Chanticleer Garden in Early Autumn – Part 1

Posted on October 1, 2023 by Janet

To visit my favourite garden in the entire world is always a special gift, so when I heard that my gang of garden bloggers had chosen Philadelphia to be the centre of our annual Garden Bloggers’ Fling in the last week of September, I was ecstatic. Even if Chanticleer had been the only garden we saw, it would have been enough, in my view. But of course it wasn’t; we saw many beautiful gardens. But let’s start here with a map, to familiarize you with the various theme gardens on the 35-acre property.

The thing about Chanticleer is that you can visit at different times of the year and see a very different garden; there is never enough time. After visiting in June 2014, I wrote a 2-part blog filled with poppies, foxgloves, sages and alliums. In May 2022, I used my blog to trace the history of the Rosengarten family, who in 1913 made their summer home here on Philadelphia’s Main Line in the town of Wayne; a decade later it became their full-time residence. There were peonies, columbine, wisteria and tuliptree in flower on that enchanting spring visit. But no matter which season, I always begin in the Teacup Garden, named for its distinctive overflowing fountain. This is like a tiny, perfect stage set filled each year with a new cast of characters, always with its own colour scheme. Sometimes it’s a dry garden, often tropicals mix with annuals. This year, if asked to name it, and considering the silvery Senecio vira-vira and olive trees, I might offer “pewter perfection”.

The basin in front of the garden is resplendent with a day-blooming tropical waterlily.

The fountain originated with the Rosengarten family….

…..and is believed to have been purchased by them in Florence, Italy in the 1920s. The pretty building adjacent to the Teacup Garden houses Chanticleer’s administrative offices. It was originally the home of Alfred Rosengarten’s daughter Emily, built for her on her wedding in 1935. The Rosengarten family home itself is called Chanticleer House and has its own gardens.

The Teacup Garden features a number of urns and pots, like this glazed, teal-blue urn filled with a stunning, chartreuse jasmine called Fiona Sunrise (Jasminum officinale)….

… and this one, draped with Pilea glauca ‘Aquamarine’.

This triangular container grouping contains several types of lavender and a tall marigold, Tagetes ‘Garland Orange’, among other plants.

Attention to detail is a hallmark of Chanticleer, as evidenced by the small, elegant touches like bouquets placed here and there, including in the Ladies’ Room adjacent to the Teacup Garden.

I took a quick look in the Upper Border characterized by its white flower palette and noted a handsome Texas Star hibiscus (H. coccineus ‘Albus’). But there wasn’t enough time to tarry here, and having visited Chanticleer before, I knew how to budget the few hours I had.

So off I went to the Tennis Court Garden below, named for the Rosengarten era but now converted into a garden of sweeping borders with a viewing arbor to take it all in. That yew on the left is Taxus ‘Beanpole’ – an apt name – and on the right, elegant ‘Honorine Jobert’ Japanese anemones. The echinacea is ‘Green Jewel’.

The stairs to the garden are one of my favourite design touches, with their built in planters. This year they contain gorgeous white Symphyotrichum ericoides ‘Snow Flurry’, dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides), Lantana camara ‘Samantha’ and Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’.

Who would ever think about punctuating a linear planter with tiny dawn redwoods? Or, put another way, why not use your nursery plants as decorative flourishes?

The old tennis court is planted with lush, curved borders.

Despite reading praises about this late-flowering perennial, I had never before seen it. Meet Letterman’s ironweed, Vernonia lettermanii ‘Iron Butterfly’. The edging is Heuchera ‘Caramel’.

I loved this combination of lilac aster (not on the master list but likely Symphyotrichum laeve ‘Bluebird’) with Succisella inflexa ‘Frosted Pearls’, aka devil’s bit.

The bumble bees were enjoying the knautia-like heads of the flowers.

The nearby Cutting Garden is a place of chaotic loveliness in late September. Its central path covered with pinestraw leads to the fenced Vegetable Garden.

There are annuals, perennials, tender bulbs and even the odd staked cherry tomato in the Cutting Garden. Plus, of course, all the flowers used in Chanticleer’s season-long floral arrangements. That dark-headed grass is Pennisetum glaucum ‘Jade Princess’.

The dark red plant near the cosmos and ageratum is cranberry hibiscus (Hibiscus acetosella). It makes a luscious foliage filler in floral arrangements.

That towering yellow daisy in the back is willowleaf sunflower (Helianthus salicifolius).

Have you ever seen a more beautiful dahlia? It’s called ‘Harvey Koop’, and I spotted it later in a bouquet.

One could spend hours in Bell’s Run exploring the woodland jewels, then strolling through the Creek Garden with its moisture-loving plants, but I wanted to focus on the flowering jewels of late summer, so after a quick walk along the lovely creek….

