When we arrived at Chanticleer, the day after the Perennial Plant Conference, I suggested that Tovah and Maude use the facilities and asked them produce evidence (Tovah's photo above) that Chanticleer's ladies lavatory was just as impressive (marble counter tops, lovely tile work and, of course, a vase of fresh flowers from the garden) as the men's room. I was happy to learn that Chanticleer did not discriminate on the basis of gender.
We had a wonderful tour of the gardens on a perfect October morning led by Bill Thomas, Executive Director and Head Gardener of Chanticleer. Like New Hampshire, Pennsylvania had a hard frost about a week earlier. The staff had a done miraculous job covering the tender plants and you would have never known that the thermometer dropped below freezing.
A stand of Musa ‘Thai Black’ at the Teacup Garden
Hand made iron stairway railing
The stairway at the Chanticleer House
A planter of Agave attenuata, Calathea roseopicta, Melanthus major and Pelargonium sidoides overflowing with Senecio radicans
Tovah is curious about this plant
Maude took this shot of Tovah conferring with Bill Thomas about the plant ID
The Rill Garden with pots of Aechmea ‘Dean’ and Dichondra argentea
Another beautiful shot by Maude through the limbed up branches of Lagerstroemia 'Tonto' in the Rill Garden
The bright orange flowers of Leonotis leonurus
Vitex trifolia 'Purpurea' in the West Bed at Chanticleer House
Soft clouds of pink Muhlenbergia capillaris at the Gravel Garden
A bench in the Minder Woods
The Ruin Garden
Quercus alba trained up a pillar at the Ruin Garden
Oak Leaf Water Fountain
Red Dwarf Grain Sorghum winds its way through the Serpentine Garden
Close up of Sorghum
The New Bell's Wood Bridge to the American Woodland looked like a giant submarine...
...was actually a fallen beech tree.
Gardeners come in all sizes.
Thanks to Maude Odgers and Tovah Martin for some of the photographs for this post.
