You guys... I visited Chanticleer! And Longwood, and David Culp's Brandywine Cottage, and Andrew Bunting's Belvidere, and Paxson Hill Farm, and Terrain at Styer's, and the Morris Arboretum, and, and, and...wow. All told I have 17 gardens to write about; Philadelphia truly earns the nickname America's Garden Capital.
It had been four years since my last "Fling"—2019 in the Denver, Colorado area. COVID meant no Fling in 2020 and 2021, then I missed 2022's Fling in Madison, Wisconsin. This year's Philly-area event was an epic re-entry into touring gardens with nearly 100 of my closest friends. The Fling used to be open to only garden bloggers, but now anyone with a garden-focused social media presence can attend. This year's tour was organized by Longwood Gardens Conservatory Manager Karl Gercens, if you don't already follow power-house garden traveler Karl then you need to start right now; here or here. Karl loves plants!
Andrew and I arrived in Philly early, a couple of days before the Fling got underway. Our first day on the ground included a stop at Wolff's Apple House. We'd been to the local Ace Hardware so Andrew could buy a fishing license and now he needed a bamboo pole to use as a wading staff. Lucky for him I'm always scanning for plant buying opportunities and had spotted Wolf's as we zoomed past. That's where I saw my first Pennsylvania agave (there would be many more)...
...and where I went into mum-overload (kind of like a kid's Halloween candy sugar-high). So many mums!
It's also where discovered that hairy balls (Gomphocarpus physocarpus) grow fabulously in the Philly area...
They even show up in the floating arrangements at Chanticleer...
Speaking of Chanticleer; we were there during the Fling proper for a 3-hour visit which included a lovely after-hours dinner party—it was marvelous! I also spent an entire day there pre-Fling. When your expectations are sky-high there is always the possibility of disappointment. The ruin garden for example, it could have seriously veered into the cheesy, but it did not. I was not disappointed, it was just as good as I'd hoped. I'll have future blog posts but thought I'd share a couple short videos I took, they aren't great since the light is so contrasty, and I'm not a professional, but c'est la vie. They both include artwork by Marcia Donahue who was an artist in residence at Chanticleer some years back.
I also took a few videos in the—AMAZING—fernery at the Morris Arboretum. This wasn't part of the official Fling itinerary, I visited on my own—there will definitely be more photos in a future post!
What else? Well Pennsylvania is green. Very very green, and there is so much lawn! Lawn everywhere, I was stunned. Keeping that lawn well watered, Tropical Storm Ophelia dumped buckets of rain during the Fling weekend, I felt so bad for our garden hosts but everyone carried on. Here's part of the gang in David Culp's garden...
Even our offical Fling group photo was taken in the rain at Scott Arboretum (I'm two heads above Karl dead-center, if you're curious)...
After the Fling wrapped up, before flying home, Andrew and I spent a couple hours in downtown Philly where we crossed Liberty Bell viewing off the list.
I'd spotted a green wall display in Franklin Park as we drove past, if it was real (hard to tell from the car) I was going to be impressed, so we walked down to check it out. Nope, not real—very not real.
Franklin Square did provide a bookend to the famous
Longwood Gardens Illuminated Fountain Performance, which we Fling attendees viewed on Thursday evening. The Longwood event was classy, jets of water dancing to an orchestral accompaniment. There was also fire and lots of colorful lighting, although this was the only photo I managed to take.
The Franklin Square performance, well, ya gotta laugh. I'm not sure what the flamingos have to do with it all but the music seemed inevitable...
That's it for now. I'm honestly a little overwhelmed at how much garden goodness I have to share, plus I haven't even posted most of the gardens I toured during the Vancouver Hardy Plant Group Study Weekend in June. Looks like it's going to be a very entertaining winter here on the blog...
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Well, that's a great introduction to future coverage of your trip, Loree. I think you did a great job with the videos, much better than I've ever managed in any case. I had to laugh at one of your comments at the start of the post when you wrote "It had been 4 years since my last Fling" as it reminded me of the opening to a confessional ;) I've never seen hairy balls grown to that size so impressive! Of course, I loved the floating arrangements too.
ReplyDeleteNow that you mention it, that does sound like I was confessing my sins. Well, I am thrilled to have sinned again!
DeleteA great intro to - yes! - an overwhelming number of beautiful gardens. I can't believe it had been four years since you'd "Flung," but I'm glad I got to see you in-between when you came to Austin for the Garden Spark talk. I'm already looking forward to next year's Fling in your part of the world.
ReplyDeleteNext year is going to be AMAZING!
DeleteI agree with Kris: Your videos are great! The floating arrangements were special, weren't they? And, yes...green everywhere. It was wonderful to see you, Loree.
ReplyDeleteSo green! But with all that rain I guess it's to be expected. I loved the floating arrangements, I've tried, but never managed anything quite so fabulous.
DeleteOh, can't WAIT to read/see everything!
ReplyDeleteNext year's event is going to be held in the Puget Sound area, perhaps you should look into joining us?
DeleteI am so looking forward to reading your posts over the winter. My master gardener group is looking to coordinate a trip to Chanticleer and the surrounding gardens next year so hoping to learn from your experience about what to visit.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to email me some questions too if you like; spiky plants at gmail dot com.
DeleteLooks like another wonderful Fling. So happy you all had a great time! Wait--I can comment again?!?
ReplyDeleteIt was amazing Hoov! Wish you had been there.
DeleteLooks like I should attend next year's fling given that it is so close. I need to mark my calendar now. Whatever that green and yellow flower is in the middle of the second floating arrangement is pretty fabulous. I do love a good ruin garden. I started one in the basement of an old, abandoned homestead in the rolling wooded hills of upstate New York many years ago. The house itself was long gone, the basement was open to the sky and lined with hand-hewn rock quarried onsite. I was planting ferns, hostas, and other things that did well in the shade. Wish I still had something like that, it was fun!
ReplyDeleteMark your calendar AND pay attention to when registration opens (January sometime) because the Puget Sound Fling is definitely going to sell out. I think that flower you refer to is a sunflower, maybe some of it's petals were pulled? Your ruin garden sounds like a fun planting!
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