"Spring Fling" at Chandor Gardens

Saturday, April 1st, 2017
10:00 am to 3:00 pm
Admission: $1 per person

Help us celebrate the arrival of a long-awaited spring season in the gardens at our annual "Spring Fling!" This popular event features music, food, area artists and craftsman.

Every year, our list of talented participating artists and vendors grows and this year will be no exception. The gardens will be loaded with talented people displaying, demonstrating and selling their unique arts and crafts.

So come on out and see the gardens in full bloom and bring your camera for a special family photo or two!

CALLING ALL VENDORS!
As we grow and expand this popular event every year, we're always looking for new and talented artists and craftsmen to come join in on the celebration and display/sell your goods to the public. This event is FREE (YES, FREE!) to all vendors. We are opening the gates at 9am for vendor set up and allowing to 4pm for vendor break down. If interested, please call 817-613-1700 or email .

Plant of the Month

Winter Daphne (Daphne odora)

Winter Daphne is a small evergreen shrub native to China, though it has been cultivated in Japan and Korea for many centuries. It blooms mid-winter, producing clusters of 15-20 tiny flowers---each only about a third of an inch long---that are pink in bud and a soft white when open. Though tiny, these blossoms are incredibly fragrant. When in peak bloom, the sweet scent is carried downwind, and can be detected for more than a hundred feet. In Korea, the plant is known as "churihyang," which translates to "a thousand mile scent."

Winter Daphne is not a long-lived plant, typically senescing within 8 to 10 years. Our specimen is a beautiful great-great grandmother, still rocking with vibrant foliage and powerful flowers at twelve years of age!

Standing Still

About seventy-five years ago, Douglas Chandor adorned his Scholar Stone with a bas relief of Kuan Yin, and four sculptures of Chinese mythological figures. While the face of Kuan Yin remains, the other sculptures were removed and sold at auction in the 1980s.

While the original sculptures are visible in vintage photographs, the lack of detail prevents us from ascertaining the exact identity of the subjects. We do know from records that they are four of the eight characters known collectively as "The Immortals."

Above: Two archival images of the west face of the Scholar Stone.

Below: An archival image of the Scholar Stone's east face.

The Immortals are a group of legendary transcendent beings living on a group of islands in the Bohai Sea on the eastern coast of China. Like most other mythological characters in other cultures around the globe, their stories and life lessons have permeated religious, academic, and social realms.

Above: Imported from China, five ceramic sculptures of The Immortals join the original Kuan Yin bas-relief on the Scholar Stone's east face in the center of the garden. (Three of the Immortals are on the west face.)

Above, left: Lán Caihé, the excentric wanderer, holds her basket, full of flowers from her journey.
Above, right: Li Tiguai often uses the disquise of a diseased begger to help the poor and oppressed.

Above, left: LU Dóngbin, leader of The Immortals, is a scholar torn between the quest for academic knowledge and the path to spiritual enlightenment.
Above, right: Hé Xiangu holds her lotus flower, which she uses to heal the sick.

Above, left: Cáo Guójiú was the black sheep in a dysfunctional royal family until he self-exiled into the forest and changed his ways.
Above, right: Zhongli Quán, a previously defeated warrior-turned-philospher, uses a feather fan to turn stones into gold and resurrect the dead.

Above, left: Hán Xiangzi, a rebellious student, prefers instead to play the flute.
Above, right: Zhang Guo lao, "the old and venerable one," is a former hermit who is adept at magic tricks and communicating with the dead.

Around the Garden

February is a funny time in a Texas garden; a time when most of the plants are quietly resting but the gardeners are almost frantic, trying to finish winter projects before the arrival of spring and the accompanying garden guests. (Many people assume we have our feet up, whiling away the hours --- ha!)

Above, left: Fresh paint adorns the bridge crossing the newly-cleaned pond.
Above, right: Leatherleaf Mahonia sports cheery yellow spikes of winter flowers.

Above, left: A new pond filtration system is almost complete.
Above, right: Recent extensive mortar and stonework is invisible on the Crane Island.

Below, left: Colorful fruits still adorn hollies throughout the garden, at least until the flocks of Cedar Waxwings arrive.
Below, right: Tree pruning was required to open up the sightline to the Cox's Mountain waterfall.

The Taki

Originally inspired by a small water feature in a garden in Pennsylvania, the idea of the Taki (Japanese for "waterfall") slowly evolved into a six foot tall, seven foot wide, bright red feature for Chandor Gardens. We placed it on the east side of the garden, in hopes of attracting people to visit this often-overlooked area.

If all works out, a trickle of water will fall from one level to the next, and finally into the bowl at the bottom, where it will be recirculated to the top. By the time you read this, it should be working.

Parting Shot

While planting a bed of Mondograss at the base of the Taki, we encountered some seldom seen fruits of the plant. Though colorful, they grow just above the soil line, so they usually go unnoticed.

Chandor Gardens | 711 West Lee Ave. | Weatherford, Texas 76086 | 817-613-1700
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