Herbaceous plants can be planted at any period during the dormant season. This lasts from mid-autumn until early spring, although it is possible now to plant con­tainer grown perennials all the year round. Unfortunately this restricts the diversity of plant material at your disposal as only plants that do well in containers are sold that [...]

There is no such thing as a standard cottage garden. Every person’s idea of what one should be has been tempered or enhanced by the experiences of life. Some may have been fortunate enough to have grown up in a cottage with a traditional garden, or maybe in a village where cottage gardens were a [...]

One of the others that can be dealt with in the same way if necessary is the larkspur. Not that the larkspur is a single entity, for there are at least two popular kinds derived from different annual species of delphin­ium. The rocket larkspur is the one that is usually associated with cottage gardening and [...]

Most of our spring flowering bedding sub­jects are hardy biennials, or else plants treated as such. There are two ways of raising these plants depending upon their mode of growth. Wallflowers and sweet wil­liams are easiest raised in drills in the open ground, while forget-me-nots, pansies and polyanthus are best grown in trays or pots. [...]

Not a problem likely to be encountered with the ivies. Certainly not with those derived from our native Hedera helix. These are all very tough and are available in a wide diver­sity of leaf shapes and colours. All prosper in cool conditions and are ideal for clothing north or east-facing walls. Contrary to popular belief, [...]

Clematis are regarded by most gardeners as the queen of the climbers and justifiably so. This diverse genus, which includes a few non-climbing species too, has a range of colour, form and flowering period unequalled by any other group of climbers. The diversity of clematis is such that they can be used in almost any [...]

Sweet peas epitomize the cottage garden flower. Not that the sweet peas which we grow today were anything like the original ones grown by the early cottagers of Eng­land. Although introduced by a Sicilian monk in the late 1690s, it was not until well into the 1800s that- Henry Eckford first made any progress with [...]

The hardy ferns were very much a part of the cottage garden. Unfortunately many of the extremely fine named kinds grown dur­ing Victorian times were irretrievably lost during the First World War and their popu­larity subsequently waned. They are now seeing a marked revival and despite the lack of improved garden varieties, there are still [...]

It is advisable before picking up a spade to make an outline plan on paper. This not only records one’s thoughts, but puts the garden more into perspective than when one paces out areas for pergolas or borders with irregular strides. The shape of the garden once drawn on paper is often not as you [...]

Most foliage colour in a cottage garden has to be provided by autumn subjects. Other­wise it is difficult to get happy blends and associations. Strongly variegated trees and shrubs are alien to our concept and some of the brighter yellow and purple foliage sub­jects are equally tasteless.
The stagshorn sumach, Rhus typhina, is a splendid example [...]