Chanticleer: A Pleasure Garden

Introduction: The Meaning of Chanticleer

| 1 This book took me from my home in Alexandria, Virginia, to Chanticleer Garden on Philadelphia’s Main Line many times over two growing seasons. I had known the garden since 2000 and sensed then that the dynamics at play were producing a place quite unlike any other I had seen in twenty-five years of garden writing. So when I returned repeatedly for this project, I rejoiced at the prospect of getting to know Chanticleer Garden far more deeply, not just in its horticultural topography, but in the way that it changed from month to month, even week to week. That sounds too passive—it changes because of the endless toil| 1| I N T R O D U C T I O N | The Meaning of Chanticleer and imagination of some exceedingly talented horticulturists under the direction of Bill Thomas, a plantsman, designer , and manager of the highest standards and expectations . Together they have created a magical landscape of invention and reinvention. For me as an observer, there were moments of sheer bliss, unexpectedly in the pale drizzle of early spring, when the magnolias and cherry trees sparkled far off through the mist. And what business had the exotic echiums blooming in April and May in the shivering rain? There were a few laughs, too, notably when a gentleman came to the Sunken and winding Bell’s Run is given elevation in late April and early May, when thousands of camassias form a corresponding stream. 2 | in tro d u ctio n on the ground may often be charged with implementing planting schemes and designs not of their making. The culture at Chanticleer is quite the opposite. To extend the performance metaphor, at Chanticleer the seven horticulturists and craftsman are the artists under the direction of Thomas (and, on a strategic level, the garden ’s board of directors). The ideas are generated from the bottom up, to be considered, guided, perhaps modified or even rejected, by Thomas. Major projects go to the board for approval and funding. This approach is only feasible, of course, if you have a select band of gardeners. “They have to perform well, but it’s almost effortless to them because they do it so well,” said Thomas. The pressure is on, constantly , and yet, he says, “I don’t think they feel it. But they know they have to do a great job. We can’t settle for good.” One of Thomas’s other accomplishments is the purchase of a ten-acre tract to protect the view across Church Road. It otherwise would have held a large house as part of the subdivision of what was once the eight-hundredacre estate of Ardrossan, the opulent home of Helen Hope Montgomery Scott (1904–1995). She was the glamorous Main Line heiress who was the model for Tracy Lord in entrance kiosk and asked to be directed to “the flowers.” There were flowers all about, and blooms add vital interest to the experience, but Chanticleer isn’t about flowers alone; it’s about plants, plants on their stage. It’s music, it’s ballet, it’s cinema. It’s the garden as an art form, and in the twenty years of active garden making here, Chanticleer has developed an international reputation among those in the know as one of the most theatrical gardens in the United States. But it’s a refined theater; the horticulture is inherently sophisticated, and for those who need to know the plants they are viewing it can be a challenging one, too. Chanticleer is smaller than many other horticultural institutions, and the multilayering of the spaces, the plantings , and the design elements give it a heady intensity. But it’s not just the density of the plantings. The institutional culture here is different from other places, in part because of Chanticleer’s size but also because of the unorthodox ethos established by the first executive director, Chris Woods, and enriched further by Bill Thomas. Large public gardens tend to be conservative, averse to risks, and in these places new garden installations are the product of many layers of deliberation and approval. The gardeners the meaning of cha nt i c le e r | 3 The Philadelphia Story, played in its original Broadway run, as well as in the 1940 film version, by Katharine Hepburn. The garden occupies thirty-five of Chanticleer’s amassed forty-seven acres in a...