Friday, June 8, 2018

Tanglewild Gardens (2018 Garden Bloggers' Fling)

Tanglewild Gardens, the last stop on the second full day of the 2018 Garden Bloggers' Fling in Austin, Texas, is the creation of Skottie O'Mahony and Jeff Breitenstein, who relocated to Austin from Seattle in 2011 and established Tanglewild Gardens in 2013.  Their plan to create a daylily nursery to operate upon their future retirement eventually morphed into a plan to create a botanical garden.  While continuing to work in the tech field, their garden provides an opportunity to "unwind and recharge" and plenty of room for their beloved daylily collection, as well as space to entertain friends.

To my eyes, although the garden is only 5 years old and the owners are still caught up in their day jobs, the infrastructure to support their future plans seemed well-established.  The first thing I saw as I walked through the gate into their property were raised planters with neatly labeled daylily specimens and an impressive greenhouse.

In addition to these in raised planters, there were daylilies in beds throughout the property.  Their collection contains more than 800 cultivars.

The greenhouse extends back to the fence


Early May isn't the peak season for daylily blooms, even in Texas, so there weren't many flowers at the time of our visit but I found a few to pique your interest.

Clockwise from the left: 'Gladiator's Shield', 'Alberene', 'Sweet Patootie', and 'Indigo Dragon'


Tropical plants were plentiful.  I couldn't get over the Cannas, which I saw everywhere I looked.

The large plants under the tree here were Tetrapanax papyrifer (aka rice paper plant) - what a groundcover it makes!

Few flowers are as pretty as backlit Cannas


The area for entertaining friends and visitors centered around the pool and patio adjacent to the house.

Two carved wood guardians marked the entrance to the pool courtyard

This was one of the smaller seating areas adjacent to the pool

The large covered patio felt like an outdoor living room.  A dining table can be seen in the distance.


There was great attention to detail throughout the property.  Although there were a lot of decorative elements, they felt well integrated and supportive of the garden's tropical vibe.  Here are a few of my favorites:

This griffin looked just right seated in a bed of daylilies

Moroccan-style screens like these decorated the walls surrounding the pool courtyard, allowing glimpses of the garden beyond

Three carved figures decorate a fence.  I understand that they represent Thai rice goddesses.

More seating surrounded the fountain here

I didn't have good light to capture the elephant or owl sculptures shown here but I hope you can appreciate them anyway


Intriguing as the front half of the property was, I found the back half even more compelling.

This stately tree drew my eye first

The Tar Branch Creek weaves through the back half of the property.  When water is flowing it's a home to fish and turtles.


A tree trunk bearing a Texas star provided a decorative element suitable to this natural area

Still more seating was provided in this area alongside the lawn.  This place was made for parties!


There's still a lot more Fling to cover and I'll continue to chip away at it.  In the meantime, have a great weekend!


All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

28 comments:

  1. What a bummer that it wasn't daylily season, I love daylilies. Fortunately, it looks like it's a great garden, even without them in bloom. Low-growing Tetrapanax as a ground cover is mind-blowing. Hope you have a great weekend too!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love daylilies too. If only they loved SoCal! The fact that I continue to buy and install the plants given their poor performance is indicative of my level of plant addiction.

      Delete
  2. They have lots of cool stuff. Their seating made the place look inviting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There was seating everywhere, Lisa. I didn't photograph more than a small percentage of it.

      Delete
  3. What a great daylily garden. I wonder if they are an AHS display garden? there tetrapanax is impressive. We begun ripping ours out this year because we don't have the space for it to do what it wants...take over. This was a prefect place for it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are a AHS display garden, Rebecca. The specs provided by the Fling organizers said they're also accredited as a Historic Display Garden, although I don't know what that means. The Tetrapanax were awe-inspiring in my view. I love huge leaves, something we have little of here. Technically, I can grow some large-leafed plants like Canna and Colocasias but they want more water than I can generally provide. Loree of danger garden sent me a Tetrapanax seedling but sadly it wasn't happy for long.

      Delete
    2. In recent years, the AHS has (finally!) done more to encourage interest in daylilies from the early years of hybridizing, aka Historics. So display gardens with 50 or more older cultivars (currently those registered in 1980 or earlier) can be designated Historic Display Gardens.

      Delete
    3. Thanks for the clarification, Nell! I was curious about that secondary designation.

      Delete
  4. I loved the pool screens in this garden, and your pictures captured it well! I was also amazed at all the water between the pool, fountains and creek. It will be a great botanical garden in a few years...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Those screens were one of my favorite features too. They were another element that fit perfectly with the overall style of the garden.

      Delete
  5. My favorite objet d'art in that garden was the screaming babies panel, the one people were describing as "creepy". It made me laugh.

    How did I miss that elephant?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How did I miss the screaming babies panel?!!

      Delete
    2. :) the screaming babies is actually called "The Seven Musical Cherubs of Florence" and replicates a 19th century wall sculpture - each baby represents a note on the musical scale. My mom bought it for us - she wanted us to "have a collection" that she could use as a theme for birthday / holiday gifts. We said, "okay, how about gargoyles?" - she didn't like that idea so much... haha. So she bought us this panel and then gave up on the collections idea. We too call it the "screaming babies" and placed it above the doorway to ward off evil spirits (and poor singers)!

      Delete
    3. I wish I'd caught a photo of it during my round of your wonderful harden, Jeff!

      Delete
  6. I was impressed with the daylily collection, too. And the backlit cannas--wowza!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I returned home seriously thinking about planting a Canna or two, Beth, but the advance of summer and our extended dry conditions soon knocked some sense into me.

      Delete
  7. This house and garden is so original and the owners are very creative. What a superb place to live!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Daylilies seem to love the heat and humidity characteristic of the southern part of the US, Sue. If I lived in the South, I'd definitely have lots of daylilies. Heck, I've got a fair number as it is and they don't even do all that well for me.

      Delete
  8. I loved this garden! The Tetrapanax as "groundcover" still amazes and terrifies me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As I managed to kill the Tetrapanax seedling you sent me, Loree, the mass planting at Tanglewild made an impression on me too. Denise has had success with them but then it turns out that, while she's in zone 10b, my zone is classified as 11a so that plus the wind exposure here may make for different growing conditions.

      Delete
  9. I really enjoyed this garden, so livable. I went back and looked at a post Pam did on the garden in 2017. I'm pretty sure I missed a couple of areas !

    ReplyDelete
  10. Kris, this looks like an intriguing garden. The statues are interesting additions. I agree canna is lovely in the sunlight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anything with big leaves impresses me so, between the Cannas and the Tetrapanax, I was in awe!

      Delete
  11. They certainly have created a little piece of paradise and we often use that term for the more exotic places on the planet which theirs is, with all their Asian influence. I did a little too much lounging on their loggia having visited the garden once before. Their greenhouse was impressive. I would love to see their day lilies in bloom too. When I visited there last year and they had rack of seeds free for the taking. Of course I took some and they all germinated. 4 have survived travel and various difficult conditions so I am excited to see what they will look like.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, daylilies from seeds! I'm very impressed. I do love the plants and wish they did better here but they don't seem to like an extreme low-water diet. My 'Spanish Harlem' are having a good year, though.

      Delete
  12. Thanks for sharing your fling! This is a beautiful space. I like the sculptures and other ornaments, especially the use of the tree trunk!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd be itching to use that tree trunk for a climbing vine, Deb!

      Delete

I enjoy receiving your comments and suggestions! Google has turned on reCAPTCHA affecting some commentator IDs so, if you wish to identify yourself, please add your name to your comment.