11 Long Flowering Perennials For A Cottage Garden Look

Let's take a look at some wonderful cottage garden type perennials which are ones that really do well flowering non-stop through the summer months. Hello, I'm Rosie Hardy, this is Rosie Hardy Gardening. If you enjoy this video, please leave a like and leave a comment below. Now it wouldn't be a cottage garden without something like the delphiniums and delphiniums are very much a good mainstay and a tall plant, elegant plant, for the back to the middle of a border. Now this particular one is one of the King Arthur series and these are the Pacific Giants, so these are grown from seed. That will mean that in the King Arthur group you are basically getting a dark purple back petals at the back here, but quite often the centers are different colors, so in this particular one it has got white in the center here. Sometimes you will get black or otherwise you will get deep purple as well. That is just seedling variation because you cannot with the seed actually get specific types, even when you grow the white forms, sometimes they'll have a black center or sometimes they'll have a white center. If you want to keep them because you prefer one color over another, then you're going to have to take basal cuttings in the spring, so once you've got your plants growing and there's one that you prefer to the rest, that's the one that you will divide or that's the one that when it comes up and creates a lovely base, you'll take some early cuttings and then you can keep on going with that particular form. They are wonderful plants, these particular ones will grow anywhere between five and six feet tall, so that's somewhere here above me, and you know they were really elegant for the middle of the border. Remember though, delphiniums are quite fussy with the soil that they are in, they do like it to be rich, they're quite greedy, so you need to be making sure that they go into a good hole with a lot of organic matter mixed in there and then that in their first season they are well looked after and then they will last probably five or six years as a reasonable clump, but you do need to split them in that time and you do need to probably take yourself some cuttings as well. If you want to take seed from your own, you're going to get a really different lot, I mean if you don't mind that, and actually in a cottage garden style garden, you want a whole lot of different colors in there, but these are really reliable from seed, they're a really lovely form, so this one is King Arthur, delphiniums are beautiful, you may need to stake them, but if you don't over water them and don't give them too much nitrogen feed, then they should hold themselves up well and you should get good stems. Otherwise, when you see them coming up, put in some ring support there or whatever you use your supports so that they can go through that support and then they will be absolutely fine. That is your delphinium. Now there are some things which are really good and really striking and look fantastic and the beauty of cottage garden style is that anything goes, so you can put in a mix and match of all sorts of things and this one the Silene, Silene chalcedonica or Maltese cross is a really beautiful thing. Now the reason why it's called the Maltese cross is because of the shape of the individual florets, they look like the Maltese cross when you look at them, so yeah, except that I don't think people can count because the Maltese cross as far as I can remember is four star, whereas this is five, but hey, that's just one of those things, but anyway, it is a clump former, it's got hairy stems, it's got slightly hairy leaves, so it wants to go preferably, it will get up to just under a meter in height and it will make clumps out to probably about 18 inches or 45 centimeters, so it makes a really good clump in the border, tends to hold itself up well, you don't tend to need to do anything about staking it. Once the first flowers are finished, you'll get more flower coming outside, so it is worthwhile giving it a dead head because if you give it a dead head, you will find that it's not putting all its energy into seed in here and so you'll get more flower coming through, so this is one I would advise deadheading, if you want to collect seed from this then you use your later flowers for actually doing your deadheading. So as I say, full sun for this one, any reasonable soil and it will be perfectly fine, you can divide it or you can take it from seed. Foxgloves, now there are lots and lots of different foxgloves and I've just chosen one which is a newer variety rather than an older variety because this is a really good dwarf foxglove, this one is called Goldcrest and it has these beautiful typical foxglove flowers here, a lovely shade of apricot and soft peach on these flowers and it flowers all the way up the stem, it is a shorter growing one, only about 50 centimeters in height so just over a foot and a half and then it makes a lovely clump, now this is a sterile one and it's important to understand there are other ones that are not and they will seed around, so because this is a sterile form, it will keep blooming, keep blooming and that is what it does, so at the moment it's got two flower spikes on here, it does have secondary flower spikes coming out the side as well, so all of these leaves have got little buds in here, these will be secondary spikes, it's got more flower spikes being produced down here at the bottom here, so this is going to have five or six flower spikes on it when it's in full flower, this young plant and then it is a perennial, now it's not a long-lived perennial, probably about four years but that's absolutely fine, now you won't be able to reproduce it from