Flowering Shrubs for Cottage Garden

Most of the flowering shrubs which we lovingly cultivate have their origins in the cottage garden. Unfortunately few have retained the charm of former years, plant breeders having worked upon old favourites and turned them into bigger, better and more colourful characters with greater dis­ease tolerance. Often scent has been lost in the process, but if we are realistic we must admit that much of what we have now is far superior in decorative terms to that enjoyed by our grandparents. A careful ramble through the nurseryman’s catalogue still presents us with the opportunity of recreat­ing a cottage garden atmosphere with plants that are not too far removed from those of the period. Indeed, the wealth available makes selection difficult, so I am basing my own selection upon those that evoke memories for me of my grandmother’s gar­den – a garden on heavy clay soil in the wind-swept East Anglian countryside, where the art of cottage gardening flour­ished.

Lilacs and forsythia

Lilacs were amongst the most successful, particularly cultivars of the common Syr-inga vulgaris. The named progeny of this rather mundane species runs into hundreds, varying in colour from white, through pale pink and mauve to deep rose and purple, with either single or double blossoms. ‘Sou­venir de Louis Spaeth’ is probably the best loved of the single kinds. A bold fellow with blossoms of deep port wine in dense conical panicles. The snow-white ‘Maud Notcutt’ is one of the best recent introductions and ‘Primrose’ one of the most unusual.

Of the double lilacs ‘Charles Joly’ reigns supreme, an excellent dark purple cultivar which flowers slightly later than most other kinds. The creamy-white ‘Madame Lemoine’ is equally well known and together with the soft lilac-pink ‘Belle de Nancy’ completes a trio of really depend­able garden shrubs. As I intimated earlier, the ordinary S. vulgaris is rather gloomy, but its white form alba is still encountered in older gardens and has a special charm of its own. It may not be quite so floriferous as the modern cultivars, but it is a solid and dependable character.

There is another important group of lilacs that are not strictly speaking cottage garden shrubs, but which are ideal for the cottage garden. These are popularly called Cana­dian hybrids following their development at a research station in Ottawa in the 1920s by a Miss Isabella Preston. They are amazingly resilient plants, growing into sizeable bushes which during early summer froth and foam with pendent panicles of colourful blossoms. There are so many hybrids that you are spoiled for choice, but I like the deep pink ‘Audrey’ and immense purplish-pink ‘Isabella’.

The forsythia, its boughs laden with deli­cate golden bells is a regular harbinger of spring and as inextricably tied up with the cottage garden as the lilac. Forsythia inter­media ‘Spectabilis’ is the one usually grown and most frequently sold prepacked by the chain stores. That is not to imply that it is in any way inferior, but more recent introduc­tions like ‘Beatrix Farrand’ and ‘Lynwood Gold’ do produce larger blossoms of a more intense hue. For those with limited space, F. ovata can be recommended. A neat bush no more than 1-5 m (5 ft) high, its naked branches are sprinkled evenly with bright yellow blossoms.

The most prolific of the species is F. suspensa, a large pendulous shrub of lax and untidy growth which is seen at its best when grown against a wall, although some gar­deners use it as ground cover. If you have an awkward bank to disguise it is especially useful. Plant it towards the top and peg its main branches down and it will soon become an impenetrable mass, turning into a tumbling cascade of gold during early spring. Forsythias illuminate the spring garden. Give them a dark background of evergreens or plant them in association with bright red flowering currants like Ribes san-guineum ‘King Edward VII’. The shorter growing kinds can be interplanted with the lilac-purple Rhododendron ‘Praecox’, while those that are used for ground cover benefit from a generous sprinkling of blue grape hyacinths or muscari in their midst.

Potentillas, hypericums and periwinkles

What the forsythias do for the spring, the potentillas do for the summer, especially the shrubby types like Potentilla dahurica and P. fruticosa. It is not the parents that are of great interest, but their progeny, like the pure white ‘Abbotswood’ and its contem­porary ‘Mount Everest’, both derived from the short compact P. dahurica. Cultivars of P. fruticosa tend to be larger and more rangy, witness the two popular yellow culti­vars ‘Katherine Dykes’ and ‘Moonlight’. ‘Tangerine’ is an excellent orange-yellow which stands alone, together with the rich yellow ‘Elizabeth’. No mention of potentil­las would be complete without ‘Red Ace’, a controversial plant which has gained tremendous publicity for potentillas both favourable and ill. When growing in a situa­tion to its liking it is quite outstanding, but I have equally seen it looking washed out and sad. However, the lovely rich carmine-pink ‘Royal Flush’ looks to be stealing its thunder and is likely to be the potentilla of the future.

