Japanese Tea Garden

The Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, is a stroll-style garden, in which visitors can enjoy from the paths and bridges many different views of the ponds, flowering cherry trees, azaleas, oriental magnolias, camellias, Japanese maples, dwarf pines, cedars and cypress. Visitors can enjoy a cup of traditional green or jasmine tea and cookies in the teahouse served by a waitress in a beautiful silk kimono. The fortune cookies that are served were originally introduced in 1914 at the Tea Garden by Makoto Hagiwara through his baker.
Most of the plants in the Japanese Tea Garden are from Japan, others are from both Japan and China, and a few are not Japanese but are from other parts of the world. Many of the dwarf trees are old and some were among the earliest to be planted in the Tea Garden. The oldest plant in the Tea Garden is a Japanese black pine espaliered in front of the Tea House. It came from Japan as a potted plant and was planted by Makoto Hagiwara. The wisteria vine with the gnarled trunk growing against the front of the Tea House was also planted by Makoto Hagiwara.