The Resilient Cottage Garden Border - 25 Flowers That Thrive

The best cottage garden plants are pretty, they  flower for a long time, some of them are fragrant,   they're wildlife friendly, and above all they grow  well in your climate and soil. It's Alexandra here   from The Middle-Sized Garden YouTube channel and  blog, and I've picked out 25 of the best cottage   garden plants from gardens I've visited.  You can colour-scheme a cottage garden,   like Tim Pilgrim has in this contemporary cottage  garden, or you can make it a riot of color - a   patchwork of flowers. Either is fine. There  are no real rules in cottage gardens. So what   is a cottage garden? The idea was that cottages  would grow plants that they could grow cheaply   and easily. So they might for instance have taken  cuttings from friends, or got seeds from a nearby   garden. And the plants were mainly not just  pretty but useful - you might make soaps out   of them, you might use cottage garden plants  medicinally, you eat a wide range of them,   and of course flowers just simply to cheer one up  and to provide food for pollinators. Native plants   is a good thing - if you're thinking of a cottage  garden - because native plants will always give   your wildlife the best possible chance. However in  many parts of the world you don't have to stick to   native plants, because we have unexpected weather  patterns, and we may have an unexpectedly early   warm spring, or perhaps a very late warm autumn.  And so the pollinators will be out there - our   native plants maybe have stopped flowering,  and non-native plants (provided they're not   invasive) are a very useful source of nectar and  pollen. So it's not a one-size fits all situation,   but certainly start with native plants for  a cottage garden. So I'm going to start with   asters. Now renamed in some cases symphyotrichum,  you can get asters or plants that look like asters   all around the world. They are native to the  Prairies of North America and Canada. There   are asters that are native to Europe and also  to Asia. So you can find one wherever you are.   And they come in beautiful pinks and blues and  whites. They're great for late season colour   and interest. Perhaps the most classic cottage  garden climber has to be the honeysuckle. And of   course it's got a beautiful fragrance, and it's  very wildlife friendly, but honeysuckles do come   with a bit of a warning. Once again there are  honeysuckles that are native to North America,   there are honeysuckles native to Asia, and there  are ones native to Northern Europe. But some of   them - the Asian ones for example - can be very  invasive in North America. So you do have to check   what kind of a honeysuckle you're planting before  you plant it. The other thing with honeysuckles   is that some of them are very vigorous, and they  will grow and grow and grow. So unless you want to   spend a lot of time clipping them back and back  and back, just check what the final size will   be. One of the classic cottage garden flowers  is poppies. Now annual poppies grow from seed,   and the seed can survive really very cold winters.  But obviously they'll need the weather to warm up   before it germinates. An annual is a plant that  grows from seed, flowers and dies in one year.   And of course the common poppy or papaver rhoeas  is one of those. Now it's typically found where   you've had the soil disturbed. For example when  I dug up my border after 15 years of leaving it   pretty much as no-dig, the following summer I  got loads of poppies. And of course that's why   it stands for the First World War, because poppies  appeared in the fields after the First World War   because they'd been dug up by tanks and trenches.  Poppies are really wildlife friendly - I've often   found two bees in one of my poppies - so they're  a wonderful choice. And they come in scarlet,   but also some sort of pretty purples and  lilacs, so it's worth having a little look   at the different varieties. Another cottage garden  classic is catmint or nepeta, and really obviously   the only reason not to have catmint is that it  could attract cats into your garden. However   it's drought resistant, it's deer resistant, it's  slug and snail resistant, it grows really easily,   flowers for a long time - really it's just  probably the easiest plant in the world to grow.   And it comes in white and lilac and blue. Quite  often people recommend growing catmint or nepeta,   rather than lavender, because it's a very similar  effect, and it's a much more resilient plant.   