seed, that doesn't happen, but you can take rosettes off in the spring and move it around, that would be absolutely no problem at all, so lovely dark green foliage on this, it's a good plant for the front of the border and foxgloves are a real mainstay in a cottage garden style, so you can have the tall spires of Digitalis purpurea or you can go for some of these smaller ones which are really beautiful, but a cottage garden wouldn't be without a foxglove in there somewhere and I just thought this was a lovely little one to just show you that style that you can get, so this is quite, as I say, quite new breeding and sterile, so it's not going to seed around all over the place. Another one which is a real mainstay of borders in cottage gardens are the leucanthemums or the shasta daisies, look at these beautiful big white daisies here, this particular form has got large outer petals, inner smaller petals and it does eventually get a yellow center in there which has got the pollen etc on it, they are great, they stand up really well, this particular one is leucanthemum eistein, it's a superbum type and the superbum types mean that they have got big flowers on them and they do make large clumps and they will grow in virtually any soil you would like, they don't like to dry out too much, but some of these older varieties with the much narrower foliage are better to able to go through the hotter, drier periods as well, so as long as these are planted out in the autumn or very early spring in the garden, they will get established, they will make big clumps, don't think that they're going to be small, they will make big clumps, so you're going to have something that is up to two feet, 60 centimeters round as a large clump, they do tend to have really strong stems so they will hold themselves up well, middle heights are somewhere between two and three feet, so that's 60 to 90 centimeters and then they re-bloom and it is a good idea because these flowers will go and go brown, so it is a good idea to deadhead down and let the other flowers come through and it will flower for a good length of period, if you do deadhead, don't cut off here, cut off down to where this is, so you're cutting off down here, letting this flower come through, it will then produce more flowers from down here, so probably once every fortnight or something, maybe if it's the hotter summer, you'll be deadheading maybe once a week to once a fortnight, just getting these down and keeping it looking happy, so they will do really well in a good sunny to part shade position, don't put them in full shade or they will do that and they will head for the light, but that is something to do, so very very good plant, easy to lift and divide, just a wonderful one, lovely big white daisy for the borders. Scabios, now this beautiful pink Scabios is Scabiosa Cudo pink and Scabiosa it's an incisor variety, the incisors are the ones which have got much smaller foliage and much more cut, it means that it's a more compact variety and this one was bred in Japan and there is a series of these, you get them in blue, you get them in pink, you get them in white and I think there are some other colors coming out as well, but the first one to come out was this one and we introduced this at Chelsea many years ago, so this is a beautiful form, they're really really good, now Scabios are wonderful because they do nicely as cut flower, that's why they're grown a lot, you do get a lot of the border big tall ones, the border big tall ones don't tend to last as long, whereas these slightly shorter ones are far better, now Scabios as a general love alkaline soils, so if you are in an acidic area you may struggle to grow something like the Scabios, so they do prefer it slightly alkaline to neutral which is fine, full sun so you can go right at the front of the border, they've got these lovely tall stems on here, so they're ideal for cutting, even these ones, they've got lovely long stems, this again is one that is sterile because it's been bred to bloom and bloom and bloom, so you've got your first blooms out here, you've got your next ones here, you've got more here and there's more bud to come, so it just continually keeps on going, yes it's worth deadheading this because these will go brown, these heads, sometimes you can leave them just pull the petals off and the head there's nice, but otherwise it's a good idea to just cut them back and let the others come through, so you'd be doing that probably once a week just noticing when they are because at the end of the day it's a good idea because otherwise they're wasting energy on dead stems, just allow them to come through, if you like deadheads there then leave them, it's really up to you whichever you want. At the base the clump is going to make about a foot, 30 centimeters, height wise it's just over a foot, so it's probably near a 40 centimeters in height, somewhere between 35 and 40, but a really good scabious free flowering, continually flowering right the way through to the autumn, so that is a fabulous one to have and look after. If you like my gardening advice then why not sign up to my email newsletter, that will help you understand what I get up to through the month and it gives you plenty of tips on what to propagate and my favorite plants for the month, also jobs in the garden that are ready for you to do. As a bonus for everyone who signs up you get an exclusive video, this is me looking at plants and color combinations in a garden that I helped to design. Nepetas, there are lots and lots of different nepetas, a cottage garden wouldn't be without a nepeta there, they are such a magnet for all of the insects to come in, they are really really beautiful, this is a slightly different form, this is Nepeta