The beauty of a cottage garden transports you to a bygone era with its old fashioned flowers and classic charm. Flowers abound with endless blooms in a sprawling, haphazard manor that makes you wonder if they all happened there by chance. But designing and selecting flowers for a cottage garden is anything but random.
While traditional English gardens may look effortless, they require deliberate planning to achieve year-round color and visual interest. Place taller plants like sunflowers and hollyhocks to act as a backdrop with a cascade of heights down to smaller flowers like baby’s breath and pansies up front. Plants must be chosen to provide blooms in every season, from colorful spring bulbs and peonies, to eye catching phlox, coneflowers and daisies in the summer, to rich fall tones of sedum and hydrangea.
With height, bloom time and color in mind, you can create an enchanting cottage garden with ease. Your hard work will be repaid with a low maintenance masterpiece you can enjoy year after year. Plus your vegetable garden will thank you for all the added pollination it receives from the bees and butterflies that flock to your flowers.
If you are looking for a more relaxed style, try planting a Wildflower Cottage Garden!
Top 20 Flowers for a Cottage Garden
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1. Hollyhocks
Bloom Time: 4-12 weeks, midsummer to early fall
Height: 6’
Spacing: 18”
Lifecycle: Biennial, they will reseed to self-sow
Growing Zone: 3-8
2. Foxglove
Bloom Time: 4-6 weeks, early to midsummer
Height: 2’-5’
Spacing: 15”-18”
Lifecycle: Biennial, they will reseed to self-sow
Growing Zone: 4-10
3. Hydrangea
Bloom Time: 8-12 weeks, midsummer to early fall
Height: 3’-15’
Spacing: 3’-10’
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 3-9
4. Peony
Bloom Time: 1-3 weeks, mid spring to early summer
Height: 3’-6’
Spacing: 2’-4’
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 3-8
5. Purple Coneflower
Bloom Time: 12-16 weeks, midsummer to mid fall
Height: 2’-4’
Spacing: 18”-24”
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 5-8
6. Daisies
Bloom Time: 12-16 weeks, early spring to late fall
Height: 2’-3’
Spacing: 12”-24”
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 5-8
7. Black Eyed Susan
Bloom Time: 12-16 weeks, early summer to late fall
Height: 2’-3’
Spacing: 24”
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 3-9
8. Baby’s Breath
Bloom Time: 4-6 weeks, midsummer
Height: 18”-30”
Spacing: 9”-13”
Lifecycle: Perennial and annual varieties
Growing Zone: 4-9
9. Yarrow
Bloom Time: 12-16 weeks, late spring to mid fall
Height: 2’-4’
Spacing: 12”-24”
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 3-9
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10. Sunflowers
Bloom Time: 8-12 weeks, midsummer to mid fall
Height: 6’-15’
Spacing: 18”-24”
Lifecycle: Annual, they will reseed to self-sow
Growing Zone: 4-9
11. Pansies
Bloom Time: 12-16 weeks
Height: 6”-12”
Spacing: 6”-10”
Lifecycle: Annual, biennial, or perennial varieties, they will reseed to self-sow
Growing Zone: 4-11
12. Lamb’s Ear
Bloom Time: 2-4 weeks, early to midsummer
Height: 18”
Spacing: 18”-30”
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 4-8
13. Rose
Bloom Time: 6-8 weeks, mid spring to mid fall
Height: 6”-6’
Spacing: 2’-3’
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 4-11
14. Sedum
Bloom Time: 6-8 weeks, early summer to late fall
Height: 1’-3’
Spacing: 12”-24”
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 3-9
15. Poppies
Bloom Time: 4-6 weeks, midsummer to mid fall
Height: 6”-3’
Spacing: 6”-9”
Lifecycle: Annual and perennial varieties, they will reseed to self-sow
Growing Zone: 3-8
16. Garden Phlox
Bloom Time: 6-8 weeks, midsummer to early fall
Height: 2’-4’
Spacing: 18”-24”
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 4-8
17. Daffodils
Bloom Time: 6-12 weeks, late winter to late spring
Height: 4”-20”
Spacing: 3”-6”
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 3-8
