Chanticleer Garden (10/4/2019)

Friday, October 4, 2019
Today's GFE Nature Walk was to Chanticleer Garden in Wayne, PA, a mini-bus ride away. We had to pay our own admission fee of $10, and a few of us were able to get reciprocal discounts of $2 (paying $8). Chanticleer was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Chanticleer estate was built by the head of a family pharmaceutical firm that became part of Merck & Company in 1927. Adolph Rosengarten, Sr had the 1913 house designed by Charles Borie, as a summer home. In 1924 a wing was added when the family made it their permanent residence. The next year came the pool, teahouse, and sunken garden, designed by Charles Willing and Joseph P Sims. Adolph Rosengarten, Jr returned from World War II having seen manor gardens in England, and hired Christopher Woods to create gardens on the family property. In 1958 Willing and Sims developed gardens incised by a rivulet which cascaded into a large pond at the Minder House, a neighboring property purchased for Rosengarten, Jr in 1933. Two years later a house was built for Rosengarten, Sr's daughter, Emily, located at the entrance, which is now used for offices and classrooms.

Entrance to Chanticleer, with "Emily's House"

Adolph Rosengarten, Jr established a foundation to maintain the gardens that were opened to the public in 1993.

Chanticleer Admissions Kiosk with a Brugmansia 'Betty Marshall'/
White Angel's Trumpet to the L

Unusual chairs; apparently the garden uses wood
from fallen trees on the property, to create furniture

One side of the Teacup Garden that includes
subtropical flora like a Musa 'Aeae'/Banana Palm

A bamboo hanging planter with Fuchsia ‘Sanihanf’,
crowded by a Philodendron selloum 'Hope'

Teacup Garden from the NE, notable are the
Agave americana/Century Plants (KSS)

Metal stair rail (KSS)

Teacup Garden and Emily's House from the SE

We believe these are an apricot varietal

Round picnic tables (KSS)

The Rosengarten tennis court was transformed into a parterre garden of herbaceous plants.

Tennis Court Garden

Approaching Chanticleer House

Adolph Rosengarten, Sr named his estate after a house, Chanticlere, mentioned in the novel The Newcomes by William Makepeace Thackeray. As Chanticleer is also a rooster in fables, the rooster is used as a motif throughout the gardens.

Chanticleer at the gate

The circular driveway contained a raked gravel Zen-like garden

Pennisetum glaucum 'Jade Princess'/
Ornamental millet grass

Cut blooms floating in water

Terrace facing the Great Lawn with wooden furniture
featuring a metal leaf design

Found another rooster! (KSS)

Chanticleer House behind a wildflower lawn;" a fellow garden visitor
informed us that this area is full of daffodils in the spring

Pool and one of the "cabanas"

Aeonium arboreum 'Zwartkop' (KSS)

Rooster-combed bamboo sculptures
by Marcia Donahue of California

Note the Tenodera sinensis/Praying Mantis in the
Ipomoea x sloteri/Cardinal Climber vines (KSS)

View from the accessible elevated walkway of the Great Lawn

Mosses and a peek at the apple house (KSS)

Peeking inside the apple house

Water dispenser for bottles and water fountain (KSS)

Looking back up at Chanticleer House and the elevated walkway (KSS)

Serpentine Garden with Oryza glaberrima 'Carolina Gold'/Rice

Bulb Meadow

Colchicum autumnale/Naked Ladies
(there are several variations in the meadow)

Another water fountain (KSS)

You will never guess what the teahouse is today...

...a restroom!

Can't identify this; perhaps when it has a flower!

Arisaema sp/Cobra Lily

Asian Woods Plant List Box

Tricyrtis hirta ‘Miyazaki’/Toad Lily (Note bloom in lower R) (KSS)

Bridge handrail at the bottom of the Pond Garden

Koi (it's the end of season for the Nelumbo nucifera/
Lotus in the back L) (KSS)

Yes, yes, Nemo has been found! (KSS)

Arbor

Looking back down on the Pond Garden; the plantings are
so dense, it's hard to see five ponds!

Section of the Gravel Garden, with two Yucca rostrata/
Beaked Yucca popping up, rare in Pennsylvania

Stone furniture with log armrests surround a "living carpet" (KSS)

The Ruin Garden was started by Christopher Woods, who after the death of
Rosengarten, Jr, dismantled his Minder House to create a ruin folly

In 2000, landscape architect Mara Baird re-imagined the Ruin Garden, rebuilding walls on the foundations

Hey, it's a "pool table!" that is in the Great Hall,
and not the Pool Room (KSS)

Another unique water fountain

We noticed copper wire was used to guide clematis vines on this boulder

A water wheel (installed in 1940s) used to
pump water from the stream to the swimming pool

Bell's Run Creek was unearthed after having been
diverted through pipes in the 1930s

A spouting frog fills a pond near Bell's Woodland

Water faucet camouflage (KSS)

A submarine lost in the woods? (KSS)

The bridge (2012) is actually made to resemble a fallen beech tree

A rock garden planter on Beech Bridge

Bell's Woodland Plant List Box (KSS)

The Greenhouse (2011) has tomato plants
growing up the NE wall

The potting shed is behind the cold frames

Vegetable Garden Plant List Box

The female Actinidia sp/Kiwifruit plant
requires a male plant in the vicinity

Echinocystis lobata/Wild Cucumber (not edible) (KSS)

The Long Border plants include Celosia argentea
'Asian Garden' and Salvia 'Amistad'

Chanticleer Garden underscores the idea that a garden is for all seasons!