Chanticleer's Fabulous Fall Containers

I discovered Chanticleer Gardens last spring, and now that my daughter attends school nearby, I plan to visit this fabulous garden as often as I can. Last weekend I was once again inspired by the dozens of fabulous containers found throughout the garden. Each pot is a spectacular blend of foliage, color and texture, and most do not use flowers at all!

Many of these beautiful arrangements are made of tender tropicals - or houseplants for those of us in the Northeast. Now that I will be moving all of my houseplants back inside for the winter, I am thinking about creating a few Chanticleer-like pots to decorate the inside of my house!

A grouping of containers surrounds a cozy seating nook tucked in at the side of the house.

Pepperonia and a variegated agave are beautiful in a bronze urn.

A miniature container garden in a cement leaf.

A grand display on the mantel of a porch fireplace!

A banana tree creates a towering centerpiece in the garden!

A second outdoor fireplace is festooned with succulents.

Last but not least, a chain of small succulent pots adorns a rustic column.

Wakefield Estate Featured in Open Days Pr

In the effort to increase public knowledge about the importance of historic landscapes, hundreds of exceptional gardens nationwide are selected to participate in The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days program. This year, the Mary M. B. Wakefield Charitable Trust has partnered with the Conservancy to organize “the Greater Boston Area Open Days” on Saturday, June 8, from 10:00am – 4:00pm. Five distinct Milton gardens will be showcased, offering visitors a diverse range of designed landscapes. 

The Wakefield Estate is the former home of Mary “Polly” Wakefield (1914-2004), a trained horticulturist, landscape designer, plant propagator and collector, and an advocate and leader on many environmental issues of her day. Her vision for the purpose of the Wakefield Estate was to “organize to re-establish the contact between the land and the people.” An active member and trustee of many garden and volunteer organizations, Polly was especially passionate about the revival of the Public Garden in Boston. As a founding member of the Friends of the Public Garden, Polly was instrumental in restoring one of Boston’s most beautiful landmarks to its original glory.

One of the strong themes in Polly’s life was her avid interest in science and nature, both observing and studying it. Polly continually augmented her knowledge, accumulating a broad understanding of arboriculture and propagation methods, ultimately leading to her development, selection and naming of eight patented dogwood cultivars, including “Greensleeves” and “Fanfare”, two of the most highly praised dogwood cultivars today. She strived to create a formal garden that defied formality and convention, tested nature’s limits and embraced whimsy and a bit of the wild. An innovator when it came to sustainable gardening methods, she deliberately “crowded” her plants, remarking that “nature prefers it this way,” adding that “it eliminates much weeding … while giving it a more natural appearance and retaining a more even degree of natural moisture.”

The Open Days program coincides with the kick-off of the Wakefield Estate’s annual “Dogwood Days” – a week-long celebration of the estate’s hundreds of flowering kousa dogwood trees. Dogwood Days, which runs from June 8–14, 10am – 4pm daily, features tours, open gardens, and a tree and plant sale including kousa dogwoods, Japanese maples, river birches, eastern red buds, paper bark maples, metasequoias, and larches. New this year is “Dogs and Dogwoods,” a day to bring your canine friend to the estate for dog-friendly events, including a fun and informal dog show.  “Dogs and Dogwoods” is scheduled for Sunday, June 9th, from 10am-4pm.  The dog show will start at 1:00pm.  Dogs must be leashed. 

The Wakefield Estate in located at 1465 Brush Hill Road in Milton. For more information visit www.wakefieldtrust.org or call 617-333-0924. To see a list of the Open Days selected gardens and directions, see The Garden Conservancy’s website: www.gardenconservancy.org.

Guest Post by Erica Max
Program Director, Mary M.B. Wakefield Charitable Trust

Inspiring Containers from Chanticleer

I was astounded by the beauty of the container plantings at Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, Penn.  Although it was only mid-April, there were dozens of richly planted pots throughout the garden. The containers themselves ranged from formal urns to terracotta, glazed ceramics and modern metals. Many were grouped or strategically placed to enhance the garden's design. I hope that you will be inspired to create your own artistic contained gardens!

Orange tulips, red lettuce and herbs complement the terracota pots in this courtyard garden.

Red tulips, red-twig dogwood, heuchera and euphorbia in a classic cement urn.

Grape hyacinths steal the show in this pot!

A grouping of potted shrubs, perennials and annuals in different pots that complement each other!

A quiet container water garden on the stone patio.

A vegetable garden with climbing peas on the terrace!

Another interesting grouping of potted shrubs, succulents and spring bulbs.

Pansies soften the spiky form of an agave.

Potted daffodils and tulips complement the Italian accent tiles with their lemon design.

Ranunculus, pansies, and yellow-twig dogwood in an indigo blue pot!

​A small centerpiece bowl of greens, herbs and flowers adorns the terrace dining table.

The Spring Glory of Chanticleer

To my family's chagrin, I always manage to find a nursery or public garden wherever our travels take us. So last week, when my daughter's college visit took us to the suburbs of Philadelphia, I was delighted to find that we were in the vicinity of the famous Chanticleer garden in Wayne, PA.

Chanticleer has been called the most romantic, imaginative and exciting public garden in America, and seeing it in its spring glory, I heartily agree with this description. The estate, with its 1913 mansion and themed gardens was once the country retreat of the Rosengarten family, whose Philadelphia-based pharmaceutical firm became part of Merck. The landscape was originally designed by Thomas Sears, and the 35 acres that are open to the public are now maintained by a staff of 12 gardeners and groundskeepers.

The terraces surrounding the main house are formally planted with thousands of spring-flowering bulbs.

The Teacup Garden's formal parterre gardens were a colorful tapestry of vegetables, herbs and flowers.

