Into the Asian Woods at Chanticleer
January 04, 2024 Who says you can’t have colorful flowers in a woodsy shade garden? In Chanticleer’s shady Asian Woods, I spotted this floating bouquet of bright zinnias, dahlias, sunflowers, and hairy balls. Gorgeous! This is Part 5 of my visit to Chanticleer during the Philadelphia Area Fling last September ...
Exploring Chanticleer’s Elevated Walkway, Serpentine, and Bulb Meadow
January 03, 2024 Chanticleer Garden’s rooster theme continues with Marcia Donahue‘s cockscomb-bamboo sculptures, which mark the entrance to the Elevated Walkway garden. This is Part 4 of my visit to Chanticleer during the Philadelphia Area Fling last September. The winding pathway spirals around a big Japanese maple, which was blushing ...
Chanticleer’s dreamy House Garden
January 01, 2024 Happy New Year! Let’s kick off 2024 with another post about glorious Chanticleer Garden, which I visited in late September during the Philadelphia Area Fling. Today I’ll show you the House Garden. Gravel Circle A rooster statue — the symbol of Chanticleer — greets you at the ...
Serving up Chanticleer’s Tennis Court Garden
December 30, 2023 Continuing my coverage of Chanticleer Garden, one of the stops on the Philadelphia Area Fling tour in September, I’m taking us today to the Tennis Court Garden. To enter, you descend a formal stone stair with planted-up handrails. I loved a previous iteration planted with fleshy mangaves ...
Chanticleer Garden is my cup o’ tea
December 29, 2023 The enchanting Chanticleer was worth two visits during September’s Philadelphia Area Fling tour. I flew in early from Texas in order to spend an entire day exploring Chanticleer, knowing I’d see it again for a few hours on Day 2 of the tour. More is more! This ...
Birds and native thorn forest at Quinta Mazatlan
December 19, 2023 In early November, I drove 5 hours south to the Rio Grande Valley, land of citrus orchards and skinny-trunked palm trees. I was there for the final photo shoot for my upcoming book on Texas gardens (due out in 2025 with Timber Press). But I couldn’t leave ...
Paxson Hill garden still gorgeous in the rain
November 21, 2023 On the final day of the Philadelphia Area Fling in late September, we stopped at Paxson Hill Farm in New Hope, Pennsylvania, to tour its marvelous garden behind the nursery. Even though Tropical Storm Ophelia had made garden-touring rather sodden (but still plenty fun!), I knew Paxson ...
Children’s Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum
November 20, 2023 The Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum opened 10 years ago, but somehow I’d never visited until last month. Why? I guess because my kids had outgrown children’s gardens by the time it opened, and so it wasn’t on my radar despite many visits over ...
Stoneleigh native-plant estate garden and Flingers
November 02, 2023 Our banquet dinner at the Philadelphia Area Fling was held in the grand old Tudor Revival mansion at Stoneleigh: A Natural Garden, located in Villanova, Pennsylvania. Before dinner, we were set loose in the garden to explore for an hour. Let’s start with the house garden, where ...
Pumpkin season at the Dallas Arboretum
October 28, 2023 While in Dallas last week I visited the Dallas Arboretum to see their annual pumpkin extravaganza. The last time I’d seen it was pre-Covid. Autumn at the Arboretum I was surprised to find that Autumn at the Arboretum has been relocated from a shady grove near the ...
Behind-the-scenes tour at Longwood Gardens plant-production facility
October 09, 2023 The Philadelphia Area Fling in September officially started with a behind-the-scenes tour at Longwood Gardens. I didn’t know what to expect and was astonished to learn about an army of plant-production staff working at Longwood to grow horticultural displays that wow all year, but especially during big ...
Flamboyant flower borders and containers at Longwood Gardens
October 05, 2023 Longwood Gardens is a showplace of plants designed to wow, and wow it did during the Philadelphia Area Fling tour in late September. Today I’ll show the most crowded — and likely most popular — part of the garden, the Flower Garden Walk and Compartment Gardens. As ...
Into the sunflowers in Longwood’s meadow
October 04, 2023 As I roamed Longwood Gardens during the Philadelphia Area Fling, I was eager to see the Meadow Garden in its late September glory. I set off on the meadow trail in late afternoon, as the light slanted low through golden petals and tawny grasses. I reached the ...
Italian Water Garden, trees, and treehouses at Longwood Gardens
October 02, 2023 One of my favorite picture books from my childhood is Marcia Brown’s Cinderella, which received a Caldecott Medal in 1955 for Brown’s enchanting illustrations. Jeweled ball gowns, romantic palace grounds, fairy godmother magic — it all came to sparkling life on the page. I haven’t paged through ...
Magical children’s garden and plant displays at Longwood’s conservatory
October 01, 2023 This is how happy you feel exploring Longwood Gardens on the first day of the Philadelphia Area Fling, an annual garden tour held in a different city each year for garden bloggers and Instagrammers and others publicly sharing about gardening online. Longwood’s conservatory manager, Karl Gercens, hosted ...
Orchids, silver garden, and living walls at Longwood Gardens conservatory
September 30, 2023 Feathery Acacia leprosa climbing the walls The first time I experienced the over-the-top plant showmanship that is Longwood Gardens was in 2016. I returned last week during the Philadelphia Area Fling, a 3.5-day garden tour hosted by Longwood’s conservatory manager, Karl Gercens. In honor of Karl, I ...
