Hanamomo Hill — A Brilliant Welcome to Spring
One of the highlights of Nakanojo Gardens is Hanamomo Hill, a broad slope on the northern side of the grounds planted with approximately 1,000 flowering peach trees.
In early April, the entire hillside is transformed into a vivid sea of pink. The flowering peach trees usually bloom around the same time as the cherry blossoms, creating a spectacular spring landscape.
These flowering peach varieties have been cultivated primarily for their ornamental beauty. Flowering peaches have also been familiar in Japan for centuries, and some traditional varieties are said to have changed little since the Edo period.
Their elegant, old-fashioned appearance gives the hillside a distinctly Japanese atmosphere, while the mass of pink blossoms creates scenery reminiscent of a traditional “peach blossom paradise.”
A Recommended Spring Walking Route
A pleasant way to explore the gardens is to begin at the main entrance, walk through the Rose Garden and Spiral Garden, and then continue toward Hanamomo Hill.
The route offers a chance to experience the transition from winter into spring as dormant plants awaken and the gardens gradually fill with color.
Rose Garden — Roses Designed as a Landscape
The Rose Garden contains approximately 400 varieties and 1,000 rose plants arranged across seven sections.
The garden was supervised by Shinji Kawai, a rose breeder who has also served as a supervisor at Yokohama English Garden, while the overall planning was undertaken by Hiromitsu Yoshiya.
The concept behind the garden is to create a place where roses can be appreciated as part of a complete landscape, rather than simply as a collection of individual flowers.
Roses are combined with ground-cover plants and perennial flowers, creating layers of color, texture, and height. The result is a garden that can be appreciated as one cohesive scene.
Spring Roses and Autumn Roses
The main rose seasons are spring and autumn, but the two periods offer noticeably different experiences.
Spring roses have a youthful, energetic appearance, while autumn roses tend to stand out through their individual beauty and rich fragrance.
Returning in a different season allows visitors to experience how the same garden can change in color, atmosphere, and character.
Spiral Garden — A Living Composition of Flowers
The Spiral Garden is a distinctive circular garden approximately 40 meters in diameter, designed in the form of a large spiral.
Its flower beds use a raised-bed design, with stone walls elevating the planting areas above ground level. This allows visitors to appreciate the flowers from a more comfortable height without constantly bending down.
The garden was created by British gardening researcher and garden designer Keiko Yoshiya. It focuses mainly on perennial plants and has been carefully designed so that flower colors, foliage, and plant forms blend naturally together.
A Garden That Changes with Time
The planting design takes into account not only the flowers themselves but also the overlapping shapes of leaves, the gradual changes in color, and the appearance of the plants as the seasons progress.
Even the process of plants fading and returning to the soil is considered part of the garden’s seasonal beauty. The Spiral Garden therefore offers an opportunity to appreciate the entire cycle of a garden, rather than only its moments of peak bloom.
A Variety of Themed Gardens
Natural Garden
The Natural Garden combines a geometric framework with informal planting. Visitors can enjoy the contrast between the lines and points created by different plants.
Each season has its own character: vigorous new growth in spring, rich green foliage in summer, fruits and fading plants in autumn, and the sculptural forms of branches in winter.
Furusato no Noyama
Furusato no Noyama, meaning something like “the hills and fields of one’s hometown,” features plants selected to reflect the natural vegetation of the Nakanojo area.
The garden was created with the hope that visitors would find a personal sense of nostalgia and connection with nature. At its center is Noyasu Pond, which was inspired by nearby Lake Nozoriko at the northern edge of Nakanojo Town.
Great Wisteria Trellis
The Great Wisteria Trellis was created by Konami Tsukamoto, who is known for her work relocating famous wisteria trellises.
The wisteria plants are still relatively young, making the garden particularly interesting as a long-term project. Visitors can enjoy watching the trees grow and develop over the years as the garden gradually reaches maturity.
Knot Garden
Located near the entrance, the Knot Garden is a formal garden featuring an elegant knot-like geometric pattern.
Its symmetrical design creates a striking contrast with the more naturalistic planting areas elsewhere in the gardens. The view from the window-side seats of Minonohara Shokudo is particularly pleasant.
Residents’ Flower Beds
The Residents’ Flower Beds are a community garden consisting of more than 100 individual plots maintained by local residents.
People of different generations participate in caring for the flowers, making this area an important place for community interaction and one of the foundations of Nakanojo’s Flower Town initiative.
Farm Area and Hands-On Experiences
At the back of the gardens, the Farm Area offers a different perspective on the relationship between plants and everyday life.
Fruit trees including the local apple varieties Gunma Meigetsu and Fuji are grown here, along with roses cultivated for processing. Depending on the season and program, visitors can enjoy experiences connected with cultivation and harvesting as well as simply viewing the plants.
The Red House and Forest Library
The Red House introduces ways of incorporating plants into everyday life, while the Forest Library offers a quiet place to read surrounded by trees.
Hands-on facilities also provide opportunities to experience traditional creative activities such as natural plant dyeing and pottery. These programs allow both children and adults to engage with nature through making things by hand.
A Relaxing Place for Families
Nakanojo Gardens also has plenty of space for families to relax and spend a full day outdoors.
A lawn area, picnic spaces, and a playground featuring a large inflatable dome provide places for children to play while adults enjoy the surrounding greenery.
The grounds also include a restaurant, shop, flower store, and tea house, making it easy to take breaks throughout the day without having to leave the gardens.
From Yakuoen to Nakanojo Gardens
The history of the site stretches back to 1996, when it opened as Yakuoen, a medicinal herb park built around the concept of a “community of nature and health.”
The original facility featured displays of medicinal plants, a traditional herbal medicine shop, herb gardens, and a craft village. It became a destination for visitors to the area’s hot springs as well as people interested in medicinal plants.
Following the reorganization of the local agricultural cooperative system, Yakuoen closed in 2009. The site was subsequently transferred to Nakanojo Town and reopened as a free public park called Hana-no-Eki Minonohara.
Further improvements and redevelopment eventually transformed the site into the present-day Nakanojo Gardens, which reopened as a paid attraction in 2021.
A Garden Growing Together with the Community
Nakanojo Gardens is more than a conventional botanical or flower garden. It is part of Nakanojo’s ongoing effort to develop the entire town around flowers, nature, and community participation.
The gardens demonstrate how landscapes can change with the seasons and how a garden can continue to evolve over many years. From the brilliant pink of Hanamomo Hill to the carefully composed Rose Garden and Spiral Garden, each area offers a different way to appreciate plants.
The community flower beds, farm area, craft experiences, children’s facilities, and dining spaces also make the gardens accessible to visitors with different interests and travel styles.
Surrounded by flowers and greenery, visitors can slow down, enjoy the changing seasons, and experience a quieter side of Gunma. Nakanojo Gardens is a destination worth returning to, because its scenery is never quite the same twice.