The name Plant Grow Cultivate in Chinese / Japanese...

種植 means to plant, to grow (a crop), or to cultivate.

This can also be a name that is romanized as Tanae in Japanese.

生 is a Chinese word that means “to be born” and “to give birth.”

Also, it's often used to refer to life itself, and sometimes “to grow.”

生 is used in a lot of compound words such as “yi sheng,” which means “doctor” (literally “healer of life”), “sheng ri” which means “birthday” (literally “birth-day”), and “xue sheng” which means student (literally “studying life” or “learner [about] life”). Few Chinese people will think of the literal meaning when this uses words like doctor and student - but it is interesting to note.

生 has the same root meaning in Korean Hanja and Japanese. However, in Japanese, there are many possible pronunciations, and this can be used to mean “raw” or “unprocessed” (as in draft beer). Therefore, not be the best if your audience is Japanese.

See Also:  Vitality

執子之手, 與子偕老 is a sweet Chinese phrase that means “Hold hands with you, grow old with you.”

百尺竿头更进一步 is a proverb that literally translates as: [Even a] one-hundred foot [tall] bamboo [can] progress even one [more] step.

Figuratively, this means: After having achieved a fair degree of success, one should try to do still better.

偕老 is a Chinese, Japanese, and Korean word that means to grow/growing old together.

This will be a nice wall scroll to hang in your home if your plan is to grow old with your mate.

カメリア is the name Camellia in Japanese.

This sounds like Camellia, but does not mean the camellia plant or leaf.

Instead of these characters, you may want to go with the name of the plant. Of course, camellia also means tea, as varieties of camellia plants provide the leaves for many kinds of Chinese and Japanese teas.

Note: Because this title is entirely Japanese Katakana, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.

罌粟 is the poppy plant and flower in Chinese and Japanese.

This is the Mawangdui version of Daodejing chapter 54.

智を磨く is an old obscure Japanese phrase that means to refine, cultivate, or improve one's wisdom.

This is the mantra of one who is a seeker of wisdom. They will always want to polish, shine, refine, improve, and expand their knowledge and understanding.

Note: Because this selection contains some special Japanese Hiragana characters, it should be written by a Japanese calligrapher.

精髓 is the Chinese, Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja for essence.

This can also be translated as marrow, pith, quintessence, kernel, spirit, etc.

This often refers to the nature or basis of whatever element, plant, animal, being, person, or thing you are talking about.

The original Chinese version (also Korean Hanja) and modern Japanese version of the second character differ a tiny bit:
vs.
Both versions are so close that both Chinese and Japanese people will recognize this word. If you want the specifically-Japanese version, click on this link instead of the button above: Order Essence in Japanese

You can translate this 不经一事不长一智 Chinese proverb in a couple of ways.
The first is: You cannot gain knowledge without practice.
The second, and perhaps more popular way is: Wisdom comes from experience.

It literally means if you are inattentive to your affairs or situations you encounter, you will not gain or grow any wisdom or intellect.

茜 is the name for Rubia cordifolia, Indian madder, munjeet, Japanese madder, Rubia argyi, rose madder or red madder.

This is a flowering plant that since ancient times, the root has been used to create red, pink, and other red-hued dyes.

In Japan, this can be the surname or given names Sen, Sei, or Akane.

桔梗 means “Chinese bellflower” in Japanese.

In Chinese, it refers to the “Platycodon grandiflorus” (Platycodon grandiflorum), “balloon flower,” or “bellflower.”

Please note that in Chinese, this particular 2-character title suggests that you are talking about the medicinal herb derived from the stem of this flower/plant.

精進 is a wide-ranging word that is used in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

It can mean devotion, diligence, concentration, aggressive, enterprising, vigorous, energetic, purification, pushing, asceticism, assiduity, or virility. 精進 is deep, and these two characters can express ideas that take a full English phrase to describe, such as “concentration of mind,” “to forge ahead vigorously,” or “to dedicate oneself to progress.”

Used in the context of Buddhism, it means “making earnest efforts to cultivate virtue and get rid of evil” or “zeal in one's quest for enlightenment.”

知足 means content with one's situation or to know contentment (hence happiness).

From the Zen Buddhist context, Chisoku or 知足 (knowing what’s enough) means always to know and be satisfied with one’s lot.

Human pain and suffering are born of greed, and that greed arises because we do not know what’s enough.

The Chinese philosopher, Menzi (372-289 BCE) said, “to nourish the mind, there is nothing better than to make the desires few.” This relays the idea that the best method to cultivate the mind is to have little desire.