Although it has to be said that actually lavender  is a pretty easy-grow plant as well. But it just   doesn't like getting its feet wet. Another really  easy grow, drought resistant, slug resistant,   deer resistant plant is the globe thistle or  echinops. And I've got two clumps in my garden,   and quite frankly they are indestructible, and the  bees absolutely love them, and they give a sort of   sculptural interest, and a nice gray foliage to  the border. Once established, globe thistles need   hardly any care. The seed heads will be eaten by  the birds, and over the winter it'll all gradually   collapse, and then you can clear it away and new  foliage would pop up from the base in the spring.   Another plant that no cottage garden will be  without is hardy geranium. Now people mustn't get   confused between hardy geraniums and pelargoniums.  Pelargoniums are usually labeled geraniums in   garden centers, but they're very tender, they  really won't last a winter outside unless you're   in a very hot climate. And they're usually in  pots - they're very Mediterranean. But hardy   geranium can tolerate some really cold areas. And  there is a huge number of them. There's about 500   different varieties. And some of them like my Anne  Thompson or Ann Folkard sort of spread and their   flowers kind of roam all through your border. And  other ones are a lovely low growing ground cover,   and there are even hardy geraniums for dry shade.  So what more can you ask? Hardy geraniums flower   for months and literally the only care they ever  need is to be chopped back once a year - and   quite often they'll even bring out another set  of flowers after that. So far all the plants   I've mentioned have been really easy care and low  maintenance, but some cottage garden plants are   really pretty, really fragrant, but they do need  quite a lot of work. You will see people say for   example that sweet peas are easy to grow.  Looking after sweet peas isn't difficult,   but you do pretty much have to be attending to  them every day. They can get eaten by slugs,   you constantly have to deadhead them to keep  the flowers going, you'll need to train them up,   you'll need to support them. And actually  I've got very few photographs of sweet peas,   and that's because so few of the gardens I  visited have got them in them - which I think   says something. Another plant that needs a little  bit of extra care - although it does produce some   wonderful gorgeous spikes of color - is the lupin.  Some lupins are hardy and will live over winter,   but most of them are treated as annuals. And like  all annuals you'll need to plant them in spring,   you'll need to protect them from slugs and  snails, you'll possibly need to support them,   and then you'll need to deadhead them and clear  them away when they're over. Both lupins and those   other gorgeous spikes of cottage garden flowers -  delphiniums - are a little bit harder work. I mean   they're so worth it, but just don't think that  they'll be low maintenance. And in terms of bulbs,   I would say tulips are higher maintenance than  others, partly because tulips don't come back   year after year as well as other bulbs do. When  I interviewed Neil Miller of Hever Castle about   tulips, he said that actually you get your best  flowers from tulips the year after you plant them,   and even if they do come back they won't be as  good. If you look at my garden, you will see that   there are lots of different kinds of tulips dotted  in ones and twos around the garden. And that's   because I've chosen a lovely group of tulips,  I've planted them in a clump, they've come up,   they've looked gorgeous, and the next year one  of those has come back. So I've planted another   clump of tulips a bit nearby. So what you can  see is the remains of sort of lots of clumps   of tulips over the years. And I think it looks  quite pretty, and it's quite cottage gardeny,   but it's not really the effect I was going for.  So what are the best cottage garden bulbs? Well   it has to be said that daffodils are so easy care  - there are thousands of different varieties,   there'll definitely be one near you, they're very  very cold hardy, and of course they provide nectar   and pollen in the early months when quite a lot of  flowers aren't up. A lot of the daffodils spread.   You can grow daffodils in the lawn for a very  charming cottage garden effect. Just remember that   you can't mow the lawn until 6 weeks after the  flowers have died back. I find it fine actually   because you just mow the lawn six weeks later,  and then the lawn's fine, but I'm not a lawn   perfectionist. Alliums have these lovely pom-pom  blooms which are so sculptural, and they're very   easy to grow. And once again quite a few of them  self-seed and spread. I think I bought 15 allium   purple sensation about 15 years ago, and I think  I counted over a hundred in my garden one year.   