You guys... I visited Chanticleer! And Longwood, and David Culp's Brandywine Cottage, and Andrew Bunting's Belvidere, and Paxson Hill Farm, and Terrain at Styer's, and the Morris Arboretum, and, and, and...wow. All told I have 17 gardens to write about; Philadelphia truly earns the nickname America's Garden Capital.
It had been four years since my last "Fling"—2019 in the Denver, Colorado area. COVID meant no Fling in 2020 and 2021, then I missed 2022's Fling in Madison, Wisconsin. This year's Philly-area event was an epic re-entry into touring gardens with nearly 100 of my closest friends. The Fling used to be open to only garden bloggers, but now anyone with a garden-focused social media presence can attend. This year's tour was organized by Longwood Gardens Conservatory Manager Karl Gercens, if you don't already follow power-house garden traveler Karl then you need to start right now; here or here. Karl loves plants!
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Andrew and I arrived in Philly early, a couple of days before the Fling got underway. Our first day on the ground included a stop at Wolff's Apple House. We'd been to the local Ace Hardware so Andrew could buy a fishing license and now he needed a bamboo pole to use as a wading staff. Lucky for him I'm always scanning for plant buying opportunities and had spotted Wolf's as we zoomed past. That's where I saw my first Pennsylvania agave (there would be many more)...
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...and where I went into mum-overload (kind of like a kid's Halloween candy sugar-high). So many mums!![]()
It's also where discovered that hairy balls (Gomphocarpus physocarpus) grow fabulously in the Philly area...
They even show up in the floating arrangements at Chanticleer...
Speaking of Chanticleer; we were there during the Fling proper for a 3-hour visit which included a lovely after-hours dinner party—it was marvelous! I also spent an entire day there pre-Fling. When your expectations are sky-high there is always the possibility of disappointment. The ruin garden for example, it could have seriously veered into the cheesy, but it did not. I was not disappointed, it was just as good as I'd hoped. I'll have future blog posts but thought I'd share a couple short videos I took, they aren't great since the light is so contrasty, and I'm not a professional, but c'est la vie. They both include artwork by Marcia Donahue who was an artist in residence at Chanticleer some years back.
I also took a few videos in the—AMAZING—fernery at the Morris Arboretum. This wasn't part of the official Fling itinerary, I visited on my own—there will definitely be more photos in a future post!
What else? Well Pennsylvania is green. Very very green, and there is so much lawn! Lawn everywhere, I was stunned. Keeping that lawn well watered, Tropical Storm Ophelia dumped buckets of rain during the Fling weekend, I felt so bad for our garden hosts but everyone carried on. Here's part of the gang in David Culp's garden...
Even our offical Fling group photo was taken in the rain at Scott Arboretum (I'm two heads above Karl dead-center, if you're curious)...
After the Fling wrapped up, before flying home, Andrew and I spent a couple hours in downtown Philly where we crossed Liberty Bell viewing off the list.
I'd spotted a green wall display in Franklin Park as we drove past, if it was real (hard to tell from the car) I was going to be impressed, so we walked down to check it out. Nope, not real—very not real.
Franklin Square did provide a bookend to the famous
Longwood Gardens Illuminated Fountain Performance, which we Fling attendees viewed on Thursday evening. The Longwood event was classy, jets of water dancing to an orchestral accompaniment. There was also fire and lots of colorful lighting, although this was the only photo I managed to take.
The Franklin Square performance, well, ya gotta laugh. I'm not sure what the flamingos have to do with it all but the music seemed inevitable...
That's it for now. I'm honestly a little overwhelmed at how much garden goodness I have to share, plus I haven't even posted most of the gardens I toured during the Vancouver Hardy Plant Group Study Weekend in June. Looks like it's going to be a very entertaining winter here on the blog...
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