Nuda, this is a very upright growing form, this one is native to central and western Asia, so that is where it naturally grows and it is going to get up to about a meter in height with its flowering stems, square stems as all of the nepetas are, so that means that you are going to have a really good upright plant, it flowers, it looks superb, there are quite a few different varieties or different named forms of this, but this is the straight Nepeta Nuda, this particular one, the stems are a lovely dark color so they contrast well with this massive flower that you get on the top, lovely lilac flowers going through on this, so you can imagine it just looks like a haze of lilac in the border, it's really really beautiful, you don't need to stake it, the square stems hold it up really well and it flowers for such a long period, it is a really good form, so there are lots of other lower growing forms that you could get but I thought now let's show you something slightly different and look out for some of them, there's a lovely one out there and I can't remember its name, that's actually got more purple toned foliage with a slightly pink flower, that looks absolutely fantastic as well, there's a white form so you can get these tall beautiful Nepetas and the other beauty of these is that the cats don't go for these ones, so that is something to be aware of, so you're not going to get the cats rolling in this type of Nepeta, but it is a good central of the border, good for all of the pollinators to come in, you've got a beautiful hoverfly just come in there as well, so they are a fabulous stalwart, the garden, you can take cuttings in the early spring when there's nice young foliage to take cuttings from, when the plant is a little bit older you can divide it and it does like to be in full sun and it will tolerate most soil types, now there are some things which are very sort of typical for a cottage garden which are quite aggressive in the way that they grow, so do be aware that this one the Adenophora or ladybells, it's related to a Campanula, but if you look at all of this growth at the bottom here, this is a spreader, it does take over a little bit, so do be aware of that, but it is a fantastic free flowering, continually flowering plant for the middle of the border and in poorer soils where you can't get a lot of other things to grow, this will actually grow, it's got quite hairy quite tough leaf which means it's actually very resilient and I think a lot of resilient plants tend to be things which are on the thuggy nature because they are able to take over and expand, so we are going to have to re-look at some of the things perhaps that we put in because we're not going to be able to water our gardens all the time and if you put in properly and then you don't water you will find what stays and what comes back, but this thing is it's lovely, it's upright, it's tall, it's got these beautiful purple bells on here, there are some newer varieties that have been bred to be a little bit shorter, there's a beautiful white one for instance, but they're really great and you know if they do spread around a bit then just dig down and get them out, that's the thing or grow them in a container, they will do perfectly well, so put them in a border maybe where there is an edge and it can't go any further and it can't migrate into another area, but it at least will grow there, so one of these borders you know quite often people have steps and then there'll be a little border and it's got the house or it's got a fence or something there and that border is always difficult to grow things in, something like this will grow in there perfectly well and will give you plenty of flower and really good and of course because it's got lots of pollen it's good for the insects as well, so don't be misguided by things that do go and take off a little bit, yes they're not ideal for smaller gardens but you can put them into places and keep them contained, so that is something to think about, so that is the Adenophora and then another one which can also make a big clump but it's really worth growing is the Lysimachia and this is Lysimachia clathroides, now Lysimachia clathroides is often known as the shepherd's crook Lysimachia loosestrife or the gooseneck, I prefer the name shepherd's crook because that's what it does, so as the flower bud starts it's in the shepherd's crook and then as it starts to open so the crook straightens up a bit but what you will also find which is quite interesting is that the flowers are all open on one side of the actual stem so they're all flowering on the top so although there are a few buds at the bottom they all seem to migrate around to the front, this is used an awful lot in flower arranging because obviously you can put the flower in like that and all of the flower is on the flat bit like so but it's a brilliant garden flower as well, it is very tolerant it does prefer a moderate amount of moisture if it can but even in really dry conditions it will look unhappy and then it will spring back into life so again this is another very resilient plant and it does incredibly well so this will make a big clump as well now I didn't say what sort of size the Adenophora got to but both of these are going to spread to at least 60 centimeters if not a meter so I would say go for more a meter in the width that they're going to be probably a little bit more the Adenophora is going to be a meter meter 20 in height the Lysimachia here is going to get to somewhere around about three just under three feet so it'll be anywhere between 70 and 90 centimeters in height now because these are spreaders they you lift divide cut up and they will be absolutely fine but they are really excellent they're very much a