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!

Chanticleer House in Spring

My visit to Chanticleer House & Gardens in April.

Welcome to the end of my Chanticleer series! It has been nice to finally post these photos from my visit last April with my garden blogging friends, Pam and Carolyn. Chanticleer is a beautiful garden throughout, and it was a very enjoyable visit. Keep and eye open for roosters statues (like on the pillar above), as chanticleer is french for rooster.

If you are interested in reading more about Chanticleer, I recommend looking at their book that was new out last year, Chanticleer: A Pleasure Garden by Adrian Higgins. For me, the real thrill of this book was the beautiful garden photography by Rob Cardillo. His photos cover many seasons of the romantic garden, and there is a bit of information for the plant and garden history lovers as well.

So here we are, at Chanticleer house...

Chanticleer's Bulb Lawn

Viburnum macrocephalum and Tulipa 'Akebona' in Chanticleer's Bulb Meadow.

When you emerge from Chanticleer's Asian Woods, you are greeted by sunshine and a wide swath of grass. But this is no ordinary field. In April and May, it is filled with a succession of colorful bulbs and flowering trees. This is the Bulb Lawn, where tulip, daffodils and bluebells abound.

Chanticleer's Asian Woods

Chanticleer's Asian bridge... corresponding to this multi-stemmed tree and the dark-stemmed Arisaema.

Chanticleer's Asian Woods is beautiful in April! It is full of blooming woodland primroses, fresh hosta leaves, delicate peonies and many other woodland treasures. Orchids, Epimediums, Japanese maples and lady's slippers fill out the scene. Plant lovers, read on!

Chanticleer's Pond Garden

The Pinkshell azalea, Rhododendron vaseyi, in bud beside Chanticleer's Pond Garden.

Continuing our tour of Chanticleer this week, we come to the Pond Garden. Once you descend the Gravel Garden's substantial slope, you come to the low point on the estate property. This is the perfect place for ponds and surrounding woodland.

Chanticleer ~ Gravel & Ruin Gardens

Tulipa 'Rem's Favourite' and white Allium neapolitanum framed by pillar Arborvitae look down on a pergola covered in Wisteria sinensis 'Amethyst' ~ the Gravel Garden at Chanticleer.

We are continuing our tour of Chanticleer gardens in Wayne, PA, USA.  Last April, the Gravel Garden and Ruin gardens were clothed in tulips, alliums, grape hyacinths and daffodils for my visit... And they make me remember why spring is my favorite season!

Chanticleer's Gravel Garden in Spring

Warm spring display at Chanticleer's Gravel Garden

More beautiful April views from Chanticleer this week at WMG. I hope you are not tired of it yet! There were just so many pretty flowers out to play in the spring sunshine last year, and I cannot bear to leave these photos sit on just my computer any longer. :)

These photos show just a small, upper section of the Gravel garden. The entire Gravel garden  encompasses quite a large area at Chanticleer as you descend to the ponds. After the lush woodland, this is a sunnier spot all in orange, red and white. The blue grass foliage adds depth to this basically warm floral palette.

Chanticleer ~ Bell's Run Creek in April

Fothergilla gardenii in Bell's Run Creek planting for April

Chanticleer's spring show includes formal tulips displays, but it also extends to every stretch of their woodland. Here near Bell's Run Creek, spring gets its color from woodland Phlox, Fothergilla, Primula, Camassia, and pretty shade plants and trees of every kind.

Chanticleer's Dogwood Corner

Chanticleer in April: Walk through the dogwood trees.

My series on Chanticleer continues this week with a look at a garden that epitomizes all that is nice about April!

Spring would not be spring in North America without our native dogwood tree, Cornus florida. Dogwood trees are found in the wild at the edge of the woodland, reaching their branches through dappled sunlight. Chanticleer has sited these dogwood trees close to a woodland, following nature's example (which is usually the wisest idea for any gardener!). Shade plants surround these trees; you might find a few new plants to add around your own dogwood tree for next spring!

Chanticleer ~ Oak Bed Woodland

Chanticleer's Oak Bed filled with spring delights!

I had lovely weather and lovely company on the day I visited Chanticleer last April. The sunny, warm spring excited hundreds of plants into bloom on the estate grounds all at once. It was a beautiful time to visit!

Here are my photos of the Oak Bed. I found the planting in this area captivating; so many woodland treasures were all nestled together. It had the effect of a patchwork quilt which the gardeners had been knitting together these past years.  Each plant so quietly beautiful, supporting one another. I hope you enjoy the view!

Chanticleer's Clematis macropetala Blue Bird

Clematis macropetala 'Blue Bird' at Chanticleer in April

Chanticleer in Wayne, PA has many beautiful plants for its spring show: tulips, daffodils, roses and annual pots galore.  Clematis macropetala 'Blue Bird', though, is the only Clematis that I saw that April day. But what a beauty!

Chanticleer ~ The Tea Cup & Lower Courtyard Gardens

Chanticleer gardens in Wayne, PA

I found one of my favorite scenes of Chanticleer's spring show in the entrance garden. Just past the pots in the courtyard (which is the first post in this series) you pass behind the smaller house on the estate, which was gifted by Adolf and Christine Rosengarten to their daughter, Emily, in 1935. You enter the Tea Cup garden, which is home to tropical fare during the summer months. For spring, it was filled with some bedding flowers: Icelandic poppies, African daisies, etc. 

Visit to Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA: The Entrance

Bold container plantings at the entrance to Chanticleer Gardens.

Last spring I had the pleasure of visiting one of the most beautiful gardens in North America with some wonderful blogging friends.  Chanticleer, in Wayne, PA, is an excellent example of a public garden that still revels in being made by real gardeners.

Ornamental Grasses at Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA

The captivating combination of tulips and rough grass at Chanticleer Gardens in April of this year.

While I am on the topic of ornamental grasses, I thought I would take the opprotunity to post a few photos of grasses being used at a romantic-style garden in the US, Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA. Chanticleer happens to be pictured and mentioned by Neil Lucas in his book, Designing with Grasses, and recommended as a great place to see grasses in the US in his garden index.

Ornamental grasses are often considered useful to the garden designer because of their strength of form, their movement and the perseverance that they show in the late summer and autumn gardens. While this is certainly true, these photos that I took on my April visit to Chanticleer with fellow bloggers Pam and Carolyn show how grasses contributed to the lush, romantic look of the gardens even in mid-spring.

I had quite a bit of fun to capturing the afternoon light shinning through the tree, tulips petals and grass.

Pennsylvania Garden Bloggers' Meeting

Garden bloggers from three corners of Pennsylvania: from left, Carolyn, Pam and Julie - that's me :)

I had the treat a few weeks ago of getting to meet my first "garden bloggers." Of course there is much more to these two beautiful ladies than just garden blogging, as is true of all of us. And by chance, these two also happen to be wives, mothers and gifted gardeners... and wonderful people with whom to spend the day!