Cottage Charm
Full sun to partial shade
Average soil
If you’re drawn to the charm of classic garden perennials, a cottage-style planting could be a perfect choice for you. Traditional favorites such as catmints, foxgloves, and lady’s mantle add loads of color and the charm of an old-fashioned English garden. With the addition of perennials that produce fragrant flowers, you have a garden that’s a treat to smell as well as to see.
The Garden Plan
Shopping List
1 ‘Blue Wonder’ catmint
Nepeta × faassenii
2 plants
Zones 4–8
Alternates: Another catmint or other 1- to 2-foot-tall perennial with blue flowers, such as ‘Sarastro’ bellflower (Campanula) [6 plants] or ‘Butterfly Blue’ pincushion flower (Scabiosa) [6 plants]
‘Blue Wonder’ catmint (Nepeta × faassenii)
2 Lady’s mantle
Alchemilla mollis
2 plants
Zones 3–9
Alternates: Another 1- to 2-foot-tall perennial with yellow or white flowers, such as ‘Moonlight’ or other coreopsis (Coreopsis) [2 plants] or ‘Susanna Mitchell’ marguerite daisy (Anthemis) [2 plants]
Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis)
3 ‘Bath’s Pink’ dianthus
Dianthus
2 plants
Zones 3–8
Alternates: Another dianthus or other 6- to 18-inch-tall perennial with pink flowers, such as striped bloody cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum var. striatum) [2 plants] or ‘Pink Grapefruit’ yarrow (Achillea) [2 plants]
‘Bath’s Pink’ dianthus (Dianthus)
4 Strawberry foxglove
Digitalis × mertonensis
3 plants
Zones 4–9
Alternates: Another foxglove or other 3- to 4-foot-tall perennial with pink, yellow, or white flowers, such as hybrid lupines (Lupinus) [3 plants] or meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) [3 plants]
Strawberry foxglove (Digitalis × mertonensis)
5 ‘Blue Butterfly’ delphinium
Delphinium grandiflorum
3 plants
Zones 3–7
Alternates: Another dwarf delphinium or other 18- to 36-inch-tall perennial with pink or blue flowers, such as a Siberian iris (Iris sibirica) [3 plants] or a Japanese anemone (Anemone × hybrida) [3 plants]
‘Blue Butterfly’ delphinium (Delphinium grandiflorum)
Planting Plan
Season by Season
Spring: Excitement builds gradually through the spring in this simple cottage garden, but it comes into full glory by late spring, with the airy purple-blue spikes of ‘Blue Wonder’ catmint, the greenish yellow clouds of lady’s mantle, and the fragrant, light pink blooms of ‘Bath’s Pink’ dianthus.
Plan on doing a bit of cleanup in early to mid spring to get ready for this late-spring spectacle. Cut off any remaining dead top growth on the catmint and delphinium, and trim away any winter-damaged parts on the lady’s mantle, dianthus, and foxglove. This is also a fine time to divide the catmint, lady’s mantle, and dianthus if they were outgrowing their spaces last year. Then, apply a fresh layer of organic mulch over the soil.
Summer: The extravaganza of color and fragrance continues into early summer, with the addition of strawberry foxglove’s rosy pink bells and the brilliant blue flowers of ‘Blue Butterfly’ delphinium. The catmint, lady’s mantle, and dianthus are pretty much done by the end of early summer, but the foxglove and delphinium often continue into midsummer.
Once the flowers are finished, remove them to tidy the plants. On the catmint, shearing the whole plant back by one-half to two-thirds will remove the old blooms and promote bushy new growth. Cutting all of the top growth back to about 2 inches will have the same effect on the lady’s mantle. On the dianthus, clip off individual flower stems or shear them off all at once, down to the leaves. Trim off the delphinium’s flowering tops back to the uppermost leaf on the stem, and cut off the foxglove’s flowering stems close to the base of the plant.
Fall and Winter: Late-season interest in this garden comes mostly from the foliage — especially the velvety, scalloped-edged leaves of the lady’s mantle and the spiky, gray-green carpets of the dianthus — but there may also be some scattered fall flowers on the catmint, lady’s mantle, dianthus, and delphinium until frost.
Keep clipping off the dead flowers on the late bloomers through autumn. In early to mid fall, divide the catmint and lady’s mantle clumps if they are crowding their companions. After frost, clip off the old delphinium stems close to the base of the plant, but leave the rest of the perennials alone until spring cleanup.
Digging Deeper
- There are lots of ways you could enjoy this simple plan in your yard. Tuck just one of the beds into a corner, or use the two beds to flank a bench, arbor, doorway, or set of steps. They’d also be lovely for edging a longer path; simply repeat the plans end to end as many times as needed to extend all along the length of the path, replacing some of the plants with their suggested alternates to add some variety.
- Herbs have long been a part of cottage gardens, and this one includes two herbs that are also well known as flowering perennials: catmints (Nepeta) and lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis). Some other perennials that do double-duty as herbs include bee balms (Monarda), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), hyssops (Agastache and Hyssopus), and yarrows (Achillea). If you’d like to incorporate flowering herbs that you could harvest for cooking as well, consider culinary sage (Salvia officinalis), oreganos (Origanum), and thymes (Thymus).
- The towering spires of hybrid delphiniums are a common part of classic cottage gardens, but growing those English-garden favorites successfully can be a challenge unless you live in an area with relatively cool summers. Chinese delphiniums (Delphinium grandiflorum), such as ‘Blue Butterfly’ tend to be shorter than the hybrids, but they also tend to be more heat-tolerant. Any of these delphiniums may be very short-lived in less-than-ideal climates, so plan on replacing them every year or two and you won’t be disappointed.