cottage Gardening

I have a cottage garden but I am always on the look out for reliable plants to grow that will fit in. Any ideas? I already have hollyhocks, Lupins and poppies but need some diferent types.

 

Cranesbills look great in a cottage garden and come in many varieties.

 

I like geraniums very much. I have tried to sow them before without much luck though.

 

Geraniums (cranesbills) are pretty hopeless from seed from packets. Germination is very poor.
If you buy a plant it will flourish, and you can subdivide it endlessly. Any little bit chopped off from around the edge will make a new plant.
And they self seed quite well - especially into a gravel path :D

 

Lythrum salicaria is a very reliable perennial as well as Heleniums/Anthemis and others. These will all make large plants but not self seeding.

 

Hi garden tips and welcome to the forum.

I am a great believer in long flowering perennials to keep maximum colour in the garden. There are many plants that can flower for more than 10 or even 20 weeks. Astrantia 'Buckland' and 'Hadspen Blood' I like. Geraniums 'Patricia', 'Rozanne' and 'Ann Folkard' are all sterile hybrids, which makes them flower for a very long period. Aster fricatii 'Monch' flowers for about twice as long as any other Aster. Campanulas are good Cottage Garden plants, but most don't flower for that long, however the little Campanula porscharskyana does. There's Centranthus rubra and Persicaria amplexicalis. Verbena bonariensis is a must have, and in a similar vein I like the annual Atriplex hortensis which will self seed.

 

You would probably want Delphiniums and Foxgloves for your cottage garden too, along with Rudbeckia...and you simply have to have Roses. Another favourite of mine is one kindly passed to me by a member here, that is Bronze Fennel. And my favourite of all and should be in every garden is sweetpeas!

Steve...

 

I like stuff that re seeds itself in my country style garden - fills the bare patches up quickly where i thought nothing would grow too! Honesty and foxgloves are particularly good for this and easy to grow. Fennel looks great and seeds itself well as does the herb angelica which is a great architectural plant with wonderful seed heads in winter. Buy one angelica plant & a fennel this spring and with luck you will never have to buy another - ever!