生老病死 means “to be born, to grow old, to get sick and to die” or “birth, aging, sickness, and death.”

This is an old somewhat-morbid Chinese proverb that is also used in Korean and Japanese. It figuratively means the fate of humankind (i.e. mortality) or suggests that we are all born to suffer.

In the Buddhist context, there are the “four inevitables in human life” or “four afflictions that are the lot of every human” known as “四苦” (literally “four afflictions”). Sometimes this proverb is written with that affliction character, 苦, at the end like 生老病死苦.

This is a common way to write “ivy” in Chinese.
There are varieties of ivy plant, and other ways to say ivy in Chinese but this version is probably the nicest. It's the one you would use if writing a poem about ivy etc.

If you want the actual meaning, this is, “Always Young Vine,” or “Ever Living Vine.” The literal meaning of the characters is more like, “Always Spring[time] Vine.” But Spring can have other representations in Chinese such as new life, youth, freshness, joyfulness, etc.

桔梗花 means “Chinese bellflower” in Japanese.

In Chinese, it refersto the “Platycodon grandiflorus” (Platycodon grandiflorum）, “balloon flower,” or “bellflower.”

桔梗花 is the three-character version of this title, which suggests that you are talking about the flower and not the medicinal herb derived from this kind of plant.

茶 means tea. It can refer to prepared tea (ready-to-drink) or dry tea leaves.

The origin of tea is China but the same character is used in Japanese Kanji, and old Korean Hanja with the exact same meaning. Japanese and Korean even borrowed the pronunciation from Chinese (pronounced “cha” in all three languages).

It's said that an early doctor (or herbologist) in ancient China kept poisoning himself as he tried different new herb concoctions. He invented tea as a means to detoxify himself as he recovered from 1 of the 76 times he nearly poisoned himself to death. Tea is seen not just as a drink but as a form of medicine used to remove impurities from the body.

The word “chai” (used in many languages to refer to various teas) is derived from this Chinese word.

茶 also means camellia, as Asian teas are often based on the leaves of camellia plant varieties.

Many things have opposite properties. The water you drink can also drown you. Pork may nourish you and keep you alive but under-cook it and it could kill you. Potassium nitrate is often used as a fertilizer to grow the food that sustains us but it's also been used as an explosive to topple buildings and destroy us.

This concept is easily associated with “yin yang” where an element has two opposite properties that are as different as night and day.

This proverb's meaning can be summed up this way: “Anything that can lead you to success may also contain great risks.”

This phrase is known in literary circles by Korean people (scholars or literature). It is therefore also a valid proverb in Korean Hanja, though most Koreans would not be able to make sense of it.

Please note that there is an unwritten rule when the same character appears twice in the same phrase, the calligrapher will alter the appearance so that no two characters are exactly alike in the same piece. This calligraphy has two repeating characters that will be written differently than they appear here.

五十步笑百步 is a Chinese proverb that means the one who retreats 50 paces mocks the one who retreats 100 paces.

During the Warring States Period of what is now China (475 - 221 B.C.), the King of Wei was in love with war. He often fought with other kingdoms just for spite or fun.

One day, the King of Wei asked the philosopher Mencius, “I love my people, and all say I do the best for them. I move the people from famine-stricken areas to places of plenty and transport grains from rich areas to the poor. Nobody goes hungry in my kingdom, and I treat my people far better than other kings. But why does the population of my kingdom not increase, and why does the population of other kingdoms not decrease?”

Mencius answered, “Since you love war, I will make this example: When going to war, and the drums beat to start the attack, some soldiers flee for their lives in fear. Some run 100 paces in retreat, and others run 50 steps. Then the ones who retreated 50 paces laugh and taunt those who retreated 100 paces, calling them cowards mortally afraid of death. Do you think this is reasonable?

The King of Wei answered, “Of course not! Those who run 50 paces are just as timid as those who run 100 paces.”

Mencius then said, “You are a king who treats his subjects better than other kings treat their people, but you are so fond of war that your people suffer from great losses in battle. Therefore, your population does not grow. While other kings allow their people to starve to death, you send your people to die in war. Is there any difference?”

This famous conversation led to the six-character proverb shown here. It serves as a warning to avoid hypocrisy. It goes hand-in-hand with the western phrase, “The pot calls the kettle black,” or the Biblical phrase, “Before trying to remove a splinter from your neighbor's eye, first remove the plank from your own eye.”