... of hammered gold and gold enameling ...

An early August visit to Chanticleer

Chanticleer is like an artist's workshop, an atelier of the decorative arts of garden design. When I uploaded the photos for this post, I found myself recalling lines from one of my freshman year favorites, Yeat's Sailing to Byzantium, thus the title ...

... such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enameling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing ...

Chanticleer's horticulturists and garden designers do indeed use golds, yellows and oranges abundantly. You can imagine their working away during the slow winter months crafting new surprises to stimulate our senses, delight us, give us pleasure. It is, after all, "Chanticleer, a pleasure garden."

At Chanticleer, a plant in a pot of water is not just a plant in a pot of water. It's an aesthetic adventure, rendered thus ...

... and the floating images change each day. The creativity seems endless, and it can leave a first-time visitor literally breathless. I had such an experience on my first visit as I walked the garden in a state of emotional overload. It wasn't an entirely pleasant experience.

The fine workmanship, exquisite detail, the reaching for effect, the seeking ever after the new, the not-done-before is like no other garden I've known.

A pomegranate tree with blossom and fruit evokes other geographies, cultures and times. This is in the courtyard behind the smaller of the two residences at Chanticleer, and the garden is called The Teacup Garden. This particular tree, and the courtyard setting, suggest many things to different people I'm sure. But on this day, for me it was an Islamic garden in Spain in the Middle Ages ... but with a difference ... a restless imagination always at work ...

Step through a doorway in a wall and you're in a formal grove of bananas, of all things, lined up in rigid geometry. Bananas in profusion in the environs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania! The Teacup garden planting changes every year, even from spring to summer, so you never know what to expect. This banana plantation certainly came as a surprise, almost like a slap across the face (just to get attention).

Here is the same scene back in April. Quite a transformation ...

Take a look for yourself. I'll keep words to a minimum, just naming the separate gardens, and commenting here and there.

Everything in the garden is decorative, leading to the question:  Can a garden offer too much?

One of many intimate seating areas, this in the transition from The Teacup Garden to The Tennis Court Garden.

Tapestry-like ground covers at the top of the stairway leading into the Tennis Court Garden below ...

... which was rather stunning on this visit ... in hot colors on a very hot and humid day ...

You can see from the number of photos that this is one of my favorite gardens at Chanticleer. It really epitomizes the risks the resident designers are willing--and able--to take. At times, it can look a mess, but this day it was an exercise in brilliance, a tour de force, teeming with unexpected juxtapositions of color, form, texture.

Chanticleer, the garden's eponymous icon, marks the entry to Chanticleer House and terraces.

View of the distant Pond Garden from the Chanticleer House terrace ...

... and of the Serpentine, always planted with a crop plant--this year sorghum.

An explosively decorative shrub ...

Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) 'Fenway Park'. At least I think it is. This leaf has a crinkled texture and substance that's different from other Fenway Park cultivars I've seen, so I'm wondering if Chanticleer has acquired a superior cultivar.

... though the main house terrace was surprisingly subdued this summer, it still has a tropical look I've come to expect at Chanticleer.

The main walk ... plenty of color here ... and a stunning golden form of Ficus lyrata in planters ... that striving for effect, to delight you and me ... and, as usual, done successfully ...

The Serpentine up close ...

... a beautiful, large-scale landscape feature whose openness contrasts dramatically with the shade and darkness of the Asian Woods to come next, then the Pond Garden ...

Seed of Paeonia obovata (I believe) at the edge of the Asian Woods.

I don't know this plant, but it's certainly striking.

Lotus in the Pond Garden ...

Azaleas blooming (in August) on the walk through Bell's Woodland, which features plants of the eastern North American forest ...

The Ruin Garden ... where you'd expect a somber mood but instead find imaginative playfulness. Here huge stone acorns under small oaks, even an oak seedling ...

On the right, large stone slabs carved with veins like leaves ...

A decorative floral "mantlepiece" ...

A group of Ilex 'Skypencil' I refer to jokingly as The Holy Family (no, the metaphor doesn't fit) ...

A fountain with marble faces ... I find it rather macabre ...

A fountain of sedum pouring out of a rock column ...

Chanticleer is a garden with a sense of humor. This is an American living room, with sofa and easy chairs of stone, even a stone TV remote decorated with buttons of colored stones ...

The Vegetable and Cut Flower Garden ...

... leading to an enclosed Potager ...