English cottages enclosed with rustic stone walls and bursting with colour are a thing of wonder. Such beautiful scenes are a nostalgic glimpse of a rural way of life which endured for centuries.

Cottage gardens do not only appeal to our visual senses but emotional senses too. In a world of mass production and geometry cottage gardens give us something rugged and traditional.

It no surprise that English, Cottage, gardens are world renowned and recreated all over the globe.  However cottage garden plants are also loved in exactly the same manner.

Like other cottage elements there is an emphasis on resourcefulness and the contextual.

​Buildings and landscapes evolved with what you had to hand instead of what you could mass produce. Similarly cottage garden plants would often have some form of utility.

Borders were planted with masses of perennial flowers and allowed to grow in an unrestrained manner.

In cottage communities of the past spare time came at a premium! Gardeners placed an emphasis on plants which did not have to be planted every year.

Hence there was always an appreciation of flowering shrubs and perennials within cottage borders.

A need to produce local commodities for the kitchen led an abundance of cut flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables.

In this article I will list some of the best plants for cottage gardens money can buy.