English Cottage Garden Flowers
by Phyliss Williams
In attempting to create an English cottage garden, hundreds, if not thousands of flower possibilities present themselves. Because of horticultural "progress", new hybrids have replaced traditional varieties. It is nearly impossible to locate the original varieties of many of these plants. Remember too how important the selection of improved varieties was to these early gardeners. They risked a great deal sometimes to bring home that new flower from the manor house. Bigger, brighter, and more fragrant; these objectives have always been dear to the gardener's heart. Do you really suppose they would begrudge today's gardeners the beautiful range of possibilities available?
More important than planting the actual varieties grown in those early cottage gardens is re-creating the shapes, forms, and feeling of an English garden of long ago. Certain flowers will suit that goal more than others. The following list is only the briefest outline of some perennial and annual flowers for your cottage garden. Some, such as bee balm, were never found in English cottage gardens, being native to North America. I have included those plants because they have many of the traits valued by English cottage gardeners: hardiness, easily propagated by division, and sometimes culinary or medicinal applications. Use these suggestions as a starting point for your own garden discovery. Cottage gardens were highly individualistc then; they should remain your own special vision in today's garden, too.
