Wallflowers and other spring flowering sub­jects which are associated with cottage gar­dens are often also important formal bed­ding subjects. As intimated earlier, formal bedding schemes are definitely out, so re­gard these plants in a different way and treat them as our great grandparents did; merely as additional plants for the border. As long as you choose the standard wallflower culti­vars and avoid the true dwarfs, then this mental transition is not difficult to make. Use mixed strains like ‘Fair Lady’ or ‘Per­sian Carpet’ for making bold  drifts of colour, but utilize single colours such as ‘Blood Red’ and ‘Cloth of Gold, for filling gaps in mixed plantings.

Wallflowers are the gilliflowers of old, not only providing rich colour for the late spring garden, but filling the air with a sweet fragrance. If they remain in good health following flowering allow them to remain, for strictly perennials, they will develop a woody framework and take on the venerable look that wallflowers in cottage gardens should have. Do not forget that other wallflower Cheiranthus allionii, which the botanists now tell us is not a wallflower at all, but which will remain with me as the Siberian wallflower for ever. I have men­tioned elsewhere how useful this bright or­ange, sweetly scented perennial plant can be when associated with the lovely white Iris florentina. However, that is not its only great association for it can be mixed with the azure hummocks of forget-me-not with tremendous effect.

Forget-me-nots are great traditional plants of the cottage garden, but ones which deteriorate quickly if not properly main­tained. Always grow fresh plants each year if you wish to maintain quality as most culti­vars are truly biennial. If they seem to persist it is unlikely that the same plants are flowering each year. Usually it is seed that has dropped into the centre of the crown that germinates and produces what appears to be a perennial plant that the gardener believes is ‘reverting’. Individual forget-me-not plants do not revert, but strains deteriorate with each succeeding generation if not rigorously reselected and nowadays a number of the cultivars popularly grown are of F, origin.

The only forget-me-not that is truly per­ennial and likely to find a place in the cottage garden is the moisture-loving Myo-sotis scorpioides. Sometimes its selected form ‘Semperflorens’ is grown as a perennial in the mixed border on heavy soil or where there is a damp or waterlogged patch. Otherwise the named kinds should be rep­laced each year after flowering. At present there is little to choose in popularity between ‘Blue Ball’ and ‘Royal Blue’, and if you need a white form there is a variety referred to as alba offered by one or two seedsmen. Myosotis are best produced as boxed plants for transplanting during the autumn. Open ground plants are very diffi­cult to manage and almost impossible to get established unless you remove them to their permanent quarters very early in their life. Apart from their value as low growing plants for the front of the border, all the forget-me-nots mix well visually with old fashioned tulips of various kinds and offset the bright colours of wallflowers. Alone they are a little frothy and misty, but as a foil or contrast they are superb.

Polyanthus and pansies

You could not say the same about the polyanthus, for these are available in a wide range of brilliant colours which can be used to highlight particular garden features. They need using with an element of caution, for some of the more recent hybrids tend to have an iridescence that gives a certain brashness that is not in keeping with our concept. Some of the older, smaller flowered and cheaper strains are the most appropri­ate. Avoid any of the ‘Pacific Giants’, the blue-flowered hybrids and those derived from the ‘Cowichan Strain’. Admirable though all of these are, none are really compatible with the spring garden as I see it. If you can get hold of a few of the old named varieties that can only be increased by division after flowering, then do so. These were the true inhabitants of the cot­tage garden, along with fairly mediocre seed raised plants. I am not suggesting that mediocrity be brought into the garden, but where a lot of plants are needed or economy is the order of the day, then select a popular mixture of a seed-house strain. Good colour forms can always be selected and divided to bulk up stocks of desirable plants.

Most pansies have now become so far removed from the little heartsease Viola tricolor, that it is difficult to include them in the cottage garden. I much prefer the face­less violas, for these are of smaller size and equal diversity with a flowering period that often outlasts its cousins. Most are derived from V. cornuta, a most useful blue-flow­ered plant itself which can be raised from cuttings as well as seed. There are separate colours available, but I much prefer a rus­tic-looking mixture like ‘Toyland’. Seed raising is perfectly adequate for this, but do replace the plants each year and weed out any self-sown seedlings. Violas grown well are a great asset, when repeat flowering or growing as second generation accidents they are a disaster. If you must grow pansies, and on reflection perhaps you should, then do not be any more ambitious than trying ‘Swiss Giants’. This strain has all the col­ours that you are likely to require in accep­table shades and the flowers are weather­proof and of sensible dimensions. A new cultivar that I have recently tried in which the flower size is modest and the varying colouration pleasing is called ‘Duet’. Splen­did little plants of similar stature to the bedding violas provided a scintillating show of restful colour from late spring until the first sharp autumn frost.

Other biennials

Another plant that gives value for money, but of which I am always rather nervous, is the double daisy, Bellis perennis, a form of our native wild daisy. Technically a peren­nial, this is another case where it should be treated as a biennial, for if left to seed, a host of undesirable weedy seedlings will become established not only in the border, but in the lawn as well. The majority of popular strains are in shades of pink, red and white and are derived from the full double form of the daisy called monstrosum. There are also a few separate named cultivars about like the red flowered ‘Etna’ and soft pink ‘Alice’.

Named varieties are also making an ap­pearance amongst the sweet williams, although none have acquired great popular­ity. Every gardener that I have spoken to regards the mixed auricula-eyed strains of sweet williams as unbeatable. I have to admit that, for vigour and reliability, I have to agree. Treated as wallflowers they can go on for ever. Well almost, for they are truly perennials and if looked after as such and regularly fed will come up with a good show for a few years.

Relatives of the pinks and therefore within the embrace of the dianthus, they revel in a well-drained, alkaline soil in full sun. I think that they are excellent as mem­bers of the mixed or herbaceous border, but many gardeners grow them for their top quality cut flowers. Whatever your justifica­tion, they are important members of the cottage garden, providing colour and char­acter at that in-between time after the spring flush has finished but before summer blossoming has commenced. Apart from conventional sweet williams there are some annual ones available from certain nurseries that can be sown in early spring for flower­ing the same year.

Further Readings:

• HOW TO RAISE HARDY BIENNIALS
• How to Winterize your Perennial Plants