#gardenwriters Archives - Andrea Whitely Garden Consultant

One balmy Pennsylvania afternoon, last August, I visited my GWA (Association for Garden Communicators) friend, Jenny Rose Carey, in her Philadelphia garden and am sitting here thinking about how beautiful it must be looking right now. Luckily, I took heaps of shots and am so happy to be able to share this very special garden with you.

Many gardeners forget that green is a colour and just how effective green on green can be.

Jenny Rose is all things horticulture, author, educator and historian but first and foremost a brilliant gardener with a great eye and is the Senior Director at The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Meadowbrook Farm in Jenkintown (more on that stunning property later).

A Bit about Northview….

On Jenny Roses’ website, she writes “Northview’s 4½ acre site was originally part of Wilmer and Anna Atkinson’s 1887 100-acre Victorian Model Farm. Some of the trees planted by Mr. Atkinson (the Founder and Editor of the Farm Journal) remain, including a beautiful 150-year-old Japanese maple. The current property includes the original 1887 farmhouse and carriage house.”

I climbed up to the top to enjoy the view

This delightful garden, like many private gardens, I am lucky enough to visit, is a reflection of the gardener who created it, Jenny Rose, it’s an elegant garden that’s for sure. This garden offers both form and function and is so respectful of gardeners who have worked that land. There’s lovely, tasteful pieces of artwork scattered throughout, some whimsy pieces, just for fun, long vistas for the mind to rest and drink in the verdant green lawns and breathe the air around old trees and really experience the many places to sit and just be.

Hydrangeas in full bloom

Step through the gate to see what treasures await

Even the birds get a very cool place to hang out here

You can’t help but breathe deeply as you walk under this canopy

Perfect afternoon light to capture this beauty

I love a good stumpery, look at the beautiful lichen and fungi

Nature has an open invitation to visit this garden

OK, so, I will freely admit that I am a sucker for potting sheds and places where people work behind the scenes (I’m a bit of a sticky beak) in gardens and Jenny Roses’ potting shed is, I think No.1 on my list…it is a thing of beauty in itself, such organization, so many pots, so gorgeous, I could see myself sitting in one of those wicker chairs, looking out over the garden and sipping a hot cuppa…could be my dream Air BNB, in fact!

The Potting Shed..from the outside, but the real magic is on the inside.

for those times when you need to sit outside your lovely shed

I would like to sit here and drink tea, wouldn’t you?

I could sit in that shed for months, looking out at that garden and writing a book…ahh what would I write?…what would I call it? This Philadelphia Life, perhaps……

Jenny Rose and her family generously host visitors to her garden and you can request a visit by contacting her on http://www.jennyrosecarey.com/northview-gardens. It would be a fabulous place to go with a group of like-minded garden-loving pals on a Spring or Summers day.

Thank you, Jenny Rose, for so generously sharing your garden with me.

Over the years, I have had the very great fortune of visiting many really spectacular gardens in many parts of the world but for some reason, there are a few which stay with you, like visiting an old friend, except that you have never met them before and may never pass that way again. I cherish moments like these and will always fondly remember one amazing day…..

Last year, during what I am calling my 2017 Pennsylvania Immersion, following the Garden Writers Association annual conference in Buffalo NY, I was right royally treated with visits to incredible places by my hosts Denise Schreiber (Pittsburgh) and Eva Monheim (Philadelphia).

I was lucky enough to be a guest of the team at Chanticleer Garden. I visited on a stunning, sunny, summers’ day, with fellow GWA members Eva Monheim and Louise Clarke. We were warmly greeted by Bill Thomas, Executive Director & Head Gardener who welcomed us to the garden and put us into the very safe hands of our fellow GWA member, friend and guide-for-the-day Dan Benarcik. Dan knows every inch of this gardeners paradise and generously gave his time to share his wealth of knowledge of this beauteous place. We arrived when the car park was empty (we were the first to arrive) and first in the garden gate. This is always a special kind of moment for those of us writing about gardens because we get to see the gardens “untouched” by the day if you like.

