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The Gardens of Mien Ruys - a book review

I don't know how I missed her, but I was totally unfamiliar with Mien Ruys. A beautiful new book The Gardens of Mien Ruys details her life and work. Born in the Netherlands in 1904, she was the daughter of Bonne Ruys, who founded Moerheim Nursery in 1888. She grew up in a liberal atmosphere and encouraged to learn and study. She found great comfort in the natural world around her and learned all the plants in her father's nursery at a young age. After leaving school at the age of 19, she knew that she wanted to work in the garden center. The Moerheim Nursery, in addition to selling plants, had an on-site design studio where they published a detailed catalog and sold landscape design plans to customers. It was in the design studio where Ruys first began to work and she was soon encouraged to venture beyond her country and study abroad. Her father's connections helped her secure a traineeship with Wallace & Sons Nursery in Tunbridge Wells in England. There, she met Gertr...
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Garden at the Grand Prince Takanawa Hotel


The Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa was our arrival hotel in Tokyo. Everyone was arriving at different times, some two days before, others one day before the official start of the tour. I was two days early so I spent two nights here before everyone left for Kyoto. Not much fanfare was given about the hotel garden in our itinerary, except to note that "there is a garden adjacent to the hotel". And what a lovely garden it was!

Very well-tended (it was rare to see a garden there that was not), it was larger than expected.

It was quite spectacular at night when it was lit up - a great introductory garden for our tour.














There was a massive arrangement in the hotel lobby. On the second day, an employee was trimming back some of the limbs.



Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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  1. Kris PetersonNovember 30, 2024 at 9:23 AM

    It's an impressive garden for a hotel - and that's probably the best koi pond I've ever seen.

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  2. tz_gardenDecember 1, 2024 at 8:04 AM

    Gorgeous! How lovely to have a garden right there at the hotel to walk around. It looks like the weather was nice, too.

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    Replies
    1. Phillip OliverDecember 1, 2024 at 8:07 AM

      Yes, we were lucky with the weather. It rained the night I arrived and the day I left. In between, 60s and 70s.

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    2. HummingbirdDecember 2, 2024 at 9:31 PM

      What a lovely garden, and truly beautiful at night, Phillip!

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