18. Crocus
Bloom Time: 2-5 weeks, late winter to early spring
Height: 3”-6”
Spacing: 3”-6”
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 3-8
19. Hyacinth
Bloom Time: 2-3 weeks, early to mid spring
Height: 6”-12”
Spacing: 6”-9”
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 4-8
20. Tulips
Bloom Time: 2-4 weeks, mid to late spring
Height: 8”-18”
Spacing: 3”-6”
Lifecycle: Perennial
Growing Zone: 3-8
Honorable Mention Cottage Garden Flowers
It is so hard to stop after only mentioning 20 cottage garden flowers! To round out your cottage garden, fill in with these lovely additions that didn’t make the top 20:
- Lavender
- Marigold
- Snapdragon
- Allium
- Aster
- Geranium
- Mullein
- Iris
- Lily
- Snow Drop
- Lenten Rose
- Canterbury Bells
- Grape Hyacinth
- Bachelors Buttons
- Columbine
- Bee Balm
- Gazania
- Wisteria
- Ballon Flower
- Lupine
For more flower inspiration check out Wildflower Cottage Garden Design and 20 Perennials that Bloom all Summer!
What’s your favorite cottage garden flower? Mine are Hollyhocks, just gorgeous! Let me know in the comments below. Don’t forget to follow the blog to receive an email when I publish new posts!
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For more inspiration follow my Pinterest Board: Cottage Garden Designs and Flowers.
I love this. A cottage style flower garden is a life goal of mine? Great tips!!
I have most of these planted as well as seeds, so come on over and I’ll split some up for you!
I love peonies! Nothing heralds the arrival of summer quite like them. I love hollyhocks, too, but they don’t love me as I am highly allergic; I call it “getting hocked.”
Hollyhocks take a couple of years to get established. Once they do they are great.
I would love to grow a cottage garden, but I live in southwest Connecticut with rocky, dry soil and shade for most of the summer We also have herds of foraging deer who put on their bibs when they come to my house and eat plants they’re not supposed to like, such as Echinacea, and Black-eyed Susans. They even decapitated my petunias and New Guinea impatiens this year! Forget about tulips, hostas and hydrangeas. I’d love some tips on how to grow a nice cottage garden with a western exposure under these conditions. Thanks!
Anemones are my new love, they are so pretty and Astilbe too 🙂
This is really appreciated that you have presented this data over here, I love all the information shared. It will be very helpful to understand about top 20 flowers for a cottage garden. Great post to share, thanks for publishing this here!!
I live in VT, zone 4b. It would be greatly appreciated if you woukd include each perriennial plant’s zone info in your future posts because many are NOT perriennial here. Thank you! ?????
Hi Dawn! Great feedback. I went ahead and added the growing zone for each flower here. Thanks so much.
Just found you. I like the layout, it’s easy to follow, great pictures and informative. I will be returning. You seem through in your information and research.
Please, I’m not trying to be critical, but the picture you have in #8 labeled as ‘Baby’s Breath’ is Alyssum (Sweet Alyssum).
Keep up the good work.
Hollyhocks grow wonderfully in Tucson and Phoenix AZ. They are impervious to the heart and only need more water when hot.
I love all your flower recommendations, but could you give us ideas as to the placement of them.
Great list of cottage garden flowers! I’m curious to know more about placement ideas for these flowers, especially considering different soil types and sunlight exposure. Would love to hear your thoughts on that!
Great idea for a new article!
This might answer some of your questions:
Unlock the Secrets to a Perfect Garden Layout! (A Reference Tool for Gardeners) https://modernfrontierswoman.com/unlock-the-secrets-to-a-perfect-garden-layout-a-reference-tool-for-gardeners/
Your article helped me a lot, is there any more related content? Thanks!