Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Visiting Jonathan at Chanticleer

Chanticleer Garden in Wayne Pennsylvania must be one of the most unique, beautiful and well run gardens in the country. I'm very fortunate to be friends with Jonathan Wright who lives and works at the garden. I have also been fortunate to see the garden several times over the years and have seen the progression of plantings, furniture and art. This morning when the garden was closed I had a long stroll. Below is what I found.


Jonathan has an amazing eye,  I have these same incredible natural concretions at home but not perfectly arranged like this. 

Jonathan created what I would call hanging meadows

very unusual Dahlia 'Obsidian ', Jonathan's find

Dan Benarik's tower of some variegated Coprosma

Dan's tropical design is fantastic, subtle color play with Philodendrons

This year's Tea Cup Garden

Ginormous hibiscus

Zinnias in the veg garden

Loving this huddled family of Ilex 'Sky Pencil'

Erie stone faces a la Marcia Donohue



all weather furniture

Spectacular kale fields






Alocasia 'Sting Ray'


Jonathan's temporary meadow

Love Jonathan's color combos!

Jonathan again, lemony fun

This urn has been covered with this same ivy for many years... I recognize it from The American Hort Society's A-Z

Erithrina variegata?

Schaueria flavicoma (LOVE)

Angelica gigas




Aechmea blanchetiana

golden Tupidanthus


lumbering hulks of Picea abies 'Pendula'

playful acorns and oaks




coffin or dinning table




comfy ;)



Gingko espalier



bridge as art








pneumatophores 

not a plane crash but tree bridge, more bridge as art.  Love this though they were toning down the color of the "bark".  What a wonderful and ambitious project.  Only a place like Chanticleer can do things like this!







5 comments:

  1. I was wondering if you know what the small bluey gray trees are in the tea cup garden.

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  2. thanks for sharing, one of these years I'll have to visit. lucky you to get a visit when you don't have to share with the public
    David in Berkeley

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  3. That Dahlia 'Obsidian' is amazing! The others things are fantastic as well. It's not often that just one blog post can get my mind flowing. I'm feeling really inspired right now. Thank you.

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  4. What a great garden, I was there a few days later and the bridge looks great after the 'toning down'. Nice to put a name to the creator of many of my favorite vignettes. I also loved the Schaueria flavicoma but it was more "that yellow plant" when I admired it!
    Love your blog, the arrangements for the wedding really were inspired, the plant material probably didn't hurt in that respect.
    Frank

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  5. I must have missed you by just a few days, I was down at Chanticleer just at the end of August. What an amazing garden it is and it's nice to now be able to put a name to the genius behind some of those cool plant arrangements. I think we were wowed by similar plants, but for me many of the tropicals were completely new. I did like the Schaueria though! Except I refered to it more as the yellow brush looking flower.....
    The flower arrangements for the wedding were amazing. Cool Blog!

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