You’d expect a garden surrounding an estate house to be formal, restrained, with neat lawns and containers that serve to frame the grand structure. The house garden at Chanticleer, a Pennsylvania “pleasure garden” I visited during my East Coast road trip last October, upends this convention through exuberant plantings that make flora, not architecture, the main attraction.

The big house in the background becomes almost an afterthought. That’s especially true when you come across the colorful meadow — formerly a “turf panel that once necessitated constant maintenance to keep it sharp” — awash with flowering lantana, salvia, and verbena. A pollinator-friendly, ever-changing meadow instead of a clipped, tidy lawn? Yes, please!

Let’s start our tour of the house garden at the other end, though, where a porch layered with potted plants offers a shady place to enjoy the view.

The open-air porch

A romantic vignette around the fireplace. I like the blue ceiling too.

Around the corner, on a long terrace parallel to the house, a lush display of potted plants draws you in.

And in and in, past palms, lion’s tail, and crape myrtle.

At the end, a variegated agave caught my eye.

But you can’t just charge ahead. There’s too much to look at along the way.

Just feast your eyes.

A hidden chair tucked amid golden barrel cactus, aloes, and lion’s tail

The bizarre flower of golden lotus banana (Ensete lasiocarpum)

Across a small lawn you see a golden border backed by a dark hedge. We’ll come back this way.

The long walk widens into a patio, where pairs of blue Adirondacks overlook the meadow garden.

Imagine if more people felt emboldened to do this in their own front or back yards, instead of lawn. The mown strip of grass and stone edging around the perimeter make a green mat and frame for this pretty picture.

Pensive garden statuary. Perhaps she’s pondering, Will my HOA approve?

Behind the blue Adirondacks, a narrow rill trickles past. Twiggy lattice softens the wall and obscures a gate.

The rill is fed by a lion’s head wall fountain enlaced by a jungle of trailing and ferny plants.

Red foliage and flowers add sizzle.

There’s that agave, tucked behind a garden figure.

Velvety ‘Robert Fleming’ hibiscus echoes other reds in this bed.

Across the meadow in the swimming pool garden, a stone rooster crows for the dawn. Chanticleer is another word for rooster, after all. The verdigris roof of the pool house is echoed by blue-green foliage.

But back to that grassy, flowery meadow, with waves of red lantana and purple verbena and salvia.

A long view, with the blue Adirondacks and rill on the opposite side. Looking to the right…

…you see two pool houses with turreted copper roofs bookending the swimming pool.

A rusty Japanese maple makes a silvery potted plant in front of it pop.

A couple of steps offers the opportunity for a creative handrail. This one has ferns and toadstools at its base and a spiderweb at the top.

The golden border runs ahead — a strip of living sunshine punctuated by dark-green vertical trees.

Another semi-secret seating area waits to be discovered near the steps.

In this golden bower you find a chair and vessel of water adorned with floating flowers and leaves.

Beautifully arranged!

A wider view

Furcraea foetida ‘Mediopicta’ adds agave-like form and more golden color in pots along the walk.

Elevating plants in tall pots or atop pedestals engages the eye in a narrow border.

Just as I snapped this photo, a yellow leaf fell from a tree to join its sisters on the lawn — captured in midair.

The croquet lawn and house terrace

One last scene from the house garden: the unusual purple flowers and orange-spined leaves of naranjilla (Solanum quitoense), with a pool house in the distance.

Up next: The Elevated Walkway, Serpentine, bulb meadow, Asian Woods, and pond garden at Chanticleer. For a look back at Chanticleer’s theatrical Teacup Garden and Tennis Court Garden, click here.

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Digging Deeper

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