Gardener's Diary:

My garden at the Manor House, Stevington is open to the public on certain days of the winter and summer. See website for details www.kathybrownsgarden.homestead.com. It is 4 acres with a wide variety of styles from formal to cottage, herbaceous to wild flowers, containers to ornamental grasses. But one our key themes is Growing Art with areas inspired by Hokusai, Mondrian, Rothko, Hepworth and Kandinsky. We look after it entirely ourselves. I also design; quite a range from Country gardens to Historic City Courtyards.

November 27, 2006

All the cultivars of tangutica clematis have gorgeous yellow flowers, so welcome in the late summer and early autumn. Golden Tiara is extra special because of its fly away nature and its maroon, almost black stamens which show up so well. There are lots to choose from....Bravo, Helios, Bill Mackenzie, tangutica itself...I love them all.

And here is a link:

My website.

They all have super seedheads, glistening in the sunlight, like a shiny hair do! What a treat in the winter garden. Eventually we cut them down to ground level sometime in late February/March.

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November 26, 2006

Echinacea purpurea

Thought I would start off by showing Echineacea purpurea, one of the highlights of the July garden, smothered in bees and often butterflies as well. Excellent in full sun, or even partial shade and not averse to a dry summer. If you cut off the flowers after they have passed their best, you will encourage more and more to be produced so that we had colour on these plants even in October. Eventually we leave some to go to seed so that we can enjoy the cones through the autumn and into early winter.

And here is a link:

My website.

1. July-October 2. October-December