Dale Cottages

Please tell me what to grow in an authentic English cottage garden?

Greetings from the USA:) Over here,we use the word garden to mean flower beds,not a yard.

Public Comments

1. Roses, marigolds There is a website here http://www.englishplants.co.uk/cottage.html that tells you which plants are typical of this type of garden. Good luck!
2. roses, elderflower, daffodils, bluebells, primroses
3. Write to me i live in england and i will go into the fields and send you some wild flower seeds
4. weeeed
5. Why don't you go try fuckinga rose
6. Traditional country flowers would be appropriate - roses (of course), hollyhocks, snapdragons (antirrhinum), lupins, bluebells, honeysuckle, pansies, crocuses, daffodils, hyacinths, heather, lavender, anemones, peonies, snowdrops, etc. Plus some flowering shrubs, and maybe some wild flowers like willowherb, dog rose, brambles and scarlet pimpernel. (Careful not to let the wild ones take over, though.) Layout shouldn't be at all formal - flowers all mixed together in a cheerful profusion..
7. Roses, lavender and honeysuckle. And a cricket square, if you can fit it in...
8. You need to grow perennial plants i.e. those that come up every year. I have an cottage garden and I grow, marigolds, valerian, bluebells, primroses, roses, forget-me-knots, antiryhnems, violets, polyanthus, all the bulbs such as daffodil and tulip, dephiniums, hollyhocks, pansies, peonnies, scabius, flocks and stocks, digitalis,, to name but a few. Happy gardening. PS I am in Southern England.
9. Greetings back from the UK! There is a famous poem - it follows. I can send you some seeds but your customs people get really annoyed and will often send them back. Unfortunately, I can't send the insects or birds and I can't sing this to you. (Some people sing like the mentioned 'Nightingales - I sing like a Night In Jail!) How many gentle flowers grow In an English country garden I'll tell you now of some I know And those I'll miss I hope you'll pardon Daffodils, heart's ease and flox Meadowsweet and lily stalks Gentain, lupine and tall hollihocks Roses, foxgloves, snowdrops, forget-me-nots In an English country garden How many insects find their home In an English country garden I'll tell you now of some I know Those I miss I hope you'll pardon Dragonflies, moths and bees Spiders falling from the trees Butterflies sway in the mild gentle breeze There are hedgehogs that roam And little gnomes In an English country garden How many songbirds make their nests In an English country garden I'll tell you now of some I know Those I miss I hope you'll pardon Bobolink, coo-cooing doves Robins and the whirlwind thrush Bluebird, lark, pigeon, nightingale We all smile in the spring When the birds all start to sing In an English country garden And there isn't a single garden in England with all this in!
10. I am not English but I am a horticulturist and garden consultant. One thing I would like to point out for you is that it is not necessarily the flower choices that define an English cottage garden as much as the style or design. The key thought here is chaos within control. You would ideally create beds bordered by hedges, walls or other barriers, choose a few well placed ornaments like an urn or a fountain and then plant flowers that reseed about and allow them to come up randomly. You would of course 'edit' here and there but the whole idea is certain amount of abandon. Consider dianthus, rose campion, hollyhocks, foxglove, larkspur and asters.
11. I wouldn't grow flowers, I would grow herbs. There is no substitute for fresh herbs in cooking.