Objective  Current research focuses more on the differences between Lingnan Garden and Jiangnan Garden than on their interaction. In fact, there is no lack of correlation between the two in terms of gardening interests. This is why there is no shortage of poetry and prose about Lingnan gardens that present the imagery of Jiangnan scenery. However, the specific conditions and approaches for the creation of cross-region imagery remain to be further explored. In view of this, this research takes the example of the Apricot Grove Garden (pronounced as “Xinglinzhuang” in Chinese) in Guangzhou in the late Qing Dynasty for an in-depth study. The Apricot Grove Garden was once prestigious not only in Lingnan but also in Jiangnan and North China during the period from the 1840s to the 1870s. Although this garden was eventually destroyed in the period of the Republic of China, there are lots of written records still left to be explored. In the surviving poetry collections about the Apricot Grove Garden, there are over two hundred poems and essays describing the apricot blossom and the associated literati’s gathering life in the garden. Among these poems and essays, there is a frequent juxtaposition of the words “Lingnan” and “Jiangnan”, which highlight the presence of Jiangnan scenery in Lingnan gardens, providing important clues to the approaches for Lingnan gardens to introduce the imagery of Jiangnan scenery through literati gatherings in the theme of plants.

Methods  Faced with these apricot-related poems or essays scattered in different volumes of poetry anthologies, the research firstly analyses the contexts in which the poems are created according to the poetizing time and place and relevant events, to explore the explicit and implicit connections between these poems and essays in different anthologies. Then, the research conducts a poem language analysis involving the employment of allusions, etc. to further understand the poems concerned. Based on an intertextual interpretation of these clues, the research explores the existence and significance of the apricot imagery at different stages in the Apricot Grove Garden, to probe into the garden imagery created by the apricot-related writings of literati in the contexts of their gathering life.

Results  Based on the efforts above, the research reveals the formation process of the apricot imagery of the Apricot Grove Garden. The apricot imagery of the Apricot Grove Garden originated from the original implied meaning of the Chinese traditional medical virtues of the “Apricot Grove”. With the southward migration of apricot trees from Beijing to the Apricot Grove Garden in Lingnan, the meaning of “apricot” changed to an actual plant, and “apricot” began to be presented as a physical landscape. After the blooming of one of the apricot trees, “apricot” was gradually endowed with the imagery of Jiangnan scenery from such dimensions as imagery perception, generation and dissemination during the process of literati gathering activities such as textual criticism, poem composing and painting, with the aforesaid imagery being finally perpetuated through actual landscape construction in gardens and relevant writings on papers. As a result, the Apricot Grove Garden becomes a typical representative of Lingnan gardens incorporating the imagery of Jiangnan scenery. By expanding the focus on physical plants or planting to the rich gathering life in the Apricot Grove Garden, it can be seen that on the spatial scope, the imagery of other regions’ scenery expressed in Lingnan gardens was not limited in the face of the difficulty and uncertainty of planting conditions; on the temporal scope, the apricot blossom in the Apricot Grove Garden was transformed into realistic and long-lasting imagery through writings in a timely and skilful manner, so that afterwards, despite the absence of the actual apricot blossoms, the blended garden imagery with Jiangnan and Lingnan landscape still lived long.

Conclusion  This research may contribute to the research on garden history with respect to the cultural exchange between Jiangnan Garden and Lingnan Garden, and is also a research exploration of the imagery formation of Chinese gardens based on literati gatherings in the theme of plants. Such scenes of garden life and the formation of garden imagery may provide a reference for the present conservation or restoration of Chinese classical gardens. In some of the surviving Chinese classical gardens, the imagery carried by the current physical landscape cannot be comprehensively understood and properly presented. For example, the interest in gardens with multiple imageries can not be perceived due to the improper replacement of species of plants, the changes in planting locations, the inappropriate positioning of furniture in restored buildings, or the lack of plaques and couplets, calligraphy and painting inscriptions, flowers and trees, etc. Therefore, there should be a guide for garden conservation or restoration work based on relevant research, in order to offer more possibilities for future generations to understand and inherit the wisdom of gardening and the interest in garden life.