultivars were selected and hybridized, in turn cultivating an advanced culture of gardening.
Gardening culture experienced particularly significant development during the Edo period (1603-1867), a time of over 260 years of peace and prosperity. The love of gardens held by three generations of shoguns starting with Tokugawa Ieyasu spread to the feudal lords and samurai with estates in the capital of Edo. Before long, Edo grew to become one great garden city, where even the common people enjoyed potted plants, stunning the plant hunters* from Europe and the Americas who came to Japan at the time.
Plants which arose and were cultivated during the unique culture of gardening during the Edo, as well as those cultivated and bred according to these aesthetic standards from the Meiji period (1868-1912) onward are called “Edo dentō engei shokubutsu” (traditional Edo garden plants).
