Thursday, May 9, 2013

Visit to Chanticleer's Orchard and Bulb Lawn in May

A circular tree bench in the middle of Chanticleer's Orchard garden.
Hi all! We have just arrived home from a whirlwind tour of some of the most beautiful gardens on the US east coast. While we were gone, spring definitely arrived in Pennsylvania; all of my flowers have lept ahead in growth. But before sharing more from our garden, I could not wait to share a few of the highlights from our garden tours in Colonial Williamsburg, George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate, Winterthur, Longwood Gardens and Chanticleer.

A couple of our happiest vacation hours were spent reveling in the beauty of Chanticleer's Orchard and Bulb Lawn on a fine May day. We ate a bite of lunch, let the kids run around on the lawn and drank in the spring scent of thousands of daffodils and crabapple blossoms. I hope these photos help you get lost in the beauty of it all like we did!

The Narcissus varieties planted en mass in the Orchard include: 'Actaea', 'Bravoure', 'Cheerfulness', 'Ice Follies', 'Ice Wings', 'Salome', and 'Thalia'.
Our three posing with the posies, as my grandmother would say.
Daffodils cover the hillside that looks up to the grand Chanticleer house. The little building above is at the end of the garden wall.
View through the trees to another sitting area. Chairs are placed everywhere to enjoy the view!
Blue grape hyacinths (Muscari armenicum) and more daffodils in the grass surrounding the crabapple trees.
Muscari armenicum and Narcissus poeticus in the rough grass.
The bulbs bloom in April and May. The grass is allowed to grow until July, when it is cut for hay. By being managed in this way, meadows are are easily improved with early flowers.
Malus 'Snowdrift'
At least ten different varieties of crabapples (Malus) are planted in the Orchard, including white-flowering Malus 'Donald Wyman' and pink-flowering Malus 'Prairiefire'.
Cornus leaf buds floating over a carpet of bulbs in blue and white. Chanticleer has planted over 80,000 bulbs in their Orchard area.
This garden truly is a must visit for garden lovers on the east coast! I hope you get to visit someday!

For more, see my series of photos on Chanticleer from last spring.

8 comments:

  1. Lovely photos, those crabapples are especially beautiful!

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  2. Such lovely photos of blossom and narcissus, quite overwhelming to see so many flowers together! You must all have had a super time there.

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  3. Oh, that is just too gorgeous. I've got to visit Chanticleer. You're kids are adorable, by the way.

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  4. Piękny i kolorowy ten maj.Pozdrawiam ciepło i wiosennie.J.

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  5. I've heard of Chanticleer but being a west coast girl, never been. What a wonderful place. I bet your kids enjoyed it too. They're adorable.

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  6. Gosh, that is a lot of bulbs! It always amazes me to see wide swaths of naturalized bulb plants. I always wonder how long it took and how much $$$ it took to get them to that point. Very impressive and beautiful!

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  7. Just fabulous and those 3 lovely flowers are the best of all.

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