Gardens have long been an integral part of Chinese culture, written about by scholars and prized by emperors and priests; think of Chinese scrolls traced with plum blossoms and wood-block prints etched with pine branches or bamboo. The West has not only received a great number of fine plants from China, its also been influenced by the Chinese appreciation of plants, by their ideas on striving to have something in bloom year-round, and by their treasuring shape as well as bloom. A surprising numb ...