Creating a Cottage Garden at Home

There’s something deeply romantic about a cottage garden — the kind of place where roses spill over fences, lavender lines the path, and bees hum lazily between the blooms. The best part? You don’t need a countryside estate to create one.

The Essentials

Every cottage garden needs a mix of heights, textures, and seasons. Here are our must-have plants:

Tall Backdrop Plants

• Foxgloves (Digitalis) — dramatic spires in purple, pink, and white
• Hollyhocks — old-fashioned charm that can reach over 2 metres
• Delphiniums — stunning blue spires that butterflies adore

Mid-Height Stars

• Roses — particularly David Austin varieties with their incredible scent
• Peonies — those blowsy, romantic blooms everyone adores
• Alliums — architectural purple globes that dry beautifully

Ground Cover & Edging

• Lavender — essential for scent, colour, and pollinators
• Catmint (Nepeta) — a cloud of soft blue that blooms for months
• Alchemilla mollis — lime-green frothy flowers that soften any edge

Design Principles

1. Plant in drifts — groups of three or five look more natural than single plants
2. Repeat colours — echo the same hue through different plants for cohesion
3. Allow self-seeding — let plants like foxgloves and aquilegia wander naturally
4. Include evergreens — box hedging or yew gives structure in winter

Bring the Garden Inside

One of the greatest joys of growing your own flowers is being able to cut fresh bouquets for your home. Plant a dedicated cutting patch with:

• Sweet peas on a wigwam support
• Dahlias for late summer abundance
• Cosmos for endless airy blooms
• Zinnias in every colour imaginable

Need inspiration? Pop into our studio — we always have cottage-garden-style bouquets ready to inspire you.