Chanticleer Friday kick-off...

I finally visited Chanticleer! It was amazing and I want to share all of the amazingness with you! (and I am going to...)

But first a little personal backstory, because that's how I roll...

I first heard of Chanticleer when I was volunteering (during a tour) in the Portland garden of Lauren Hall-Behrens. As a garden designer she'd completed an internship at Chanticleer and mentioned it when asked about a favorite or influential garden. This was back 2011, very early days in my gardening and learning curve. I filed away the Chanticleer name, and it came up again and again over the years—my curiosity grew. 

When the book The Art of Gardening: Design Inspiration and Innovative Planting Techniques from Chanticleer came out in 2015 I couldn't wait to read it. By the time I was writing my own book, Fearless Gardening; Be Bold, Break the Rules, and Grow What You Love in 2019, I was head over heels in love with the garden —even though I'd not visited—and had to include a couple of quotes from their book in mine. First, horticulturist Dan Benarcik's description of what they do as “gardening without a net” and then the book’s author, R. William Thomas going on to say “You might want to do the same in your own garden. Try. And try again. Continue what you like. Move to something else if you are displeased. Plant enough so the loss of one plant is not tragic.” Words of gardening wisdom right there.

I had the pleasure of meeting both of those men during my visits, which of course fell during the Philly Fling. I met Dan Benarcik on my pre-Fling full day in the garden. When he heard I was from Portland he asked if I knew his favorite Portlander, Lauren Hall-Behrens. I love it when things come full circle.

I met Bill Thomas during the Fling visit. He was wandering the garden and chatting with us all. I wish I had been able to speak articulately but honestly, I was a star-struck fool. He was charming.

These photos are of the entrance area at Chanticleer, where you walk up and pay admission. The containers were so well done they were their own attraction.

Naturally I loved the bromeliads, but the whole was so much more than it's parts. There are several brightly colored caladium, and that large dark pleated foliage that shows up below and in several of these photos is Hoffmannia Fantasia (which I'd never heard of before).

The tall bloom spike on the Alcantarea imperialis was insane! (in the very best possible way)

The bees were all over that thing, please enjoy this short bee butt video.

If you're unfamiliar with Chanticleer you're probably wondering, why all the fuss? Well, because it's a garden like no other. 

I really like this bit I read on Margaret Roach's blog A Way to Garden: "IT’S NOT a botanical garden, exactly, nor an arboretum–not a park or a museum. So what is Chanticleer, the much-visited 48-acre fill-in-the-blank in Wayne, Pennsylvania, about half an hour from Philadelphia? Maybe the best answer to that question is one I found on page 28 of the new book “The Art of Gardening: Design Inspiration and Innovative Planting Techniques from Chanticleer,” where it says: “It is a garden for the sake of being a garden.”"

"a garden for the sake of being a garden"... how perfect. In the Chanticleer promotional materials they describe themselves as a "pleasure garden," I like that too. You might also want to read the "about us" section from their website, it explains a lot.

This is the admissions kiosk. I was there at opening (10am) on Wednesday, September 20th and there when the gate closed behind me at 5pm. I returned with the rest of the Fling crew for a few hours on Friday afternoon.

I took a lot of photos during my visits, I am going to share many of them here on the blog. My intention is to cover a different section of the garden every Friday thru at least the first of the year. We'll see how long I can go.

Before the bromeliads was this stately tree circle, the parking lots are on the right, the admissions and bromeliads are on the left.

Once I finished swooning over all that, it was time to enter the garden proper.

Okay, first I was distracted by a ginormous staghorn hanging from a tree branch.

But then I stepped through the doorway...

Visible through the next doorway is the Teacup Garden.

But we're taking a brief detour to the ladies room.

Yes, I did take a couple of photos inside the bathroom! Afterall the Chanticleer restrooms are famous for having fresh flowers from the garden.

Aren't those variegated Abutilon ‘Savitzii’ and bromeliad filled urns stunning?

Of course I wanted to climb those stairs and see what was behind the door. Of course I did not even try.

Looking back over my shoulder before I enter the Teacup Garden, which will be the subject of next Friday's blog post.

In case you—like me—can't get enough of Chanticleer: HPSO's Winter Program speaker will be Bill Thomas of Chanticleer Gardens. This will be a Zoom event so no matter where you are, you can tune in! It will take place Sunday, January 21st at 1pm PST. Cost is $10 for members and $20 for non-members. More information will be shared on the HPSO website as it becomes available.

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