Dozens of lushly planted containers adorned the gardens around the home.

The estate's impressive lawns and trees were blooming with hundreds of daffodils. The saucer magnolias and cherries were magnificent.

The shady gardens of Bell's Woodland were massed with epimediums, ferns, hellebores, trilliums and spring bulbs.

The Gravel Gardens were ablaze with tiny species tulips, miniature daffodils and grape hyacinths.

Naturalized frittilarias adorned a remote, quiet part of the garden.

Chanticleer is open to the public from April through October, and more information can be obtained at www.chanticleergarden.org. It is well worth a visit, and I cannot wait to return someday!

Hollister House Garden, Washington, CT

recent Garden Conservancy Tour brought me to Hollister House Garden, overlooking the rolling hills of Litchfield County in northwestern Connecticut. The garden surrounds a rambling 18th century house set on 25 acres of beautiful wooded countryside with a winding brook and large pond. The garden itself is modeled after such classic English gardens as Sissinghurst , Great Dixter and Hidcote—formal in its structure, but informal and a little wild in its style of planting. Its pathways lead you through a series terraced garden rooms surrounded by tall walls and hedges which offer inviting glimpses of the landscape beyond.

Hollister House Garden is a 30-year labor of love by antiques dealer George Schoellkopf. George ran a gallery of 18th and 19th century antiques and folk art in New York City, so the garden was a weekend hobby for many years. He collected old stone, brick, wood and other man-made materials to complement his historic house, barns and outbuildings. 100-year old granite curbing, salvaged from Hartford road renovation projects, forms terraces, wide stairs and pathways that lead the visitor from one garden room to the next.

 The garden at Hollister House is abundant with both common and exotic plants, arranged in captivating combinations. Highlights of the garden in May include extensive plantings of tulips, iris and forget-me-nots, followed by old-fashioned roses and hybrid peonies in June, a magnificent 60-foot-tall Stewartia pseudocamellia covered in white blossoms in July, and unusual daylilies and true lilies in August. During my visit in late August, I was treated to towering dahlias, hydrangeas, Joe Pye Weed and stands of phlox.

Hollister House Garden is located in Washington, CT, and open to the public on Saturdays from late April to late September. It can be combined with a trip to White Flower Farm in neighboring Litchfield and Cricket Hill Nursery (specializing in peonies) in nearby Thomaston. For more information about visiting Hollister House, see hollisterhousegarden.org. The garden was featured on the Martha Stewart Show in 2010, and a video tour of the garden is available at www.marthastewart.com/251662/hollister-house-english-garden. Treat yourself to a visit to this garden destination!

Rhododendron Days at Heritage Museums and Gardens

For the past few years, my college roommate has visited from her home in the Hudson River valley for a weekend of plant swapping, plant shopping and touring local gardens for inspiration. We were art students together in college, and have become passionate gardeners who use the garden as our canvas. This May weekend had a strong rhododendron theme, coinciding with the Mass. Rhododendron Society’s plant sale at Weston Nurseries, followed by a viewing of Boulderwoods Nursery, the awe-inspiring Hopkinton garden of hybridizer Joe Bruso. Rhododendrons are exceptionally floriferous this year, so it was an excellent time to round out the weekend with a trip to Cape Cod to visit the Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich.

 Established in 1969 by Josiah K. Lilly III, Heritage Museums and Gardens is a garden oasis with outstanding collections of rhododendrons, hollies, hostas, hydrangeas and over 1,000 daylilies which light up the garden in July and August. The 100-acre grounds feature thousands of rhododendron shrubs that burst into pink, red, and cream-hued bloom in late May. These plants are the legacy of two rhododendron-obsessed men. Charles Owen Dexter, a man of varied interests who became famous for hybridizing and propagating rhododendrons, lived on the property between 1921 and 1943. His plant breeding goals were hardiness, clear bright colors, fragrance, and large, showy blossoms, and the most well known of his hybrids today is ‘Scintillation.’ Other unique rhododendron cultivars in the Heritage gardens are the work of horticulturist Jack Cowles, who lived and worked on the estate from 1957 to 1967.

 Heritage Museums and Gardens exceeded our expectations. The rolling landscape was covered with a tapestry of rhododendrons, some 20 feet in height, most in bloom. Instead of the mauvy pinks, purples and whites that are commonly found in local nurseries, there were soft creams, pinkish apricots, rosy pinks and soft reds. To my surprise, many of the rhododendrons were wonderfully scented, and I quickly chose two favorites: ‘Dexter’s Spice,’ with its huge frilly, funnel-shaped white flowers and intoxicating fragrance, and ‘Dexter’s Honeydew’, another fragrant variety with pink buds that open into creamy apricot-tinged blossoms.

 In addition to the other plant collections, which I plan to come see when they are blooming in July, Heritage Gardens features a labyrinth, children’s garden, flume water feature, classical herb garden and an arboretum of beautiful mature trees, including umbrella pine, enkianthus, halesia, stewartia and many more. An unusual maze constructed of metal frames supports dozens of climbing vines, including climbing hydrangea, clematis, hops, akebia, and wisteria.

 Heritage is currently celebrating “Rhododendron Days” through May 30 with daily special events and an on-going plant sale of some of their hydrangea and rhododendron cultivars. (I am only sorry that I did not purchase the ‘Dexter’s Honeydew’, as it is almost impossible to find anywhere else.) The property also includes several excellent museums featuring antique cars, folk art, history and a lovely old carousel. (heritagemuseumsandgardens.org). A perfect way to top off a visit to Heritage Museums is to stop for Afternoon English tea at the Dunbar Tea Room, less than a mile away in Sandwich (dunbarteashop.com) 

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