David Mattern is the horticulturist at Chanticleer who cares for the Teacup Courtyards and Vegetable Garden. Famed Chanticleer is a 48-acre botanical garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles from Philadelphia.

Mattern is a graduate of the Professional Horticul￾ture Program at Longwood Gardens, where he is an in￾structor. He holds a degree in landscape contracting with an empha￾sis on design and a minor in horticulture from Penn State University. His gardening experiences extend internationally, includ￾ing England and South Africa. Mattern is renowned for his innovative approach to container design.

Sue Waltemath, a member of the Kansas City Garden Symposium Committee, lobbied to invite Mattern to Kansas City.

“I met David on a trip to France with the International Clematis Society. During the trip Linda Beutler (garden author and curator of the Rogerson Clematis Collection in Oregon) and Jeff Jabco (of the Scott Arboretum in Phila￾delphia) both made a point of recommending David’s container garden presentation. Last May, I visited Chanticleer and was able to appreciate his talents firsthand,” she said. “I can’t wait to hear him talk!”

Chanticleer was developed as a country summer retreat for the Rosengarten family, whose pharmaceutical firm in the 1920s would become part of Merck and Co. Chanticleer opened to the public in 1993.

The London Times last June declared Chanticleer “America’s most inspiring garden.” The Teacup Courtyards designed and cared for by Mattern were singled out by journalist Ann Treneman in the London Times article.

“I had no idea, until Chanticleer, that you could create such beauty in containers (and I have had a container garden at RHS Chelsea),” she wrote. “The mostly tropical planting, dotted around the house terraces and what is called the ‘Teacup’ Garden (after a central stone ‘teacup’ brought back from Italy) is fabulous. ...

What a ‘wow’ garden this is.”

Describing his program

“Containers That Create Spaces,” Mattern says at Chanticleer the gardeners are constantly challenging themselves, creating moments in the garden that changes the experience along the journey. The challenge can be how do you rethink the same space every year? Or improve it?

This is where containers are a creative solution.

“A lot of times we think of the plant combinations and container design within the container. That’s the fun stuff. Where you put them is just as important,” he said.

Mattern plans to discuss the bigger picture, looking at how containers create spaces, the feeling of a space, and how containers fit into the greater context of the home and garden.

He also plans to describe “Noteworthy Plants at Chanticleer.” He invites us to take a journey through a season at Chanticleer as he offers his perspective of the iconic plants at Chanticleer. This curated list highlights woody plants, herbaceous annuals and perennials, as well as tropicals for the home gardener. Emphasis will be placed on how these plants fit within the garden, and how they can be combined with other plants.