…. I came back to the light in the Ruin Garden’s sporobolus meadow (S. heterolepis) with its flanking hydrangeas (H. paniculata).

On the way to the ponds, I stopped in at the Arbor and took a moment to appreciate gardener Dan Benarcik’s distinctive “Chanticleer chairs” and the lime-green Carex oshimensis ‘Evercolor Everillo’ in the pots.

Then I walked past the Silver Garden with its yellow Sternbergia lutea, one of the finest autumn-flowering bulbs backed by a white aster.

The ponds are always a favourite destination before climbing back up the hill at Chanticleer. This one features a ledge waterfall. I believe the gold shrub is Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Filifera Aurea Nana’.

This pond hosts the white water lily Nymphaea ‘Pöstlingberg’.

Marginal aquatic plants enjoy the edges of the ponds. The white-flowered plant below is Echinodorus bracteatus ‘Lantau Lady’, aka Amazon sword.

The big koi always look a little hungry, though they are certainly well-fed! But a little begging can’t hurt, right?

But look what surprise awaited me at one of the ponds! This handsome great blue heron might have dreamt of koi but the most he managed to catch was a frog, or so I learned later. And did you know there’s an aquatic version of rattlesnake master? It’s marsh rattlesnake master Eryngium aquaticum, an American native whose habitat includes bogs, swamps and marshes. Another name is bitter snakeroot, reflecting its use by Native Americans to treat snakebites. Its spiky inflorescences start out blue, then fade to whitish-gray.

The heron seemed relatively unafraid of the visitors and moved around the pond while posing nicely, so I gave it a little more than its 15 photographic minutes of fame.

The waterlily in the heron pond is Nymphaea ‘Texas Dawn’.

I climbed the hill toward the other gardens past the Rock Ledge – a garden that shines in late spring but looked relaxed and lovely in late summer. The Japanese maple is Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’.

My eye caught movement in the sumptuous, blue closed bottle gentians (Gentiana andrewsii) and I stopped to watch bumble bees working feverishly to access the nectar inside.

I was delighted to find Joe Henderson, the horticulturist in charge of Chanticleer’s ponds. He’s a 25-year veteran of the garden, something so vital for continuity and creativity. And I realized, while chatting with him, that I’d actually visited his personal garden on a tour long ago. Since Chanticleer had rolled out the welcome mat for the Garden Bloggers Fling, with food stations, cocktails and even a musical tent with a great band, we were fortunate to meet many of the gardeners, who were there to greet us…..

…. sometimes even acting as bartenders, like Andrew Wiley, below, who benefited this year from The Chanticleer USA Christopher Lloyd Scholarship, an exchange conceived in order to provide a gardener from the United States with a year-long, practical education in the traditional style of ornamental gardening as practised at two of the world’s most respected gardens, Great Dixter in East Sussex, England, and Chanticleer. I visited Great Dixter in early June and blogged about that fabulous garden, but missed seeing Andrew.

I’m going to leave the Gravel Garden, my friend Lisa Roper’s horticultural hillside domain, until Part 2 of this blog, but let’s take a peek into the Ruin Garden at the top of hill beyond some of Lisa’s treasures. This intriguing garden was built on the foundation of Minder House (1925), originally next door to Chanticleer but acquired by Adolph Rosengarten, Sr. as a 1933 wedding gift for his son Adolph Rosengarten, Jr and his wife Janet. Nine years after the death of Adolph Jr. in 1990, Minder House was razed and under Chanticleer’s former director, Chris Woods, it was rebuilt as an evocative ruin of three-stone-walled ‘rooms’ that capture its spirit. The wall below is the entrance to the “library”.

Moving around the corner of the Ruin, we see the lemon-yellow Mohr’s rosinweed (Silphium mohrii), a native that’s become very popular recently since it does not have the aggressive tendencies of its cousins.

Let’s go into the Pool Room – with its interesting pool and fountain.

Draw a little closer and you see California sculptor Marcia Donahue’s intriguing, floating faces and the pool’s stone wall decked with beautiful Parthenocissus henryana.

Then there’s the “pool table”….

…..its surface bearing just enough water to perfectly reflect the….

….five varieties of Tillandsia in the mantle arrangement.

And with that, I will pause our tour until Part 2, featuring the Gravel Garden, Minder Woods and Chanticleer House with its flowery lawn. Stay tuned.

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More Chanticleer blogs:

Touring Chanticleer – June 2014 – Part 1 and Part 2

May at Chanticleer – May 2022 – Part 1 and Part 2

Touring Chanticleer – Part 1

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Janet

Of all the public gardens I’ve visited around the world (and that list is very long), there is one that rises gracefully above all the rest. Not for the property, though this Pennsylvania estate is second to none. Not for the labels and signage, because there aren’t any (more on that later). And not for the gift shop, because this garden doesn’t need one; it is a gift in itself. There is no Victorian carpet bedding, no rows of annuals being trialled, no visitor’s tram, no snack bar. There are simply extraordinarily creative plantings, superbly rendered designs, intellectual interpretations of the landscape’s unique sense of place, and excellence all round. This is Chanticleer Garden, located in the hamlet of Wayne in Radnor Township, a half-hour drive from Philadelphia.

