New cottage garden border

[Dr Pips]

Hi All,

I've redesigned my main border in my back garden and now have a 9m by 1m length. to fill. I have some plants in their already that are a couple of years old, but I don't mind replacing / moving some things. I'd like to try and create a cottage garden style border and was looking for recommendations of plants and varieties. I want to make sure I get some variety of heights. I'd like to stick to a couple of colours, maybe purple / blue and yellow.

Pretty much a blank canvas really.

Thanks,

Dom

Oh, and I'd like to keep it as low maintenance as possible. For example, everything would need to be fully hardy, I would forget to lift and cover etc.

[eirish]

Lupins! For purple/blue and yellow, how about Lupinus cruckshansii 'Sunrise'?

How about sweet peas on a teepee to give some height and structure? And I think lady's mantle, Alchemilla mollis, is a must - love the way it looks in the rain.

[veggiechicken]

Cerinthe Major purpurecsens ?sp (one of my absolute favourites annual but self seeds easily) also Phlox and aquilegia,

PS This is a good site for Aquilegias http://www.touchwoodplants.co.uk/Home.htm

[rustylady]

Don't forget delphiniums

[Peas'n'Kews]

And the hollyhocks.

And for down the front, aubretiia and snowdrops, and anenomes and Snakeshead fritillara.

[veggiechicken]

....and don't forget the Sissy-wotsits!!

[Thelma Sanders]

Johnson's Blue perennial geranium
Geranium 'Johnson's Blue'
yellow phlomis
Phlomis
and verbena bonariensis
Verbena bonariensis

all work very nicely in my garden

[Scarlet]

How about some meconopsis and aliums?

[GardenFaery]

snapdragons are easy to grow, wall flower - Bowles (mauve one if sticking to blue) against any structures/walls, cornflowers - lovely blue colours and easy to grow, iris, for first colour in Spring ( blue/mauve yellow etc), lavender, salvia, phlox, peonies, etc
gladioli - good stalwart to have at back? etc etc - could go on - depends with your plan whether you start with colour, companion plants, soil type, historical planning, etc etc

agree with all the plants previously mentioned - most can be mixed and tumbled together, such is the cottage garden mentality planning lol

agree with Veggie Chicken - Aquilegias - saw a lovely example in Terry's garden t'other day - the ex-florist gardener who propagates loads of cottage type plants and whom I bought trailing campanulas from other day - oh yeah - campanulas too LOL

[binley100]

red valerian, forget-me-nots, pyrethrum daisies, redhot pokers ..........the list is endless .
Personally I like a mishmash of colours and shapes and not necessarily all in height order.

[GardenFaery]

I agree Binley. It's all about personal taste, it's your garden after all.
Years ago, traditional cottage gardens would have grown flowers and/or veg in rows to get best crop to sell as cut flowers and veg. Then by Victorian times the Romantic style of 'cottage' garden went with planting everything with everything and the 'borders' idea, followed that.

I always have a twinge of 'that's how I 'should' be doing it, when I look at well-designed height organised borders, but my garden has just evolved as a mix-matched of allsorts lol
there's not 'right' or 'wrong' way - cottage garden should just suggest abundance, look lush without soil showing and please the person who's looking after it!

[Two_Sheds]

I'd like to stick to a couple of colours, maybe purple / blue and yellow.

My garden is blue & white (for the Chelsea fan who pays the mortgage)

- forget-me-nots
- tulips
- narcissus
- iris
- hellebore
- delphinium
- foxgloves
- aquilegia
- lavender
- limnanthes
- California poppies
- bush roses
- geraniums
- verbena bonariensis
- salvia patens

up the fences:
- clematis
- climbing rose
- jasmine
- honeysuckle

and more. I don't really have a design as such, I just chuck plants in as they become available, turning over more lawn as I go

[bramble]

I have a large border as well and like to keep it low maintanance. I have lupins, bleeding hearts, phlox, roses, michaelmas dasies, dahlias, lilys, neirine, polyanthus, jasmine and spring bulbs such as daffs, snowdrops, crocus and hycianth. I hardly ever need to do anything to this border other than pull the weeds, and yet it gives me colour for the best part of the year.
Don't worry too much about height, just plant it up and see what happens.

[Dr Pips]

Hi,

After a lot of research and taking your ideas onboard, I've come up with the following list.

Vinca Minor - Gertrude Jekyll
Iris - Butter and Sugar
Lupin - The Governor
Campanula - Pritchard's Variety
Anemone - Bowles's Pink
Echinacea - Rubinstern
Aster - Monch
Phlox - Chattahoochee
Alstroemeria - Friendship
Coreopsis - Zagreb
Honeysuckle - Graham Thomas
Dahlia - Bishop of Llandaff

I've already got a about 6 plants in there as well.

Am I better just getting one of each plant? Or cutting down my choices a little and getting several of a few? The border is 9m by 1m.

Thanks,

Dom

[lettucegrow!]

Small groups are good for impact and a will look more established. See you've wandered from your original colour choice! Very hard to stick to first thoughts when there are so many lovley plants out there. You've got a big space to fill so think you will need lots of different varieties.
Quite envious of your blank canvas. I would love to start again as I think you learn so much as you go along just planting what you like I didnt plan as such just shoved them in! I've squeezed in as many borders as I can ! No more grass to dig up really.