Fling Prequel : Chanticleer; a Pleasure Garden

  I ask you you, if you are serious gardener, a casual gardener or just an admirer of gardens from afar, is there anything more compelling than a Pleasure Garden ?
 Chanticleer has been on the bucket list for a very long time, and finally my opportunity to visit came with a two day Pennsylvania jaunt prior to reporting for Garden Bloggers Fling 2017 . Once I returned home I was quite disconcerted to see that my photo record of Chanticleer was incomplete. Not a single image of any of the buildings, or the iconic Teacup Garden. When I looked at my map I saw that I completely missed the cut flower and vegetable garden along with bells woodland. My excuse is that I was sucked in by the meadows downhill from the ruin garden-which incidentally was another area that I barely documented. Clearly I will have to go back and take a more studied approach.I was captivated by Chanticleer and wished I  had been there first thing in the morning with the entire day at my leisure to explore. Certainly there have been many instances where I visited a garden for the first time, and then found the second visit to be less hectic, with time to absorb the details.

 This was the first photo I took, as my friends and I walked the path to the Ruin garden. It was a bad time of day for photography , but this seemed to encapsulate what I might see as I moved through the garden. A simple grouping that displayed the plants involved to their best advantage,


 My lone photo from the Ruin Garden.




 Leaving the Ruin Garden you enter a gentle hillside venue where matrix planting has been employed beautifully. Vistas to a more park like environment can be viewed beyond, where a wide band is planted with lettuces.





 Yucca rostrata makes an appearance.



The meadows had a backdrop of coniferous greenery.




Verbascum olympicum was used extensively-here it marches down the hillside.  I hope you can imagine what this must look like in early morning or evening light.






 Why can't I grow this ? Setting that whine aside, this photo I think displays the complexity of the planting in this area. This unstudied look is not an accident.




  I am notoriously child-phobic and this wonderful pond was attracting the small-fry. I had to snap a few and take my leave.


Because I had seen numerous Eucalyptus used as an annual, I thought for a moment that this was another however it is a honeysuckle (Lonicera) and my photo of the plant tag is so out of focus that it is illegible. Would love an ID . It was shrubby and upright.



 This was an area worth lingering in.The planting along this walk was stunning.








We'll round this up with the Tennis Court garden. Set out in quadrants , it features bold grasses, shrubs and foliage. There are flowers but they are an accent rather than a focal point.










Comments

  1. I've had that same experience quite often lately, of coming back from a garden tour to find that I've taken far fewer photos, and even fewer good ones, than I thought I did. At least you do still have the memory of visiting and seeing it up close. I'd love to see Chanticleer some day, especially the ruin garden with that succulent-laden mantel. I used to know the name of that euc-mimic honeysuckle, but -- age. Thanks for sharing your photos.

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    1. I'm going to try to concentrate on getting fewer but higher quality photos. It's a challenge when you have to visit a garden mid-day, which is very common on garden tours.

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  2. Your photos are wonderful! However I do understand the frustration when what you saw with your eyes, and remember with your head, doesn't match what you captured with the camera. When you go back will you take me with you?

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    1. Sure ! But I think my next trip will be in fall. My research indicates that after about mid-Sept the temps go down to tolerable.

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  3. Still stubbornly resides on my bucket list. That rusty foxglove always gets me too, but I've had no luck with these supposedly dry-garden species. Return visit? Yes, please!

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    1. I had that damn foxglove for two years and then last spring at long last it started to put up a bloom spike.I was so excited ! And them the whole thing just upped and died. I will not be defeated. Going to get another one and put it in a different spot.

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    2. Feeling MUCH better about and less alone in my unsuccessful flings with rusty foxglove. A picture in some book transfixed me, but the reality was ... underwhelming.

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    3. Chanticleer is so jam-packed with gardens of such very different styles and sites that it's easy to get overloaded. The best way to take it in is probably through frequent short visits -- a reason to envy anyone within easy traveling distance. A season pass cuts the cost of each trip each cost next to nothing, and opens up so many possibilities.

      It would be instructive and a delight to visit a few favorite sections often and in different seasons. Visiting often would let you see every part of the place; I'm guessing the woods get short shrift when visitors only have an hour or two.

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    4. I have gardens out here on the left coast that I try to visit in multiple seasons as well. Even subtle differences are fun to observe and photograph.

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  4. thanks for the tour! This garden is on my top-5 eastern gardens to visit. I can entirely empathize with the post-visit discovery of the areas missed - it seems that happened to me repeatedly during the Fling. But I agree that the head rather than the heart is in better control on second visits. I grew that rusty foxglove for a short period in my old shady garden but I've not tried it in this one, partly because it never seems to be offered locally.

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    1. So many great gardens back east. I feel fortunate I've had the chance to see many of the 'majors'but some are due for a re-visit. I'm east coast bound again in late August.

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  5. Wonderful, wonderful pics! That is the garden I am trying to create. Exactly.
    And I thought I was the only child phobic person on the planet. Thank you.

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    1. ha ! I know a few other child-phobes--and I do have two of my own, thankfully both adults.

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  6. On that particular visit my favorite was the tennis court garden. Of course the ruins garden is always fun and I did take a few pictures. Dave has the group shot of us on the stone couch. I'll have to dig them up. Looking forward to your August visit and Coastal Maine BG!

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  7. Just recently visited an herb farm that had an "allee" of Verbascum olympicum anchoring paired beds of lavender. Spectacular! Even a pair would add drama to the entrance of a path, or a driveway...

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    1. I really think I need to do V. Olympicum at least once. Space is always an issue.

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  8. Hi KS, thank you so much for featuring Chanticleer on your blog! I really enjoyed looking at your photos. I think my favorite part of the garden is the planting along "the walk". Love the use of the chartreuse color together with the blue containers, simply stunning!
    Warm regards,
    Christina

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  9. Thanks for sharing the gorgeousness. Their arrangments in pots are first-rate.

    Looking forward to the posts from your next visit!

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  10. I've wanted to visit Chanticleer for a long time! Your photos are definitely encouraging...
    I believe that is Lonicera reticulata 'Kintzleys Ghost'

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    1. Hi Max, I believe you nailed it on the Lonicera. I visited your blog and how nice to see a post from RBG !

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  11. Fantastic posts Kathy! great images. Love, love, love Chanticleer

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