Cottage garden plants like Hibiscus, Alcea and Geranium are charming and informal.The term "cottage garden" evokes certain images...a small, rustic house with a white picket fence and an arbor, surrounded by a small but densely-packed informal garden containing ornamental plants mixed with culinary and medicinal plants in a charming and graceful way.
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Iris x louisiana 'Red Velvet Elvis'
Item #: 8905
Zones: 6a to 10b
Dormancy: Summer
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: United States Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $28.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $28.00 -
Iris x pseudata 'Yarai'
Item #: 10881
Zones: 5a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $22.40Regular priceUnit price per$28.00Sale price $22.40Sale -
Iris x robusta 'Gerald Darby'
Item #: 1708
Zones: 4a to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun to Light Shade
Origin: United States Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $22.40Regular priceUnit price per$28.00Sale price $22.40Sale -
Iris unguicularis 'Dazzling Eyes'
Item #: 9823
Zones: 6b to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Summer
Height: 15" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Mediterranean Europe, Northern Africa
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $29.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $29.00 -
Iris unguicularis 'Francis Wolseley'
Item #: 6636
Zones: 6b to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Summer
Height: 20" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Mediterranean Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $23.20Regular priceUnit price per$29.00Sale price $23.20Sale -
Iris unguicularis 'Front Drive'
Item #: 18523
Zones: 6b to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Summer
Height: 15" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Africa, Mediterranean Europe, Northern Africa
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $30.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $30.00 -
Iris unguicularis 'Winter Echoes'
Item #: 9981
Zones: 6b to 9b
Dormancy: Summer
Height: 15" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Mediterranean Europe, Northern Africa
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $29.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $29.00 -
Iris versicolor 'John Wood'
Item #: 3908
Zones: 3a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 42" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $28.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $28.00 -
Isodon effusus
Item #: 5413
Zones: 6a to 8b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Japan
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $17.60Regular priceUnit price per$22.00Sale price $17.60Sale -
Jasminum officinale 'Frojas'
Item #: 6245
Zones: 7a to 9b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 120" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: China
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $24.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $24.00 -
Sold outJeffersonia dubia
Item #: 8920
Zones: 4a to 7b, at least
Dormancy: Winter, Fall
Height: 12" tall
Culture: Light Shade to Shade
Origin: Korea, Manchuria region China
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $27.00Next crop available: 07/31/2026Sold out -
Juncus inflexus 'Afro'
Item #: 2925
Zones: 4a to 10b
Dormancy:
Height: 15" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $23.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $23.00 -
Kniphofia 'Flashpoint' PP 31,282
Item #: 17090
Zones: 5b to 8b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 54" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $24.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $24.00 -
Kniphofia 'Hot and Cold' PP 31,185
Item #: 13574
Zones: 5b to 8b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $24.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $24.00 -
Sold outKniphofia 'Lola'
Item #: 4345
Zones: 6a to 10b, guessing
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 84" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $30.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $30.00Sold out -
Kniphofia 'Orange Blaze' PP 31,545
Item #: 13572
Zones: 5b to 8b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $24.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $24.00 -
Kniphofia 'Rocket's Red Glare' PP 30,772
Item #: 13573
Zones: 5b to 8b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $24.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $24.00 -
Kniphofia rooperi
Item #: 3036
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: South Africa
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $26.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $26.00 -
Kniphofia 'Tiki Torch'
Item #: 16744
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 42" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid, South Africa
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $27.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $27.00 -
Kniphofia 'Yellow Cheer'
Item #: 1574
Zones: 7a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 52" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid, South Africa
Pot Size: 2 qt. (1.9 L)
Regular price $19.20Regular priceUnit price per$24.00Sale price $19.20Sale -
Sold outKosteletzkya virginica 'ACE Basin'
Item #: 9520
Zones: 5a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 60" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $24.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $24.00Sold out -
Lachnocaulon anceps 'Johnston Gem'
Item #: 18756
Zones: 7a to 10b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 5" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $24.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $24.00 -
Lantana camara 'Ham and Eggs'
Item #: 5452
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Central America, Mexico, South America
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $16.80Regular priceUnit price per$21.00Sale price $16.80Sale -
Lantana camara 'Miss Huff'
Item #: 826
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Central America, Mexico, South America
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $21.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $21.00
More Information About Cottage Garden Plants
Cottage gardens and the plants in them, are modest rather than grandiose and informal rather than architectural. Here at Plant Delights Nursery we have an enormous on-line plant catalog and we have searched through it to create this mini-catalog of cottage garden plants that look great in the informal garden.
What is a Cottage Garden?
Traditional cottage gardens are staples of the English countryside and generally contain hardy European plants, but there is no set list of cottage garden plants because cottage gardens may contain any plant that is tough, functional, and easy to obtain. Thus, depending on where you live, you are free to create variations on the cottage garden theme with other plant types like Mediterranean plants, desert southwest plants, US prairie plants, African plants, Chinese plants, Japanese plants, and others.
Traditional English Cottage Garden Plants
The traditional English cottage garden typically contains a variety of plants.
Flowering plants such as aconitum, achillea, alcea, aquilegia, campanula, coreopsis, dianthus, digitalis, geranium, lilium, paeonia, primula, viola, chrysanthemum, and roses
Woodland plants such as alchemilla, anemone, antirrhinum, convallaria, dicentra, hepatica, polygonatum, pulmonaria
Conifers like juniperus or chamaecyparis
Ornamental fruit trees like Punica granatum 'Eight Ball'
Herbs such as agastache, artemisia, calamintha, nepeta, origanum, lavandula, rosmarinus, salvia, saponaria.
Vines such as clematis
Woody perennials such as hydrangea
Native Cottage Garden Plants
There are many non-European plants that fit into this rustic theme. American gardeners can select native cottage garden plants like aster, heuchera, hibiscus, echinacea, eupatorium, rudbeckia, monarda, gaillardia, phlox, oenothera, solidago, veronica, and vernonia.
A chinese or japanese native plant fan could use hosta, aspidistra, iris, paeonia, chrysanthemum, lilium, hibiscus, polygonatum, cryptomeria and others.
And someone living in the Southwest US could really stretch the theme and create an informal garden of desert cottage garden plants like agave, amorpha, anisacanthus, salvia, eupatorium, delosperma, sedum, cheilanthes, yucca, echeveria, erythrina and opuntia.
























