11 Florals
That Will Give Your Garden
an English Cottage Feel
Prized for its showy spikes of blue, purple, and pink that can reach as high as 6 feet, the delphinium creates a great backdrop for other English garden flowers.
Rambling Rose (Rosa multiflora)
English rose ramblers produce an abundance of fragrant, small roses clustered in large sprays, which creates a cascade of color, usually blooming in late spring or early summer.
After blooming, the glossy leaves on these midsize bushy plants provide a pleasing framework for the blooms of other flowers. The foliage dies off during the winter and will reemerge the following spring.
Provide height to a cottage garden with hollyhocks, which typically reach up to 8 feet tall. This self-seeding biennial symbolizes the circle of life, fertility, and abundance.
Lavender (Lavandula)
It doesn’t get much more “English cottage garden” than this old-fashioned, fragrant plant. Lavender flowers are frequently used to make potpourri, sachets, and essential oils, and the buds also are used in cooking or summer drinks.
Foxglove (Digitalis)
This self-seeding biennial European native can reach 3 to 4 feet tall (and some grow up to 6 feet with proper care), providing additional height in a cottage garden.
The hydrangea is a great choice for cottage gardens that feature some shady areas. Hydrangeas reward gardeners who give them good care with blooms of blue, white, purple, or pink, depending on the alkalinity of the soil.
Cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus)
Few flowers impart that airy, dreamy cottage garden feel better than cosmos. Because they are profuse bloomers, cosmos prove a good selection for both cottage and cutting gardens.
Drape trellises or other garden structures with wisteria, a vining plant that produces racemes (grape-like clusters) of purple flowers on mature plants. Racemes become longer as the plant matures.
Violets (Viola)
There are more than 400 species of violets, some of which date back to the Greeks in 500 B.C., who considered them a symbol of love and fertility.
Daylilies (Hemerocallis)
In Greek, "daylily" means beauty and day, and these flowers are so named for the fact that each flower lasts only a day. However, because they are profuse bloomers, they can grace a garden with gorgeous flowers from late summer to early fall.