Earlier this June, I spent a charmed day wandering the hills and rills and valleys of Chanticleer. I brought a lunch from my hotel, but hours later had to remind myself to sit down in one of the many colourful chairs to eat it, so worried was I that I might miss a garden or two before I had to leave.

Chanticleer was originally the 1913 country home of Adolph G. Rosengarten Sr. (b.1870), whose grandfather George, the 21-year old scion of a German banking family, had founded a successful chemical business in Philadelphia in 1823 that produced, among other products, the anti-malarial drug quinine. Though not on the vast scale of Longwood, the home and garden another wealthy chemical magnate, Pierre Du Pont, had built 6 years earlier in nearby Wilmington, Delaware, Chanticleer took its place as one of the fabled mansions along the Main Line rail route, where Philadelphia society went to escape the summer heat. Perhaps reflecting his sizable investment, Adolph Sr. named his new home after the fictional Chanteclere from the William Makepeace Thackeray novel The Newcomes, a grand house that was “mortgaged up to the very castle windows”. In French, Chanticleer means rooster, and that literary allusion is seen in the many original rooster statues and motifs around the estate, left, and also in the rooster combs in California sculptor Marcia Donahue’s playfully suggestive ceramic bamboo culms.

In 1927, the year that the Rosengartens merged their company with Merck & Co., Adolph Sr., with his wife Christine, son Adolph Jr. (b.1906) and daughter Emily (b.1910), made Chanticleer their full-time residence. In time he built houses for both children as wedding gifts and it is at Emily’s house near the gate (now the garden’s administrative building) where my tour begins.

In the kitchen courtyard that acts as an entrance to the garden is a collection of beautifully planted containers

Pass through the gate from the kitchen courtyard and you reach the charming Teacup Garden, a courtyard centred by a formal parterre set around the cup-shaped, Italianate fountain that gives the space its name. Gardener Dan Benarcik, who oversees the Teacup and the Tennis Garden below the house, has described the feeling he wants to convey here as “lush formal”, maintaining the geometry of formal design but using lush tropical plants in the beds and containers. Though it’s early in the season for these summer heat-lovers, you can appreciate the brilliant foliage choices, including the gold-toned bromeliad Aechmea blanchetiana and the ‘Black Coral’ taros (Alocasia). Formality is emphasized with the four standard silver willows (Salix alba ‘Sericea’) in the corners.

At the other end of the house, windmill palms (Trachycarpus fortunei) in gorgeous glazed pots stand sentinel in front of French doors. The smaller pots contain golden scheffleras (S. actinophylla ‘Amate Soleil’). At right is a split-leaf philodendron (P. selloum ‘Hope’).

Now let’s head around Emily’s house to the front so we can make our way down to the gardens below. Gaze up as you head for the stairs: those brilliant chartreuse boughs of the ‘Frisia’ black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) will give you a little clue as to the delicious colour sensibilities ahead.

On the sweep of lawn flanking the long borders sit a pair of purple chairs under a huge jack oak tree (Quercus alba x Q. montana). Colourful chairs are a staple at Chanticleer; set in the most picturesque places, they provide a little rest while offering a good photo opportunity.

The long borders feature a purple-blue-yellow-gold colour theme, seen below in combinations using variegated ‘Axminster Gold’ comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum) with yellow phlomis (P. russeliana) on the left; at right is Allium cristophii with ‘Gigantea’ rusty foxglove (Digitalis ferruginea), blue Italian alkanet (Anchusa azurea) and phlomis in the background. The long borders and parking lot gardens are overseen by gardener Doug Croft, who greets me later and helps with a few plant id’s.

What was once the staircase leading to the tennis court in the Rosengartens’ time is now a dramatic, sedum-topped entrance to the Tennis Court Garden. Perhaps the best description of what lies ahead is “formal but informal”, with five flower beds planted in a profuse mix of perennials, bulbs and shrubs.

The colours in the Tennis Court Garden in June are predominantly pink, purple, yellow and chartreuse, the latter seen in the ‘Ogon’ spirea (Spiraea thunbergii) in the middle and the ‘Hearts of Gold‘ redbud (Cercis canadensis) at left. You also see the luscious Itoh hybrid peony ‘Bartzella’ and a few spikes of the popular salmon-orange ‘Illumination Flame’ foxglove (Digiplexis). In the background, ‘New Dawn’ and ‘Dr. Van Fleet’ climbing roses wreath the attractive pergola.

