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. This time, the narrow, sloping rail planter sported a vertical element, feathery dawn redwood saplings, with ‘Snow Flurry’ asters frothing around them. Yes, redwoods in the stair rail! They’re not meant to grow there longer than a season, so why not?
Snowy Japanese anemones were drawing the attention of bumblebees.
Whiskery cleomes added more white against the blushing flower clusters of hydrangeas.
The wider scene
Another pretty vignette with a wedding cake tree
The main path through the garden gets a jolt of drama from paddle-leaved bananas underplanted with golden ‘Ascot Rainbow’ euphorbia. As I mentioned in my last post, I visited Chanticleer twice on this visit: once on my own, before the Fling started, and once in late afternoon with the Fling tour. That’s why you’ll notice differences in the quality of the light in my photos. I’m using images taken during both visits.
Around the bend, variegated giant reed towers over dark-red persicaria.
Beautyberry was purpling up for fall.
Black cohosh (I think) stands out amid dark leaves and grasses in fall flower.
A side path leads to a placid lawn, where inviting Adirondack chairs under a big shade tree overlook the garden below. But for now, we’ll turn away from this pleasant scene and head uphill to the House Garden.
To read about my past visits to Chanticleer’s Tennis Court Garden, follow these links:
Up next: The meadowy House Garden at Chanticleer. For a look back at Chanticleer’s iconic Teacup Garden, click here.
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Hey, Austin-area gardeners, come learn about making a waterwise, Texas-hardy crevice garden! Register for my next Garden Spark talk with Coleson Bruce on January 18th. He’s created one of the most interesting and beautiful xeriscape gardens I’ve seen in Austin. Learn all about it and hang out 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 organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, and authors a few 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 ask to be added. The Season 7 lineup can be found here.
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