An artist at work in the garden has helped Windermere’s Cedar Manor Hotel win a gold award.
Cedar Manor is the joint winner, with the Newby Bridge Lakeside Hotel, of Cumbria Tourism’s Cumbria in Bloom competition.
The award comes after several years of collaboration between the hotel’s owner Caroline Kaye and landscape designer Kate Wright.
Kate, who is also a painter and photographer, is originally a designer and has brought her artistic talent to Caroline’s vision of how the garden of the hotel should be. The garden of the award-winning hotel is dominated by an ancient cedar tree which guards the entrance.
Says Kate: “I like to explore the idea of a garden as a painting, utilising the planting to this effect. The aim is to develop the garden at Cedar Manor so that it seamlessly moves through the seasons, and with each turn, a new picture comes into focus.”
Bowness-born Kate, who has a degree in design from Manchester University, also teaches art and design part time.
“The design brief at Cedar Manor continues to unravel, and future projects including further focused expansion of planting, with a limited pallet of colour, to complement and enhance the powder pastel shades of the existing hydrangeas,” Kate says. “This will then be brought into sharp focus with a sustainable mix of perennials, and seasonal plants with a white accent. The aim is to enhance the existing grounds, and provide the guests with an enchanting haven to relax in, and explore.”
Caroline Kaye said: “Kate has worked wonders here, and we are really thrilled to win the gold award. We believe it’s really important to create a beautiful space outside as well as inside the hotel.”
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