Coppicing (cutting back each spring) is used at Chanticleer in order to harness certain trees for their attractive foliage while maintaining them at a shrubby border size, such as the large-leafed princess tree (Paulonia tomentosa) seen here. Beyond is the brilliant foliage of Cercis canadensis ‘Hearts of Gold’. Also shown are ‘Caradonna’ meadow sage (Salvia nemorosa) and an allium (likely ‘Ambassador’).

Simple combinations can be very striking, especially using bulbs like the summer alliums, which offer a big hit of spherical purple, against a shrub like the Magic Carpet spirea (Spiraea x bumbalda ‘Walbuma’).

Comfy, foldable chairs sit in front of the rock wall behind the Tennis Court Garden. Here, the yellow-blue scheme continues the colour theme of the long borders nearby. Yellow fumitory (Corydalis lutea) and goldenmoss stonecrop (Sedum acre) predominate here, along with various blue or purple campanulas, centaureas and perennial geraniums.

At the bottom of the hill just before the woods is the enchanting Cut Flower Garden with its rebar-grapevine arches festooned with clematis (red ‘Niobe’ is shown). The arches provide structure throughout the year and draw the eye through the four quadrants overflowing with a riotous mix of annuals, bulbs and perennials meant to evoke an old-fashioned cottage garden. Though the annuals will hit their stride with summer’s heat, here we see some of the June cast of characters: biennial purple sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis), ‘Filigran’ oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) and peach ‘Spring Valley Hybrids’ foxtail lilies (Eremurus).

Rich-purple ‘Sarastro’ bellflower (Campanula) is joined by the zingy pink orbs of ‘Fireworks’ gomphrena and orange calendula.

Below, Emma Seniuk, the gardener for the cut flower and vegetable gardens, works with David Mattern to build a sturdy structure she calls the “cantaloupe tree”. All the gardeners at Chanticleer are encouraged to create the furnishings, accessories and even bridges for the gardens in their charge. Emma also spent 18 months in a student placement at England’s Great Dixter Garden, benefiting from a special scholarship in the name of Great Dixter’s renowned founder (and superlative flower gardener), the late Christopher Lloyd.

Here is the charming vegetable garden, surrounded by its rustic paling fence.

With its quadrants separated by paths, the garden suggests a French potager but the vegetables are planted within them in very American-style rows. Some of the harvest is used by the garden, but much is donated to those in need.

Now we are heading into Chanticleer’s newest “garden”, Bell’s Woodland. Opened in spring 2012 and planted with wildflowers, rhododendrons, redbuds and other shade-lovers under the mature native forest canopy, it is still being developed but offers a shady, naturalistic contrast to many of the Chanticleer’s other gardens. Don’t you love this fabulous “fallen tree” entrance fabricated by the Bell’s Woodland gardener Przemyslaw Walczak!

Bell’s Woodland celebrates plants of the Eastern North American forest and features mature natives like this American beech (Fagus grandifolia) with its boughs overhanging the path. The path, incidentally, is comprised partly of recycled shredded tires.

Towering tulip poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera) are a feature of the woods.

And, of course, chairs are set around so visitors can enjoy the peaceful surroundings….

….interrupted only by the song of birds.

Though the vast majority of plants here are native, a lovely collection of clematis has been established to add a little color to the pathways. The pink-flowered plants adjacent to the path are Phlox ovata.

The woods are cut through by a creek called Bell’s Run. At one time, this old water wheel pumped water from the creek to the Rosengartens’ swimming pool up the hill. The white-flowered tree is Chinese dogwood (Cornus kousa).

A chair under a black walnut tree (Juglans nigra) overlooks Bell’s Run creek.

Orange globe flower (Trollius spp.) pairs with a pink meadow phlox along the path.

Do you know what this is in the clovers and grasses? I was puzzled by a fern that didn’t seem to be growing yet. That’s because it wasn’t growing. Instead……

….it was an ingenious (and very naturalistic) way to mark the edges of the camassia meadows using the old fertile fronds of ostrich ferns (Matteucia struthiopteris), so the gardeners would know where to mow without cutting down the ripening leaves of the camassia that were in bloom a few weeks earlier.

This massed planting of white astilbe does something quite wonderful when viewed from the other side.

It forms a fluffy white horizontal to catch the eye and backlight the silhouette of the tree.

Here is a small array of ferns from Bell’s Woodland: lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) with kousa dogwood, left; royal fern (Osmunda regalis) with a trillium leaf, top right; and a rain-splashed maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum) at lower right.

We come out of the woods near the old orchard where the daffodil leaves are ripening in the long grasses, and we’ve finished the first half of our tour. If your legs are still working, why not join me for the second half?

Janet Davis Explores Colour

In the garden & the world

Tag Archives: Adolph Rosengarten

Chanticleer Garden in Early Autumn – Part 1

Touring Chanticleer – Part 1

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