Dan Benarcik, Eva Monheim, Louise Clarke and Me

Chanticleer garden is a 40-acre botanical garden located in Wayne, Pennsylvania about a thirty-minute drive from Philadelphia.

Here’s a little excerpt from Chanticleer’s website which shares the story of the garden.

“The Chanticleer estate dates from the early 20th-century when land along the Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad was developed for summer homes to escape the heat of Philadelphia. Adolph Rosengarten, Sr., and his wife Christine chose the Wayne-St. Davids area to build their country retreat. The family’s pharmaceutical firm would become part of Merck & Company in the 1920s.

The Rosengartens hired an architect and former classmate Charles L. Borie to design the house, which was completed in 1913. Landscape architect Thomas Sears designed the terraces as extensions of the house. A 1924 addition converted the summer home into a year-round residence and the family moved here permanently.

Dreaming of this lawn and a beautiful green vista like this

Mr. Rosengarten’s humor is evident in naming his home after the estate “Chanticlere” in Thackeray’s 1855 novel The Newcomes. The fictional Chanticlere was “mortgaged up to the very castle windows” but “still the show of the county.” Playing on the word, which is synonymous with “rooster,” the Rosengartens used rooster motifs throughout the estate.

Adolph and Christine gave their two children homes as wedding presents. They purchased a neighboring property for son Adolph, Jr. and his bride Janet Newlin in 1933. It is now the site of the Ruin. Daughter Emily’s house, located at today’s visitor entrance, was built for her in 1935. It is presently used for offices and classrooms.

Adolph, Jr., purchased his sister’s portion of the estate following her death in the 1980s. He didn’t move into the main house but used it for entertaining and kept it as it was when the family lived there. The house is open for tours by reservation. Adolph, Jr., left the entire property for the enjoyment and education of the public following his death in 1990. A nine-member Board of Directors, six of whom are Rosengarten relatives, oversees The Chanticleer Foundation. The garden opened to the public in 1993. There is 20 full-time staff, of whom two manage facilities and 14 are gardeners and groundskeepers.”

I have so many photos. How do I select just a few to give you an inkling of the magic of this place?

Lush. green long vistas of lawn. brightly colored Adirondack chairs to sit and rest for a bit and admire Belladonna Lillies or Naked Ladies popping up in the lawn. I have to say we did not rest for a single minute, though, too much to see!

Who wants to come sit here with me and read a book?

…attention to detail, fresh flowers in a bowl of water-so simple yet so beautiful

Vignettes of gorgeousness at every turn. Incredibly innovative container planting and then there is that black dining table set as the centerpiece of the home in ruins with a stunning succulent-filled, grand fireplace.

The dining room in the ruins-what a table!

The stunning water-filled “dining table”

What you can’t see is how gorgeous this is on the inside

Container envy?

This says it all really, this tiny gate takes you through into the vegetable garden

Everything was perfectly executed in this garden, not a single weed, not a single plant that looked tired or ready to be removed from its bed.

At each section of the garden, visitors can find an individually crafted box containing an up-to-date list of plants in that garden bed

In the winter time, some the staff get busy and repurpose wood from the trees that have reached the end of their lives and it is turned into carefully handcrafted seating and decorative pieces which are scattered through the gardens in the following spring. These pieces are art in their own right.

If you ever get the opportunity to visit Chanticleer Gardens, don’t let it pass you by, grab it with both hands. You will need hours to see it all and even then you still will miss things and want to return.

This is a very special part of the world and I am very grateful to have walked those garden paths, in such wonderful company, even just once.

Thanks to Bill Thomas and Dan Benarcik for an unforgettable day.

Tag: #gardenwriters

Northview-Such An Elegant Garden And Oh, What A Shed!

Chanticleer, I’m Dreaming About You!