Perennial Seeds for a Cottage Garden

Getting Started

• American cottage gardens more likely contain perennial flowers and herbs but, like their English cousins, are small enclosed gardens with a walk to a front door and perhaps a bench or other structure. Growing your own perennials -- or choosing plants that re-seed prolifically -- is essential to the cottage garden. Nurseries, garden centers, hardware and grocery stores carry perennial seeds along with annual and vegetable seeds. Local garden clubs and native plant societies, however, may provide resources for plants that have proven successful with minimum care in their areas.

Traditional Choices

• Although the choice of perennials for the cottage garden is an individual matter -- the cottage garden is, after all, an individual statement -- some plants are traditional for an old-fashioned garden. Hollyhocks (Alcea rosea), foxglove (Digitalis) and delphiniums line garden walls or grow against fences. Hardy geraniums provide groundcover with bright blue flowers. Pinks (Dianthus) fill summer with white, pink and mauve mini carnations in sunny spots. Some, like the hollyhock, are biennials. They take one year to grow foliage and bloom the second year. Some, such as foxgloves, are toxic in part or whole. Johnny jump-ups are tiny violas that re-seed so prolifically that they will be permanent residents. Traditional perennials are easily seeded directly into the garden.

Native Plants

• Because of the density of plants, the cottage garden must be carefully planned to group plants of similar size and to allow the viewer to see all plants easily. Native plants answer the need for plants to fill in spaces and periods of bloom. Because they are indigenous, they demand little extra fertilizer or watering. Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) and purple coneflower (Echinacea) grow easily from seed across the United States. Fringed bluestar is a southern native that blooms from March to June. Mojave aster (Xylorhiza orcuttii), a shrubby California native, bears blue-lavender flowers. Common yarrow (Achillea millefolium) blooms in white clusters above lacy foliage across most of the United States into Canada. Hybrid cultivars of Achillea, Rudbeckia and Echinacea come in a variety of colors.

Herbs

• Seeds are also available for dozens of herbs, many of which sprout little blue or yellow flowers throughout the summer as they mature. Mints, French tarragon and oregano provide fresh spices for culinary use as well as spikes of delicate blue flowers. Chives spread by rhizomes and produce purple globe-shaped flowers; regularly trimmed plants will keep producing flowers. Chamomile bears white daisylike flowers and lavender blooms in long purple spikes. Herbs will grow in soil or can be sown in containers so they can move to follow the sun or scent an evening dinner by an open window.