January 1, 2024
Happy New Year! Let’s start 2024 with another post about the magnificent Chanticleer Gardens, which I visited in late September during the Philadelphia Area Fling. Today I will show you the House Garden.
Gravel Circle
A statue of a rooster — the symbol of Chanticleer — greets you outside amid pink roses and hardy begonias.
Gravel circles in the front yard swirl around tall containerized bananas.
The distinctive Chanticleer chairs offer a place to sit and drink it all.
Starseed
Overlook
Rounding the house, you get the view of golden furcraea and ‘Ascot Rainbow’ euphorbia amid purple flowers and silver foliage.
Pretty leaves
Gardeners at Chanticleer arrange flowers and foliage in watering cans throughout the garden, to everyone’s delight. I imagine them as little elves, running around every day before opening, ripping and collecting and arranging.
It’s a nice thing to come across while exploring.
Sunny veranda
The sun house’s porch draws you in with striking pots of ferns and other plants, plus sturdy rocking chairs (just out of sight).
West Bed
There is so much to see in the main garden behind the house, including a long terrace full of beautiful container plants. Here’s one with stained glass collocations.
Behind him, Dr. The Seussian West Bed with striking umbrella trees and black-leaved cannas caught my eye.
This combination – with ruffled leaves and a long neck – is delightfully silly to my eyes.
Cannas resembling a flock of exotic birds
A mysterious little figure carrying candles
Flowery Lawn
I call it a meadow. Chanticleer calls it the Flower Lawn. Whatever you call it, it’s a bold departure from the ho-hum (but useful for gatherings?) croquet lawn at the other end of the house.
Tall, transparent flowers look spectacular in contrast to the formality of the space. The pool and two pool houses are just beyond.
Romantic and pollinator banquet
Gravel terrace
Between the meadow and the swimming pool there is a stone path and a pebble garden terrace.
A beautifully crafted stair railing includes ferns and cobwebs in its design.
A meadow on the left, and at the end bananas and a wavy hedge
On the right, a soft pink rose points toward one of the copper-roofed pool houses.
A pair of roosters mark the steps to the pool.
Swimming pool
The pool is fenced off for visitors, but can still be viewed.
Vision in green
A suitable house with a pool at the other end.
Reflecting pool
Parallel to the pool, tucked away against the retaining wall, the reflecting pool offers a cool, watery echo.
Wall fountains trickle at each end beneath fringed palms.
I love the details of the cut flowers and grass in the small fountain sculpture.
Looking up at the big house, you spot another poet having a blast.
Tropical foliage on the back patio
Terrace
A stone table and green chairs offer a place to enjoy the meadow garden and peaked-roof pool houses beyond.
I love this space.
These are my early companions, Diana Kirby and Laura Wills, with whom I spent the day at Chanticleer before the Fling tour began. Diana and Laura co-hosted the 2018 Austin Fling with me.
Chanticleer dinner
We returned during Day 2 of the Fling, and Chanticleer treated us all to dinner, a band and dancing at the end of the afternoon. What a treat! Here are a few of my fellow Flingers enjoying the House Garden, including Garden Rant’s Elizabeth Licata, from Buffalo, New York. Elizabeth has been Flinging since her first in Austin in 2008. She also co-hosted the 2010 Buffalo Fling.
Loree Bohl of Danger Garden in Portland, Oregon also did research here. Loree co-hosted the 2014 Portland Fling.
I posed with Loree in front of the canas — what a perfect echo of my pink blouse!
I ran into Gretchen McNaughton from Bailey Nurseries and Kathleen Hennessy (also hot pink), both from Minnesota. Kathleen co-hosted the 2016 Minneapolis Fling.
And here’s Anneliese Valdes and Andy Young from Fling sponsor CobraHead, from Madison, Wisconsin. Anneliese co-hosted the Fling – heroically, after a two-year Covid delay – in Madison 2022. She also came to that first Austin Fling in 2008.
Here’s Danniel Ward-Packard (right) of Obsessed Midwest Gardener, back for her second Fling (and posing with a friendly non-Flinging visitor). I never saw Danniel without a big, happy smile on her face, not even during Tropical Storm Ophelia, which shut down the final days of the Fling.
But on this afternoon in Chanticleer, the weather – and the garden – were perfect.
Next: Elevated Walkway, Serpentine and Bulb Meadow Gardens at Chanticleer. For a review of Chanticleer’s Tennis Court Garden, click here.
To read about my past visits to Chanticleer’s House Garden, follow these links:
I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave it. If you read email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward you this email and you want to subscribe? Click here to have Digging delivered straight to your inbox!
__________________________
Digging Deeper
Hey Austin area gardeners, come learn how to make a water resistant and Texas crack garden! Register for my next Garden Spark conversation with Coleson Bruce on January 18th. He created one of the most interesting and beautiful xeriscape gardens I have seen in Austin. Learn all about it and mingle with fellow gardeners who are interested in good design. Hope to see you there!
Come learn about garden design from the experts at Garden Spark! I host in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors several times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and request to be added. You can find the Season 7 lineup here.
All material © 2024 Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.