Chanticleer in December

A few weeks ago I boarded a train bound for Philadelphia. I did a a bit of a whirlwind tour, but my first stop was to visit my dear friend Emma at Chanticleer. I met Emma at Great Dixter where she was the first North American Christopher Lloyd scholar. After her scholarship ended, Emma got a job at Chanticleer in Wayne, Pennsylvania. She is newly in charge of the cutting garden area and surrounding garden beds (including a very cool conifer island). The garden is very quiet this time of year and since I visited her on a Sunday, we had the place to ourselves. I have a habit of seeing so many great gardens for the first time at their barest time of year, but I get to really notice all those incredible structural choices and wintery plants that take a backstage in the high summer.

 Above is the Minder Ruin Garden. This was a solid house at one time, but the previous head gardener, Chris Woods, had a vision! They took down the house and erected a ruin. It is spectacular, with plants clambering and climbing the stones, filling the gaps, and swinging down from overhead.

Here is a long line of Hakonechloa macra, which has beuatifully naturalized in and out of the ruin garden. This grass, with its flapping and arching habit softens all those stone edges. It also looks terrific this mid December (there wasn't any sign of snow then!)

This is the famous planting of Prairie Dropseed Grass (Sporobolus heterolepis) that is managed by a controlled annual burn. In the distance is that luscious Hakonechloa.

 

This is a serpentine agricultural bed where a different crop is planted each year.  This year's crop was Sorghum. I love the backdrop of dark evergreens and red twigs swimming in a sea of bright straw colored grass.

Looking out over clouds of Muhlenbergia capillaris in the gravel garden.

The pond garden.

Skimmia japonica

Emma in the eaves of the Cryptomeria in the Asian Woods.

Fall blooming Narcisuss cantabricus looking perfect in mid December.

One of the many playful features of the garden.

The cutting garden that is now Emma's charge. She has spent the last month digging and dividing, amending the soil, and laying out her stakes (a la Dixter style) to plan the shapes and drifts of her new plantings.

A peak into one of the greenhouses.

Lastly, this picture is of Tetrapanax papyrifer! It survives winter here in this little hot spot. 

Denver Botanic Garden

On a recent trip to Denver, Colorado to visit my husband's brother and family, we took a trip to the Denver Botanic Garden. I encountered some incredible plants, many for the first time, thriving in a climate unlike any I have ever gardened in before. In some respects the desert and high altitude region seems harsh, but then again, many plants that have trouble over wintering in Vermont, seem to do just fine here. It was amazing to see what plants were entirely happy with extreme temperature changes coupled with constant dryness and drought. All those beautiful silvery leaved plants, gorgeous grasses, and unusual succulents were in their ultimate growing conditions.

Above photo: Bright red fruits of the desert prickly pear (Optunia phaeacantha) with Artemesia, Euphorbia, and Eriogonum all showcased in the low water garden.

I liked this little tableau of interesting foliage, shapes, textures and colors. I think the emerging purple flowers belong to Crocus speciousus, but I am not entirely confident in my ability to appropriately identify the crocus/colchicum bulbs. My inexpert guess is based on the great photographs and descriptions of the various autumn flowering bulbs found in a a recently acquired copy of Anna Pavrod's book titled Bulb.

Bouteloua graculis 'Blonde Ambition'

This was one of the most exciting plants I saw and it caught my eye from a great distance.  This grass is truly blonde with dainty, angled seed heads flicking about in the breeze. It is short (about 30"), but dense and extremly upright. Apparently the seed heads can stand tall through the winter. It is also cold hardy to Zone 4.

Erigonum wrightii var. wrightii (Snow mesa buckwheat)

I recently read about these great buckwheat plants perfectly suited to mountain climates and a great food source for the pollinators. Its seed heads are extremly beautiful, emanating a lovely coppery glow.

 A bamboo sculpture exhibit was going on in different parts of the garden and here the pool was decorated with these wiry objects rising up from the inky black water.

I thought this was another man made sculpture, but these wide, flat pads are in fact living waterlilies.  Victoria 'Longwood Hybrids'

The native plants garden was perhaps my favorite part. Since I arrived in this arid city, I have been enamored with all the wild plants that grow here- from peoples' cultivated gardens to the weeds in the sidewalk.  The large shrubs with a blush of pink are Artemesia tridentata, which are seen everywhere.

Cylindroptuntia imbricata, a cool region cactus native to the semi arid high plains of the United States

Meadow garden

Some incredible seed heads of some incredible plant (?)

Pink feathery flower heads of the grass, Mulenbergia reverchonii

This is a nice annual grass (zone 8-10) Melinis nerviglumis 'Pink Crystals'

A tall, towering stand of Leonotis, just a little bit bruised by their first frost

A captivating water feature and grass promenade