Today we’re visiting the garden of Syd Carpenter in Philadelphia.
My 20-year-old garden surrounds the house on three sides with semi-shady garden rooms. Plantings focus on leaf colors, shapes, and textures, with flowers an added bonus. As a sculptor, my garden is an extension of my studio work because I view plants as potentially expressive as clay, steel, or any other three-dimensional medium. I plan what might happen, but I understand that the plants and I are willing collaborators. I am always surprised as the season progresses. Some of my best plant collaborators are coleus, caladiums, heuchera, Asiatic lilies, and hosta. Daylilies bring high drama and some flash during the hottest days of July. I combine the entire scheme with lots of large ceramic pots filled with annuals, succulents, and perennials. Including various tropicals with the perennials and annuals adds another layer of unpredictable interest when moving from garden room to room.
Glorious peony (Paeonia ‘Bowl of Beauty’) flowers take center stage in the spring.
A place to stop and enjoy the garden in a cool, shady nook. I love the mirror window mounted on the wall above the bench because it gives the illusion of another garden hidden on the other side of the wall. That bench is almost too beautiful to sit on!
Bright annuals bring color in containers, cooled down by a bowl full of rich blue ceramics.
A daylily (Hemerocallis hybrid, Zones 3–8) so dark red it is almost black.
This complex planting of shrubs and perennials is highlighted by intense orange cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus, annual). The orange flowers look all the brighter for being surrounded by dark foliage and purple flowers.
A narrow path through the garden, under towering lilies, leads to a brick wall decorated with beautiful sculptures.
This mosaic tile in the paving adds a note of color to a cool, green planting.
With so many wonderful coleus varieties to choose from, why not mix up a bunch of different ones?
Have a garden you’d like to share?
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
If you want to send photos in separate emails to the GPOD email box that is just fine.
Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening!
You don’t have to be a professional garden photographer – check out our garden photography tips!
Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here.
Comments
Oh those peonies! And a brick wall in the garden, so British, and the mosaic tile — along with such a beautiful showing of flowers. Amazing. A splendid garden! It was a pleasure viewing your garden.
That brick wall is the side of a neighbor’s art studio. It is in a constant state of disrepair, which makes it look like a ruin. I am starting an espaliered magnolia against this wall. I saw one at Chanticleer and it was so so good. I just had to try it
What a beautiful peaceful tranquil retreat! Love your peony and the coleus is stunning! Thank you for sharing what obviously is a cherished garden!
All of those coleus are volunteers. If you leave the flowers and allow them to go to seed you will be rewarded in August with hundreds of seedlings that quickly mature. I never know which varieties will appear. Usually they are not any that I have planted. So what you see in that photograph is a total surprise, but one worth waiting for. For the record, that clump is growing out of a crack.
omg i love this garden,beautiful
Your garden is charming and beautiful with non-traditional plant pairings. But the sunlight catching the wall and the edge of the mirror above the bench is breathtaking. It looks like a fine art painting. Nicely done, Syd.
I get the most satisfaction out of combining plants. When I visit gardens, I look first for the best leaf combinations, not the flowers. Flowers can be unreliable but leaves last the entire season. They are the backbone of a good planting.
Getting good photos of the garden is very important to me. So I wait for good light, usually early morning and around 6pm .
Stunningly beautiful!! What peace and joy it must bring you.
More peace and joy than I can describe.
It's clear the containers and objects found throughout the garden are as judiciously curated as the handsome plants in the garden beds. Brava!
I am in Philadelphia and it sounds like you are too. You are quite welcomed to visit.
And I can never resist an unusual pot, so I make my own when I am not making sculptures.
So much is just so beautiful but the peony, the tile & that bench & mirror window are especially so.
I am a hunter/gatherer. Finding a great piece, like the bench, is as satisfying as snagging a long sought after plant. Sometimes even better because the plant might die and often does, but the garden objects and the art never let me down.
Thanks so much for sharing your garden spaces!
Wonderful to see plants, shapes & colors so well combined. I'm sure much of it comes from having a garden for 20 years - maturity in plants is a treasure.
Thanks again.
It’s been 20 years of trial and error. But I have loved every minute. Looking forward to next season!
Oh, my, Syd, I will readily admit to being thoroughly enthralled with the level of talented artistry that is so evident throughout your garden. In every vignette you've chosen to share, there is such a beautiful melding of plant material and objects of ornamentation. The mosaic of the rooster would be delightful in any way of displaying it and yet, you've heightened its impact with the choice of the colorful leafed coleus off to the side...sigh, perfection.
No matter how long I tend this garden, there is always something new to do. I have some new plans and plantings on the drawing board....can’t wait to get started!
what a gorgeous garden! That rooster mosaic is a delight! Bravo!
There is an online company where mosaics can be purchased. It’s called Mozaico.
A beautiful garden. I particularly am drawn to the bench and mirror window. As said, the reflection expands the garden, but also draws you in to see what there is to see....like a Vermeer painting....I want to see the details of the further layer of images. I also realize it isn't just about the plants in the pots....it's also the pots themselves. Lovely
You sound like an artist yourself. Plants are a wonderful medium to work with
I love making pots for the garden. The next posting in a couple of weeks will show more of the ones I’ve made
What are the purple-blue flowers in the picture with the orange cosmos??
Betony is the name of the vertical purple flowers
I've seen Syd's Betony (Stachys officianalis, perhaps "Hummelo") and later in the day, in direct sun, the color is more red violet than "blue-purple" as it appears in this AM photo.
Actually this photo was taken in the evening and the color is pretty accurate. In the morning, colors are less saturated and in mid day they are quite bleached out
What’s your name, we have obviously met? When did you come to the garden.
Syd, I keep coming back to the computer to look at your gardens again! I can't decide which grouping I like best - each time I look, a different one shines forth! You've put together the 'secondary colors' and mostly avoided the primary colors - I love it! And, agree that your pots are so beautiful in themselves, they truly complete the picture. Thank you so much for sharing - and let's see some more!
There will be a part 2 posting of my garden in a couple of weeks. Thanks for looking
Beautiful. Do you have a water feature anywhere?
Yes I do. It may show up in a later GPOD posting in a couple of weeks.
Your garden is pure art! Love your style!
Plants are great collaborators. They usually tell me what needs to happen next. I also keep a pretty hefty file of photos of each year’s garden and during the winter months use them to decide on what needs changing and what worked. My gardening buddies are always amazed at how willing I am to replant a whole bed. I do the same thing in my studio ....trying to get it better.. I won’t say “get it right” because I don’t believe there is a “right” in a garden
The mirror garden "window" is fabulous - what a fantastic garden. You are truly an artist!
Plants are a great medium to work with and the garden gives me a whole other audience beyond my studio artwork
Mirrors are wonderful “extras” in a garden. They can open up a small space, providing reflected light, depth and added color depending on what is reflected in them.
I think we would all love to come visit this garden! The view over the purple betony and orange cosmos towards the sunlight on the gate is where I'd like to pause for quite a while to soak up all the colors and life in that view. Thank you for sharing your garden.
Photographing the garden is pay day for me after all the work. Waiting for good light and successful combinations just gives me another way to enjoy the garden
What is your gardening zone? Never heard of coleus re-seeding, but how fun is that?! Thanks for sharing, and I anxiously await the next posting from you.
I am in zone 6. And those coleus reseed like crazy. It really is a bonus as fall is coming on to have all this volunteer color appear in cracks and niches all over the garden.
It’s as if the garden, just when you think nothing new is coming, is saying “but wait, wait! There’s more!”
Log in or create an account to post a comment.
Sign up Log in