Friday, October 4, 2024

A Philly Garden Fling threefer

Regular readers are going to be spending time in Pennsylvania over the next few weeks. I've decided since the Philly Fling took place over a year ago, I really need to concentrate on powering through my remaining 2023 Fling garden visits. This post includes three of those gardens, the first one, Boulder Haven, belongs to Carol Verhake and we visited on Friday, when it was still dry. The rest of the weekend was very very wet.

There was a patio off the back of the home, with focal-point containers on the low wall.


A very photogenic moon gate marked the entrance into the woodland garden.


The name of the garden made reference to the many boulders peeking up out of the ground.

I think we all took turns sitting in the woven love shack (see the sign at the lower right hand corner).


Maybe Acorus gramineus ‘Minimus Aureus’? 

Whatever it is, it's fabulous!

Out front by the street I spotted a couple ferns tucked into the rock wall.

Always a good thing in my book.

The next garden, John Lonsdale's Edgewood, was an early Saturday morning stop. We were all getting acclimated to garden touring in a downpour. 

This whiskey barrel of mangaves was a surprise!

And cholla too!

Yucca rostrata backed by sarracenia.

Believe it or not I didn't make it inside the greenhouses.

I would have liked to, but others were vying to do so and as I recall they were filled with the owners cyclamen breeding efforts which wasn't a big draw for me. 

Wait, what? More mangaves! These must go into the greenhouses over the winter.

A tropical corner...

And this, which was really attractive in person and had many of us scratching our heads as to exactly what it was.

I believe it was Heather who finally identified it, Pollia japonica.

Wayne Guymon’s WynEden in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania rounds out this chapter of the Philly Fling. At 9.5 acres and boasting 15,000 hostas, 7,000 rhododendrons, 3 ponds, 3 streams and 5 acres of edited woodland I knew there was no way I was going to see it all...



Instead of trying, I just wandered and pointed my camera at what I found interesting.




The bamboo was all well trenched, to help keep it in check.


Fungus of all sorts was easy to find on this Fling.


Amaranthus tricolour

I did not make it over to the covered bridge, other Flingers did.

I think that pathway in the distance is the one I took down into the garden.

Looking back at the house (and some of the hostas) across the large pond.



Tricyrtis hirta, perhaps 'Lightning Strike'.

More wet garden tours to come!

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12 comments:

  1. Moon gate is fun. The maybe Acorus gramineus ‘Minimus Aureus’ is fabulous! I really like the shape of their greenhouse. And, I really can't imagine living on a 9.5 acre park, it's beautiful. How was it being drenched getting off & on the buses, what did people do with their raincoats?

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    1. You know I can't remember what other people did, but I was lucky in that I didn't have a seat mate (our bus wasn't full) so I took my plastic poncho off (we left for the Fling early, before rain--Tropical Storm Ophelia--was predicted to impact Philly so I didn't have a raincoat) and hung it from the headrest of the seat in front of me. I also had an umbrella (always in my suitcase) and a watertight bag to slip it in. The whole rain thing was such a nightmare!

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  2. I love, Love, LOVE that moongate! I've seen it somewhere before once or twice but I'm thrilled with each new viewing. The pond in the third garden was also impressive. If I had a water feature that large I wouldn't even mind if raccoons splashed around in it on occasion.

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    1. If you had a water feature that large I don't think you would even know if raccoons splashed around in it!

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  3. Thanks for revisiting Philly Fling ! In spite of the rain it was good times. We sure saw some great gardens. And it inspired me to upgrade my rain gear !

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    1. We definitely saw some great gardens, and touring in a tropical storm changed the way I feel about touring a garden in the rain, it can be done.

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  4. Now THAT is a moongate! Wow. The lichen covered bench next to the barrel of mangaves looks inviting despite the rain. It's quite a startling contrast to see all the desert cacti and succulents backed by water plants and midwest temperate shrubs in the pouring rain. 15,000 hostas and 7,000 rhododendrons?! Good grief, the scale of that boggles my mind. I imagine it is all carefully tracked in a spreadsheet somehow.

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    1. I feel like that lichen covered bench (or a similar one) followed us around to many gardens we saw on that Fling. Maybe they're standard issue in PA?

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  5. So much beautiful green! I loved all the Mangaves, the Cholla, and the Yucca! Amazing! I loved the Boulder Garden especially!

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    1. Fun to see desert plants in non-desert places isn't it?

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  6. I know you recently had to put your rainy day touring expertise into practice. :-)

    Nine acres would require at least half a day to fully explore.

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    1. This Fling definitely inspired a "rain won't stop the tour" mindset!

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