Plants for a Cottage Garden
Traditionally, cottage gardens are full to the brim with a heady mix of shrubs, perennials and roses, with scent filling the air and climbers dripping from arches. Look closely and you may find fruit and vegetables tucked into the borders too.
By type
Facing
How much sun
Special conditions
Soil type
Flowering month
Flower colour
Evergreen / deciduous
Fragrance
Attractive to wildlife
Quick growing
Eventual size
Special features
- Architectural silhouettes (54)
- Attractive seedheads (61)
- Autumn foliage colour (40)
- Berries or fruit (76)
- Coloured leaves (37)
- Colourful bark or stems (5)
- Deciduous (32)
- Easy to grow (52)
- Evergreen / semi evergreen (176)
- Fast growing (12)
- Flowering (663)
- Long flowering (95)
- Low maintenance (213)
- Makes a good hedge or screen (49)
- Non poisonous (474)
- Plants that are native (14)
- Plants that don't need pruning (4)
- Plants that help filter noise (2)
- Plants that show resistance to deer and rabbits (191)
- Plants that will cope with the odd football (40)
- Plants to deter vandals and burglars (6)
- Resistant to diseases (83)
- Rose hips (1)
- Stylish in the border (14)
- Sublime umbelliferas (25)
- Suitable for containers (195)
- Suitable for hanging baskets (2)
- Tough plants that are harder to kill (36)
- Winter colour (132)
Bulb planting time
Bulb type
- Lilium (Division 1) Asiatic hybrids (4)
- Lilium (Division 7) Oriental hybrids (2)
- Lilium (Division 8) Other hybrids (5)
- Lilium (Division 9) True species & selected forms (1)
- Narcissus (Division 1) Trumpet (1)
- Narcissus (Division 10) Bulbocodium (1)
- Narcissus (Division 12) Miscellaneous (1)
- Narcissus (Division 2) Large-cupped (3)
- Narcissus (Division 4) Double (3)
- Narcissus (Division 6) Cyclamineus (1)
- Narcissus (Division 7) Jonquilla (1)
- Narcissus (Division 8) Tazetta (2)
- Tulip (Division 1) Single early group (1)
- Tulip (Division 6) Lily-flowered group (1)
- Tulip (Division 7) Fringed group (1)
Chelsea plant of year
Fruit pollination group
Sowing month inside or protected
Sowing month outside
Plant Seasons
Hardy
Leaf colour
Ground cover
Position
- Arches & pergolas (5)
- Back of border (55)
- Bottom of hedges (67)
- Conservatories (2)
- Covering eyesores (9)
- Front of border (286)
- Middle of border (251)
- Next to a patio (21)
- Next to a pond (22)
- Next to an entrance (102)
- Next to seating areas (118)
- Steep banks (92)
- Through hedges (26)
- Walls & fences (56)
Shape
Soil moisture
Used at Chelsea
- 2001 - Tom Stuart-Smith - Laurent-Perrier (4)
- 2002 - HRH The Prince of Wales - Laurent-Perrier (12)
- 2003 - Tom Stuart-Smith - Laurent-Perrier (17)
- 2005 - Tom Stuart-Smith - Laurent-Perrier (6)
- 2006 - Tom Stuart-Smith - Laurent-Perrier (14)
- 2007 - Jinny Blom - Laurent-Perrier (12)
- 2008 - Arabella Lennox-Boyd - Daily Telegraph (5)
- 2008 - Tom Stuart-Smith - Laurent-Perrier (5)
- 2009 - Luciano Guibbilei - Laurent-Perrier (2)
- 2009 - Ulf Nordfjell - Daily Telegraph (8)
- 2010 - Andy Sturgeon - Daily Telegraph (10)
- 2010 - Tom Stuart-Smith - Laurent-Perrier (4)
- 2011 - Cleve West - Daily Telegraph (12)
- 2011 - Luciano Guibbilei - Laurent-Perrier (9)
- 2012 - Arne Maynard - Laurent-Perrier (17)
- 2012 - Sarah Price - Daily Telegraph (1)
- 2013 - Christopher Bradley-Hole - Daily Telegraph (6)
- 2013 - Ulf Nordfjell - Laurent-Perrier (1)
- 2014 - Luciano Guibbilei - Laurent-Perrier (3)
- 2014 - Tommaso del Buono - Daily Telegraph (7)
- 2015 - Dan Pearson - Laurent-Perrier (1)
- 2015 - Marcus Barnett - Daily Telegraph (14)
- 2016 - Andy Sturgeon - Daily Telegraph (1)
- 2017 - James Basson - M & G (1)
- 2018 - Sarah Price - M & G (5)
- 2018 Tom Stuart-Smith - Garfield Weston Foundation (10)
Seed planting guidelines
Rosa canina
£89.97
£59.98
Prunus spinosa
£74.97
£49.98
chives
£5.99
pear 'Concorde'
£59.99
plum 'Czar'
£64.99
Olearia × haastii
£14.99
Prunus lusitanica
£14.99
Prunus 'Kanzan'
£69.99
lemon verbena
£8.99
Prunus triloba
£24.99
Narcissus 'Tête-à-tête'
£3.49
£2.09
Copyright Crocus 2018