Alongside potentillas I would place hypericums as plants for the summer. Not only the common rose of sharon, Hypericum calycinum, but many lesser known kinds, especially the named varieties. One of the best of these is ‘Elstead’, a cultivar derived from H. inodorum with small flowers and spectacular fruits. The soft yellow blossoms are produced in terminal clusters and fol­lowed by the most brilliant salmon-red ber­ries. Hypericum androsaemum is of similar habit with golden flowers and glossy black fruits. The cultivar ‘Hidcote’ provides the largest flowers of any of the hypericums. Of indeterminate origin, this has spreading saucer-shaped blossoms of rich golden-yel­low which smother the plant from late sum­mer until early autumn. Unlike most hy­pericums it forms a compact bush scarcely 1-5 m (5 ft) high. Hypericum moseranum is smaller still, a compact ground hugging plant with attractive fresh green leaves and myriad bright yellow flowers.

I am not sure whether periwinkles are shrubs or not, but they are of a persistent nature and more or less evergreen. They are also exceedingly useful, flourishing in dark dry corners where nothing else will grow. Here they produce starry blossoms of blue, white or maroon with a frequency that seems to be directly proportional to the harshness of the conditions that they are compelled to endure. The lesser periwinkle, Vinca minor, and greater periwinkle, V. major, are those that adorned cottage gar­dens in years gone by, together with culti­vars like ‘Alba’ and ‘Burgundy’, and the double flowered ‘Multiplex’. All flower from late spring until mid-summer amongst handsome dark green foliage.

However, it is not one of these that I favour, but the soft blue V. difformis, a well behaved native of southern Europe which, if given a little shelter, will flower continu­ously from late autumn until early summer. The inward glow and feeling of wonder engendered by just a glimpse of its starry blossoms peeping through the winter snow would be ample justification for its inclusion in my garden.

Daphne and Rubus

So would the scent of the daphnes, for these are amongst the finest fragrant shrubs for the small garden. Few cottage gardens do not accommodate at least one plant of our native mezereon, Daphne mezereum. During late winter and early spring the naked branches of this elegant little shrub are wreathed in blossoms of rich reddish-purple, followed by vivid scarlet berries. Unfortunately it is not a long-lived shrub and therefore requires regular replacement. Luckily it produces viable seed in abun­dance which, if sown immediately it ripens, germinates freely. Seedlings must be pot grown as they resent root disturbance and do not transplant successfully from open ground.

Some of the decorative brambles will tolerate a bit of shade, but usually fare better in the open. Brambles are not usually thought of as desirable garden plants as the wild thorny species have given them a bad name. This is unfortunate, for the genus Rubus as a whole embraces some of the most interesting shrubs for the informal garden. Of course some are conventional and thorny, like the white-washed brambles. These are species of modest growth with stems of glistening white. Where space can be found they present a picture of stark beauty, their naked white stems sparkling in the winter sunshine against a backdrop of dark evergreens. Rubus bijlorus and R. cock-burnianus are the usual ones grown, easy­going characters that ask for little more than an open position and the annual removal of canes.

Other flowering shrubs

There are so many other shrubs that 1 could describe that would enhance a cottage gar­den. Mock oranges or philadelphus with their fragrant summer blossoms of cream and white. Various brooms in every shape, size and hue imaginable. Some like the Mount Etna broom, Genista aetnensis erupt into a great fountain of gold, others like Cytisus kewensis create tumbling creamy cascades. There are the winter flowering viburnums, V. farreri and V. bodnantense, with fragrant flowers of cream and pink. The common laurustinus, V. tinus, sporting pinkish-white clusters of tiny blossoms amongst handsome dark evergreen foliage. The witch hazel, Hamamelis mollis, its branches outstretched and revealing fra­grant red and gold blossoms during mid­winter.

Every season has its possibilities and some of these I have noted. Get out into the countryside and see what other gardeners are doing. It is even better to visit private gardens that are open to the public for charity, especially those belonging to small suburban gardeners.