traditional cottage garden style plant for the borders now something else which a lot of cottage gardens would have are the pinks and yes this is not a pink pink this is yellow this is the only yellow form wild form that you will get this is native to Bosnia and this is called Dianthus Napii beautiful soft lemon yellow on really quite willowy stems now this is a short-lived alpine dianthus so it the one plant will live between four to five years but because it is a species it will come true from seed so you can get seedlings and they will produce but it's just a lovely plant you know it's coming out it's willowy has lots and lots of these little lemon yellow flowers it's for the front of the border it will go in free draining so it's very very good for those those sort of xeric conditions absolutely ideal little plant it at the base it's not actually growing very far out but then it's branching as its flowering stems come out like this i think it's a lovely airy plant it's really good full sun free draining as i say height is what it is sort of here so only going to get to about a foot 30 centimeters the base of the plant is going to be under a foot probably about 10 inches 20-25 centimeters at the base there but just a really beautiful thing and it will just give you that lovely airy effect at the front of the border so that one is dianthus nappii and then there are cilene another cilene completely different from the red one there this is the little white cilene cilene uniflorum and it's beautiful it's got these lovely white flowers followed by these bladders that are at the back here so once it dies off and you've got a dead head like this you don't have to take it off because it's going to free flower you will quite often see these growing along the coastal paths if you're walking around the uk because it's a native plant in the coastal areas so it's quite happy in windy conditions it's quite low it's got this gray foliage likes full sun doesn't get very tall and just a nice clump and good for the front of the border a good plant for there it will sell seed about a little bit but it's not that intrusive you can collect some and keep it going in that way but yeah it's a lovely front of border type of plant now i'm going to finish on something which is a plant that there are lots and lots of confusion about the naming on and this one is aster fricatii monk this is still an aster this is a european aster and they are still called asters these are not even though the color labels on these will call them mycomastases these are not mycomastases are your later flowering your autumn flowering daisies which are in the symphia tritum group so this is an aster which is midsummer these are really popular plants because they will grow anywhere between two foot and three foot so that is 60 centimeters and nearly a meter in height depending on your soil type they will go in full sun they are virtually mildew free so completely mildew resistant hairy stems and hairy leaves so they'll tolerate quite a little a lot of dry you can put them sun to part shade and they will be really happy they re-bloom they re-bloom they start for such a long time they are really good plants so these ones have these beautiful lilac asters in the middle in lovely daisy flowers lots of flower bud to come they hold themselves well they don't make massive clumps so you're going to be talking about a maximum of probably about 18 inches 45 centimeters then by that two or three foot up there so they are really good the reason why i say they are not mycomastases is that mycomastases have to are day length sensitive and will not flower until the daytime is these ones the asters are starting to flower in summer so they will be flower in flower june july august into september mycomastases start in september so it's a misconception the name on these color labels it's got the correct name it is an aster um so you know that is something but these are really good these are traditional things that you would put in a cottage garden these lovely daisies and make a really wonderful summer display long summer blooming plants so there we go we have a collection of beautiful plants for you to have a look at and just think about them for your summer spread of color long blooming a little bit of deadheading required and then they're absolutely fine now i always like to put these plants together so let's just get a cottage garden feel with these plants that i've got here and we've got some lovely things for the front of the border with lovely combinations of flower shape and color with these so we'll have those at the front we've got our lovely digitalis here and we're going to put the aster probably here give us a bit there the delphinium is going to come at the back we'll have it here then we've got our big daisy we've got our other tall blue which can come in behind that there the lissomachia could probably go there let's have a splash of red right in the middle like that oh my table's having a bit of a moment and then i'll just yeah so we've got to remember that this will be taller i'll put that there because that can be in a sunny position so there we go hopefully that gives you a little bit of a idea of the plants and these are far too close together you wouldn't be planting them at that distance but if they grew out they would all be looking so good so you've got spikes you've got flat heads you've got different colors and it just gives you a lovely look so there we go cottage garden style long flowering blooming perennials and they would just look fantastic and give you so much pleasure thank you very much for watching and please do subscribe to the channel if you want to watch another video of mine youtube thinks this one is perfect for you