Chanticleer Friday: the Tennis Court Garden

Today we continue our stroll through Chanticleer and descend the stairs into the Tennis Court Garden (TCG)...

There is however, no tennis court; "Once the scene for matches between the Rosengarten family members and their guests, the Tennis Court Garden was the first garden to be developed after Mr. Rosengarten’s death in 1990. The garden now retains its namesake purpose in its rectangular outline and the arc-like shapes of the beds suggestive of a racket’s strokes. Curvilinear yew hedges partition the beds and pathways, prompting an inquisitive sense of adventure." (source)

The stone walls that border both sides of the steps have built in space along the top to plant the entire length of the stairs. This was my favorite feature of the TCG...

Now that's a grand garden staircase.

In last week's walk through the Tea Cup Garden I linked to a video, one of a weekly series on Chanticleer's YouTube channel. As I've been working my way through all the videos I've come to the conclusion that the magic of the tennis court garden is best seen from above, a bird's-eye or drone-eye shot. They seem include them in most of the weekly videos. 

I do love the anemones; A. × hybrida 'Honorine Jobert' I believe.

And the BIG colorful red bananas, Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii'.

They beg to have their photo taken.

*sigh*

Since the pathway led out into the lawn I wandered that way, off to explore the border along the far side (small oval in the map at the end of the post)...

There were several nice variegated comfrey, Symphytum × uplandicum 'Axminster Gold'.

But this spiky leaf is what I liked best of all, it belongs to Argemone mexicana.

Common name, Mexican prickly poppy. Evidently it's highly toxic and has escaped cultivation to become a pest in many parts of the world. Oh well.

Heading back to the TCG...

Where I decided to sit for a bit and take it all in. I vowed to do that repeatedly during my visit, I didn't sit in every chair I saw, but I managed quite a few.

The view from the sit-spot.

Those bananas again!

Here's what we covered in today's post. Next Friday we begin our exploration around the Chanticleer House. 

Previous posts on Chanticleer:

The kick-off | The Teacup Garden

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

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.