So it's almost a question of just having to dig  them up and throw them away if they spread too   much. Of course that is a bit of a problem with  plants that spread very easily. You say well,   will I be overrun? On the whole I think it's  easier to pull plants out than it is to plant   them. And it's certainly cheaper. So it's just a  question really of keeping an eye on it. And deer,   rabbits, squirrels and voles don't apparently  like the taste of allium - it's part of the onion   family. So taking that almost no plant can be  completely guaranteed to be deer resistant, it's   probably a good one if you want a cottage garden  and you've got a deer problem. Alstroemerias are   another very pretty flower. And although they  used to be mainly grown for the florists industry,   they're being grown in gardens now quite a lot.  I've got a video on how to grow alstroemerias   with alstroemeria grower Ben Cross which I'll put  in the description below. But they are very easy   grow. The only thing you have to remember about  alstroemerias is that you can't cut them. You   have to pull them like rhubarb - you pull the stem  out. If you cut them that affects how they will go   on to flower later. So what are the best cottage  garden shrubs? Well shrubs of course are always   very easy care, and I would put lavender quite  high on the list of best cottage garden shrubs.   It won't grow if you have very damp soggy soil,  but otherwise it's pretty hardy. And by lavender   I mean English lavender. I had great clumps of  English lavender which I planted about 12 or 13   years ago - maybe 14 years ago - and it just went  on and on and on. And the bees adored it. We'd see   lots of different kinds of bee and butterfly in  the flowers. And then when the flowers went over   the sparrows would eat the seeds. And then we'd  cut it back into neat shapes which looked good   in frost over winter. Then there are roses. Now  roses are the classic cottage garden shrub. And   roses can be high maintenance - it slightly  depends what you want to do with them. If you   want perfect roses with no black spot, then you  are going to have to work quite hard on it. But   if you're prepared to grow roses in amongst lots  of other plants - and apparently growing roses   with salvias for example can help with black spot  - then all roses really need is to be given extra   fertilizer at the beginning of the year, and  in the middle of the year. They are very hungry   plants. But otherwise many of them are very  wildlife friendly. The very sort of elaborate   double blooms are never as good for pollinators  as single blooms are. Roses mostly have a gorgeous   scent, and what would a cottage garden be without  roses? Another plant that gives you months and   months of interest is hydrangeas. They're a plant  that's sort of been bit forgotten about, I think,   over the years. There's lots of different kinds of  hydrangeas. Some are native to the north Americas,   some are native to Europe, some are native to  Asia, and you'll find a hydrangea for you. Not   all of them are wildlife friendly. The mophead  ones are not, because they don't actually properly   have pollen or nectar. But the other ones are.  And the thing about hydrangeas is that the flowers   come out usually either mid or late summer,  and then they stay and they slowly go brown,   and they become sculptural. And very often they're  still flowers, like dried flowers, in winter and   they look fabulous in frost. So that's six months  of interest. And hydrangeas are very easy to look   after - you just have to prune them once a year.  And I've got a video about how to prune hydrangeas   easily in the description below. So, cottage  garden perennials. Well, perennials are low   maintenance because they live in your garden for 3  years or more, and very often all you really have   to do to them - apart from sometimes deadhead  them to have more flowers - is to dig them up   about every 3 or four years, if they've grown  into a great big clump. You divide the clump,   and then you replant it, which gives you plants  for free. Monarda or bee balm is another really   easy care plant. It doesn't like very wet or boggy  conditions, but otherwise it's pretty resilient.   And it's deer resilient - which is great. It's  not particularly slug resistant - you may get   some slug attacks, but usually it won't stop you  growing the flowers. Verbena bonariensis has to   be the perennial - quite short-lived perennial -  that any cottage garden would love. It's loved by   pollinators, the birds love the seed heads, and  the seed heads still look good in winter. So it's   another very long season of interest. And also  because it's got very long stalks, when you can   see through it to the plants behind. So although  it's a tall plant, it actually doesn't leave your   border looking too crowded or blocking other  plants. And I think if there's one plant that   I have seen in garden after garden after garden,  and that is sedum - now known as hylotelephium   or stonecrop. Sedum autumn joy and sedum matrona  are two absolute classics. Once again adored by   pollinators. They're quite low growing - they're  best for the front of the border - but they really   do flower for quite a long time. And they're  quite tough. I mean I planted one of these in   the wrong place about 12 years ago, and it was  just too shady, and it never really grew. But   it didn't die. And when I dug it up and moved it  into the sunshine, it became a fabulous flower.   