Chanticleer Friday: Pond Garden and Bell's Run Creek

This is my seventh Chanticleer Friday post. I'm going into such detail because each area that I've featured feels like it's own unique space, it's part of the amazing whole that is Chanticleer, yet different enough to be a stand alone garden. 

Also, visiting this garden was something I'd wanted to do for years, and I'm enjoying reliving it through editing my photos and writing about it. While I would visit again in a heartbeat, chances are slim that will happen. I live on the other side of the country, and visiting the Philadelphia area again is not terribly likely. With these posts I can pop back in whenever I want to!

So, as the title says, today's post is on the Pond Garden and the area around the Creek, the parts roughly within the orange ovals...

"Whether you enter from Asian Woods or the Gravel Garden, the Pond Garden is an ebullient expression of gardening in its naturalistic form. Plantings edge unapologetically over the pathways, blurring the line of sight at various points. Always a major attractant for wildlife, water is the hub of activity—from damsel flies hovering for prey, red-eared slider turtles sunbathing on rocks, and the occasional waterfowl alighting for a break from flying. Shrieks of joy can be heard from children and adults alike when the koi and other fish in the pond are given their afternoon feeding.

The large pond was constructed in the 1970s and remained unplanted to serve as a mirror for the trees that surrounded it. Additional smaller ponds later were built to connect the garden with the wisteria-laden Arbor. A pump located in a modest stone springhouse circulates water throughout the ponds. Plantings now have matured with the ponds whose edges are not visible. One key attraction are the lotuses (Nelumbo ‘Mrs. Perry D. Slocum’) whose voluptuous blooms and sculptural seedpods are a photographer’s delight." (source)

Yes, they are!

The variegated bamboo was lush and dense.

As were all the plantings around the ponds.

Those chunky stairs travel up through the Gravel Garden...

Which is a post for another day.

But there are some chunky stairs to climb in this week's post...

This area is referred to as the Arbor, and I absolutely loved it. It had a vibe that tied in nicely with the Ruin Garden—which we'll be visiting next week—but was definitely it's own thing.

Those chairs were much more comfortable than they look, although they could have benefited from a foot-stool.

Not that I was able to sit for long, there were so many interesting details to photograph...

Looking out towards the ponds...

I could not find mention of this agave on the plant lists for this part of the garden, but I'm pretty sure it's an Agave parryi some something.

I think the potted plant is a Dasylirion wheeleri.

And of course growing on the arbor is a wisteria, can you imagine how beautiful it must be when in bloom?

Wandering around the ponds again now...

Abelmoschus manihot, aka “Sweet Hibiscus”.

Paulownia tomentosa

The "modest stone springhouse" where the pump that circulates water through the ponds is located.

This beautiful water bowl garden has me dreaming of trying something like this in my garden, of course we all know that raccoons would destroy it in no time.

I kind of lost track of exactly where these next few photos were taken. Some where after leaving the springhouse and following along Bell's Run Creek, working my way up to the pathway that cuts over to the Ruin Garden.

Fertile fronds of Matteuccia struthiopteris (I think).

I don't know which I liked more, the planting pocket in the low wall, or the stone leaf in the creek.

A sit-spot I didn't take advantage of. There were several other visitors just to the side, out of frame, and they were rather loud.

This foliage belonged to a vine growing on a trellis, I think it might be Ipomoea quamoclit, aka cypress vine, or cardinal creeper.

This stunning flower appears to be another type of ipomoea, could it be Ipomoea purpurea, the common morning-glory?

I was unable to find it on the garden's online plant-lists.

This post ends with a carved leaf drinking fountain. Next week, the Ruin Garden!

Previous Chanticleer posts: Kick-off | Teacup Garden | Tennis Court Garden | House and Terrace Gardens | Elevated Walkway, Serpentine and Bulb Meadow | Asian Woods

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Random Wednesday; summer scenes from three venues

Since I'm always taking photos it's only natural that I end up with a few loose ends that don't make a complete post, so today I'm doing a three-fer. We start in Dale Hickey's garden up in Vancouver, Washington. It was late May and I was there for our spring garden blogger's plant swap. Dale was working on a new crevice garden...

I fell hard for these Yucca aloifolia Dale had planted along the front of his house and was lucky enough to come home with one from the swap.

A few photos from Dale's beautiful back garden...

The see-thru shurb is a hakea, I think a H. microcarpa...

Its blooms...

Fast forward to August and I'm out on Sauvie Island for a little gathering at Rancho Cistus, the home of Sean Hogan and Preston Pew...

Callistemon some somebody, maybe C. pallidus?

I only have one photo from the always spectacular desert island bed, I was trying to make my way around the whole garden that evening!

Crevice garden in the distance.

And closer-up...

Back-lit cactus spines are always sexy.

Into the grasses and tall eryngium...

Agave magic.

Mahonia, palms and blue sky. Life is good.

It was fun to watch people discover this little gem. Thomas and Kirk from Sebright Gardens gave Sean this small variegated daphniphyllum, what a gift! It was admired by everyone who passed by.

Now it's September and I stopped by Marbott's Nursery. I was there because a friend had posted on Facebook concerned about how empty the place was.

Could they be closing?

In my eighteen years of shopping at Marbott's I've never seen these tables empty. Ernie, affectionately referred to by many as "old man Marbott" passed away last year (obituary here), truth be told I've been holding my breath every time I've visited since then, afraid I'd learn they were closing.

This greenhouse complex is one of my happy places, I wander thru when I need a lift. It's gorgeous in the summertime, and even more so in the winter.

I asked Larry Marbott if the rumors were true, and learned that indeed they would be closed for a few months over the wintertime. He was having surgery and didn't have reliable staff to run the place.

Would they reopen in the spring? I've returned a time or two since, and gotten even more vague answers. Most recently I was told that indeed changes were coming. 

When I asked who would care for the plants while they were closed I was told the elves would. But will they? It's not just the dwindling stock of outdoor plants that my heart worries about, but treasures like this NFS Epiphyllum oxypetalum.

There must be something in the works. I just pray it doesn't include the demolition of these vintage glasshouses...

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