Garden Quartz

Quartz takes on the colours of minerals it encloses while it grows. Chlorite inclusions are very common in Alpine-type environments and generally occur in fissures and pockets in igneous and metamorphic rocks and in clay-rich sedimentary rocks. Chlorite forms at low to moderate temperatures; when quartz growth slows as the temperature falls, chlorite settles on the crystal faces and can be overgrown, producing chlorite-filled zones and phantoms. Documented examples include the Tipling Mine in Dhading District, Nepal, and Odda in Norway. Japanese suppliers list Brazil, China and the United States as sources of the material they sell.

Garden quartz is recognised by a quartz host (hardness 7, glassy lustre) containing clouds, moss-like or worm-like masses and phantoms of other minerals. In a Mindat discussion the mineral writer Dan Costian described vermicular chlorite inclusions as "so-called Garden Quartz or Lodolite", while Japanese suppliers also apply the name to quartz containing rutile, amphibole, tourmaline, epidote, mica, kaolinite or limonite. Names for quartz coloured by inclusions are loosely defined, and the included mineral cannot be named reliably from appearance alone: in the same Mindat discussion, green inclusions in Madagascar quartz were debated as chlorite or fuchsite until a GIA Raman analysis reported fuchsite.

The quartz host has a hardness of 7, no real cleavage and very good wearability. Suppliers advise handling pieces gently because, depending on how the inclusions lie, a stone can be weaker against impact.

The Japanese retailer Pascle says that in feng shui garden quartz is associated with "proper wealth" (income from work) and with saving money, and that it is especially popular in China as a stone for business prosperity. Retailers also say it is believed to bring calm and long life, and sell it as a charm for people in business, property and landscaping work.