Five Plants for a Cottage Garden
Cottage Garden
Cottage Garden
Cottage Gardens are one of the best known English gardens. Their rambling and natural looking nature allows for an explosion of colour to be enjoyed, with fragrances and aromas as much a part of the garden as the vibrant petal themselves. Whilst a Cottage Garden can contain all sorts of your favourite specimens there are a few key plants which should make up the backbone of your planting. And by including these five you can ensure that your garden instantly has that quintessential English ambiance.
Roses
Without a doubt, roses are one of the biggest parts of a Cottage Garden. Where possible you should try and include a variety of forms, from standard specimens, climbing wonders, and shrub roses covered in beautiful flowers. Picking species with different flowering times will allow you to have rose blooms throughout the gardening seasons, always providing that Cottage Garden feel.
Clematis
Clematis plants are a great companion for planting with climbing roses, especially up walls, through trellising, or cascading over archways. There are a wide variety of plants available that will flower from the very early spring right up until the onset of winter, and by planting them alongside roses they’ll intertwine themselves and offer a fantastic show of blooms.
Lavender
One of the world’s most iconic essences, Lavender is a much loved plant and very at home in the Cottage Garden. It can be used in pots either side of a doorway for beautiful fragrance every time you step through your door. Alternatively, plant them at the front of borders so that its aroma is allowed to waft into the air when you walk by. One species planted in a block can look stunning, as can an extensive collection which is spread through borders and containers.
Peonies
Peonies are blousy plants which offer a decadent and luxurious bloom to the garden. Herbaceous in nature, these plants appear from the ground in early spring and offer huge, almost rose-like flowers, two to four foot above the ground. They are a glorious plant to include in the Cottage Garden setup.
Poppies
Annuals are a major part of the Cottage Garden, coming into flower quickly, budding profusely, and then setting seed at the end of the year. Poppies are a lovely plant to include in both annual and perennial forms, lifting a garden with their bright and colourful blooms.
If you are looking at creating a Cottage Garden don’t let your inspiration be stunted by the do’s and don’ts of which plants to include. However, by including the five plant families above you can ensure that you instantly get that Cottage Garden atmosphere and create a wonderful backdrop to any additional planting you make.
By Geoff Wakeling
Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Five-Plants-for-a-Cottage-Garden&id=5934631
