Andrew Bunting's Belvidere, a Philly Fling garden

After departing Hedgleigh Spring (Monday's blog post) our next stop was Belvidere...

This front garden had multiple personalities depending on where you stood to take your photo. Above is the "swallowed by bellowing amsonia" shot. Here you can see the lawn.

And here that conifer lends an open, almost rural feel.

But the star that drew me in is definitely the big pot of colocasia.

Judging by the folks gathered in the distance I might have missed an introduction as we de-bused. What can I say? I was headed to the garden!

Charming, am I right? There's just no other word.

Two views from the driveway...

I was rather jealous of the vines, I'm in a strict "no vines touch the house!" relationship.

There were definitely more colocasia in this garden than I've ever seen in one place.

We're at the end of the driveway now and looking at the front of the converted garage.

An artistic gate and flower sculptures at the entrance to the back garden.

Unless I'm horribly turned around (which is a possibility) that's the back of the house on the right.

There was a terrific container plant collection on the back patio.

(I couldn't help peeking thru the shrubbery to this vignette on the other side, we'll see it again in a minute)

I think Jane had just snuck a peek at the bromeliad—Portea petropolitana —label.

Heading into part of the converted garage space now, of course I had to take in all the cool things along the sides of the pathway.

Inside...

The mannequin and watering can vignette had to be one of the most photographed of the Fling.

Ah the morning sunlight was magic...

This part of the garden—which was basically the bottom of an "L"—was primarily a vegetable garden and was the result of Andrew taking over part of a neighbor's lot. Lucky guy!

The table was pretty fabulous, I was itching to add a few more plants to the center planter.

Flingers to help you understand how large this space was...

More Flingers on the back lawn, it was a large lot, complete with a small pond.

The back of the house and yes, more colocasia. I believe the entrance to the area with the table was just this side of the clipped yew.

And that's a wrap on another Fling garden!

I just discovered this fun tour through Andrew's garden, check out the video here.

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All material © 2009-2023 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Hedgleigh Spring, an early morning stop on the Fling

Charles Cresson's Hedgleigh Spring was the first private garden I visited during the recent Philly Fling. Bright and early on Friday morning our bus pulled up by this historic house...

There was a sign with a QR code out front, it led to a page on the Swarthmore Historical Walking Tour website, a project of Nate Linderman, a Boy Scout in Swarthmore. Clicking through I learned that Hedgleigh Spring is named for the old springhouse on the property. It's located on the grounds of the original Hedgleigh Farmstead, owned by the Cresson Family, and the garden design dates from the 1920’s. In her blog post Pam Penick wrote that Charles is the 4th generation to care for the garden, can you imagine?

As you can see by the blue sky and t-shirt-clad "Flinger" Friday was a warm dry day, the tropical storm and rain that would mar the next two days hadn't yet arrived. 

The side garden was a tropicalisimo-inspired foliage dream.

Complete with a potted agave.

I think this is the spring house, built over the original spring for which the property is named.

There's an entire garden right there on the roof.

I'm always a sucker for the passionflowers.

Looking across the back garden.

And if my memory is correct this planting was off to the left of the above photo. Opuntia!

And more agaves...

Sabal minor I believe.

Attention to groundcovers was evident.

Lest you think this was a small garden...

Patina of time.

I love the vintage swing-set and the old laundry drying rack.

Up near the back of the house there were a lot of containers, large and small.

And a tillandsia hanging from a fancy birdhouse (bird shelter?)...

More of those containers.

As our time in the garden was about to end a fellow Flinger asked if I'd been to the pond at the back of the property, I had not! It turns out is was behind the fence shown in the eighth photo above.

There was a definite sense of history in this garden, something that I felt throughout our time in Pennsylvania.

Time to get back on the bus and on to the next garden! 

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All material © 2009-2023 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.