We visited Chanticleer this morning and I feel like I missed certain plants or focused on the wrong things, but on second thought I realize I saw what my eyes wanted to see. I really liked their transitions from one space to the next, for example the various paths (formal, undefined, grass, stones, pebbles, steps, etc). As we came out of the "ruins" the sunlight hit the grass' pink plumes and suddenly I felt perfectly lost in a way I felt at Elizabeth Schumacher's garden last week and a way I felt ten years ago visiting the Accademia in Venice. There is something so fantastic about these gardens we've looked at that I can't help but compare to collections of art. The pairings at Chanticleer reassured the uneducated, intuitive-based plant choices I've made so far in a couple gardens. Mixing Angelina sedum (Sedum rupestre 'Angelina') with lambs ear (Stachys byzantina) seemed risky but the texture and color contrast actually provides and awkwardly striking attraction that feels exotic ... like the Rockies... not the Andes. Another combination at home that we saw at Chanticleer was Verbena (Verbena bonariensis) with Russian sage (Perovskia antriplicifolia): my verbena came from a nearby estate we worked on last year and the sage from a little 2" container that I couldn't decide where to plant in a clients garden- so it came home with me and I ended up shoving it in the ground with very little care before one of this past summer's few thunderstorms came rolling in. Even though I love the two together, I still wonder(ed) how an expert would critique this choice. I guess I done did OK.
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