Cottage Garden Planting
Cottage garden themed planting will look absolutely delightful over the summer and the range of, and subtlety of, the pastel colours will fill anyone with delight. This type of planting, however, must be well designed and the plants must be maintained to look their very best.
To achieve a cottage garden planting style it must look natural and this is more difficult than it seems. There needs to be drifts of plants, normally perennials, that merge in to each other. However, you must also take in to account if the border needs to have an element of interest in early spring and in the winter as normal cottage style planting will not account for that.
Plants to consider when planting in this style would include: Penstemons, Monarda, Hostas, Delphiniums, Hollyhocks, Lupins, Foxgloves, Lobelia cardinalis, Godetia, Dierama pulcherrimum, also know as Angels Fishing Rod, and a firm favourite of ourselves here at Blue Iris Landscapes. There are obviously many other plants we could have mentioned, but these are excellent examples.
There is a problem with true Cottage gardens in that they look dead from November through to March and they don’t look great between October and May. So, to mitigate this, you can use a mixture of spring and autumn bulbs as well as some specimen shrub planting to extend the interest. For the spring, Crocus, Daffodils and Tulips are all strong candidates. For the autumn, use Colchicums, Sternbergia and Cyclamen.
Shrubs that we would recommend include; Mahonia ‘Winter sun’ which have large panaceas of yellow flowers in December and January set off by pirate evergreen leaves; Hamamelis, which has the most amazing scent when it flowers in February, and Camellias such as ‘Donation’ which are great in March. Others such as Sacococca that flowers in early spring and have a great scent are also suitable. Once you start researching or involve a expert gardener such as ourselves you can have a fabulous garden all year round.
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If you require a assistance with planting your garden, call 01782 396 168 for your free no-obligation quote. Alternatively, complete our online contact form and one of our friendly office staff will be in contact within 24 hours.
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