A GARDEN TO VISIT AT YOUR PLEASURE

The time to visit Chanticleer Garden ( Wayne, Pa. ) is today or tomorrow or any time before the end of October; or after April 1, 2008; or on August 18th, when Easy Gardener journeyed through gagging traffic (the last weekend before school starts!) with other plantoholics for her 8th visit to this 'pleasure garden'.

This is a must-see garden or, rather, a series of gardens, set on the grounds of a beautiful estate once owned by Adolph Rosengarten, Jr. In the mid-70's Mr. Rosengarten, then in his late sixties, concerned himself with the future of his home after his death. Legal papers were drawn forming the Chanticleer Charitable Trust and the Chanticleer Foundation. The Trust preserves the property and manages the endowment. The Foundation is an independent, nonprofit corporation that provides the framework to develop and maintain the now 31-acre estate as a pleasure garden, open to the public since 1993.

In the 1980's, the Executive Director/Chief Horticulturist, Christopher Woods, worked on the move from preservation of open space to aesthetic wonder. And trust me, it is.

The entrance courtyard, the Tropical Teacup Garden, is a seemingly chaotic opera of scents, sounds, colors and textures. Surrounding a small, Italianate fountain, seasonally ephemeral plants, native to the subtropics and tropics and well adapted to the sweating heat of a Pennsylvania summer, crowd the courtyard.

Here are bananas overshadowing elephant ears growing through a century-plant bordered by pineapple lilies. Tropical gingers with sweet perfume are in danger of being overrun by a climber with fat passion flowers.

If it seems chaotic, it is only meant to appear so. Everything is orchestrated to almost overwhelm you with the diversity and beauty of these plants. Colors are carefully coordinated. Velvet purple flowers of glory bush enrich the chartreuse-yellow of the sweet potato vine, while maroon and burgundy foliage create a darker tone.

Containers are everywhere, some with luscious tropical plants, others with more delicate finery. On a hot Summer afternoon, all through the courtyard is the sound of water, and the whrrr of hummingbird wings.

There is something for everyone. Near-drunk with the beauty, we stagger on, past the Tennis Court Gardens, to linger in the Terrace Gardens, stopped in our tracks by the dramatically tall CERAMIC bamboo (never invasive!); beside the old Apple House, then down the long hill with the vista over to the huge border of Russian Sage and Agastache; down to the shade of the Asian Woods , then back into the sun and the gentle ramble through the Pond Gardens (wear your Tevas and wade); up to the Ruins and Gravel Garden, and on to the Cut Flower and Vegetable Gardens, before arriving at the Parking Lot Gardens.

Chris Woods has moved on, but his humor abounds. From the Terrace Garden, one looks across 'Postcard Tuscany': scrolls of wheat punctuated with red cedars posing as Italian cypress.

The Ruins, repository of huge reference books, carved of stone.
Stone faces peer up at you from the bottom of a dining table, faces and table-top flooded with shallow water. Or the comfortable love-seat, with a remote control on one arm, over-looking the Gravel Garden and down to the Pond Gardens. Love-seat and remote are made of stone on a concrete base.

'Many pubic gardens today are dull; not enough imagination; no joy; and not enough plants. Chanticleer is an English garden on hormones.
Beauty without bureaucracy. And no stiff upper Tulips, either.'

He goes on: 'Garden-making is fundamentally not an intellectual enterprise. Most people come to gardens to experience some form of beauty. Here at Chanticleer, we ask you: 'How do you feel about it, not what do you think about it?'

You will not see a single plant label (how frustrating can that be?), but one is wise to remember Chris Woods' dictum that a visit to Chanticleer is to immerse yourself in a pleasure garden; and one should not be distracted from that lofty pursuit worrying about what plant is next to what shrub.

Besides, the generous endowment allows for a superb website, and plant lists galore (nearly 100 pages).

Chanticleer Gardens are open April through October, Wednesday through Saturday, 10 - 5, and until 8 pm on Friday in June, July and August. www.chanticleergarden.org. 610/687-4163

Pat Howell is a Takoma Park gardener and landscape designer/contractor. She is available for hand-holding and answering questions through Deephaven Landscapers.