Hylotelephium can get nibbled by slugs. It's got  that sort of thick fleshy stems and leaves that   slugs love. But actually one of mine was nibbled  by a slug, and a whole little branch broke off   and I put it in a vase. And when I suddenly  remembered it was there about 3 months later,   I saw that the stem had grown little roots. So I  simply bunged it in the soil and it's perfectly   happy making another plant. And really, you can't  ask more resilient or easy growing than that,   I think every cottage garden needs some annuals  and biennials. And as annuals are plants that   grow from seed flower and die in one year,  biennials do it in two. And probably the most   famous cottage garden biennial is a foxglove. And  foxgloves have these great spires of flowers. They   are once again adored by bees. They're very sort  of easy going. I find that foxgloves really go   where they want to in my garden. They self-seed -  not too vigorously. I have tried sort of planting   them in particular places, but they seem to say  "well, no, we're going to make up our own minds   about where we want to grow". So I pretty much let  the foxgloves do what they like. If you cut the   first big spire off after it's finished flowering,  you'll get a sort of spray of smaller flowers,   so it can give you interest for quite a long  period of time. Foxgloves are very poisonous,   so if you have small children that are likely  to try and eat your plants, or puppies that try   and chew your plants, then don't grow foxgloves.  Hollyhocks, another classic cottage garden plant,   can be annuals or biennials. And I think a bit  like foxgloves, I've had people say that they've   tried to plant hollyhocks in one part of the  garden, and it's been moderately successful.   And then a fabulous Hollyhocks has sprung up  in another part of the garden. But they have   got that gorgeous kind of floral cottage garden  feel to them. Another plant that is really good   for quite a long period of time is cleome. Now  you can get cleomes in violet, pink or white, and   they're quite tall plants. But you don't really  have to deadhead them, because they just keep   getting taller and taller over the summer. Filling  a gap with a clump of cleomes really actually will   always look good, and once again very pollinator  friendly. And of course you have to think about   cosmos. Cosmos is a lovely simple flower, and  there are now some lovely new varieties. There's   lemon cosmos. There's frilly cosmoses. Cosmos are  very easy to grow from seed. They're very unfussy.   They do like a sunny spot, or at least one with  partial sun. And they're just so pretty. And if   you keep deadheading them, they will go on and  on and on and until the first frosts. I actually   looked at a cottage garden in Australia which the  Head Gardener Bill Bampton at the Diggers Club   said was a cottage garden mashup. So he was mixing  native plants with typical cottage garden plants,   to create that same informal loose colourful  cottage garden look. And one plant that I reckon   you could have in any cottage garden, whether  you're in a warm climate or a cool climate,   and that's salvia. They're very long flowering.  In the cooler climates we would struggle,   and I struggle to keep my salvias over winter,  but obviously if you're in a warmer climate that   will be fine. But salvias are so colourful and so  long flowering it is really worth having a look   at them. And so what about trees for a cottage  garden? Well, you must have a tree. I mean you   could grow a climber up it, maybe a honeysuckle,  maybe a clematis, but cottage gardens have trees.   And of course above all they have fruit trees.  Or you could have a nut tree, or a native tree.   I can't think of anything better than having a  crab apple tree, because there's fabulous flowers   in the spring, and then you've got the little  fruits which actually you have to make into   crab apple jelly. You can't eat them yourself,  and the birds absolutely love them. Or you could   try perhaps a fruit tree which is perhaps not very  well known - something like a quince or a medlar,   or even a mulberry or something like that -  a fruit tree that perhaps isn't being grown   commercially very widely, and then you can keep  it going in your garden. So if you want to know   more about what cottage garden style actually  involves, then don't miss this video "What is   Cottage Garden Style, and how to achieve it"  here. And thank you for watching. Goodbye!