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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Sold outRehmannia piasezkii
Item #: 422
Zones: 7a to 10b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: China
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $22.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $22.00Sold out -
Rhodophiala bifida 'Carmencita'
Item #: 12039
Zones: 7a to 10b
Dormancy: Spring
Height: 12" tall
Culture: Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Argentina
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $24.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $24.00 -
Rhodophiala bifida 'Hill Country Red'
Item #: 3014
Zones: 7a to 10b
Dormancy: Spring, Summer
Height: 15" tall
Culture: Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Argentina
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $23.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $23.00 -
Sold outRhodophiala bifida 'Red Baron'
Item #: 13714
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Spring, Summer
Height: 15" tall
Culture: Sun to Light Shade
Origin: Argentina
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $24.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $24.00Sold out -
Rosa 'Tausendschon'
Item #: 15654
Zones: 5b to 9a, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 144" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 2 qt. (1.9 L)
Regular price $34.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $34.00 -
Rosmarinus officinalis 'Arp'
Item #: 1268
Zones: 7a to 9b, possibly colder
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 84" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Mediterranean Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $22.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $22.00 -
Rubus pentalobus 'Emerald Carpet'
Item #: 729
Zones: 6a to 9b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 6" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Taiwan
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $21.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $21.00 -
Rudbeckia auriculata
Item #: 9404
Zones: 7a to 10b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 96" 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 -
Rudbeckia deamii 'American Gold Rush' PP 28,498
Item #: 17526
Zones: 5a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Sun to Light Shade
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $21.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $21.00 -
Rudbeckia maxima
Item #: 355
Zones: 4a to 9b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 80" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $21.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $21.00 -
Sold outRuellia 'Black Beauty'
Item #: 3918
Zones: 7a to 8b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 10" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: United States Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $22.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $22.00Sold out -
Ruellia elegans 'Ragin' Cajun'
Item #: 8832
Zones: 7b to 10b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Argentina, Brazil
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $21.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $21.00 -
Sold outRuscus aculeatus 'Andre the Giant'
Item #: 17671
Zones: 7a to 9b, possibly colder
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 60" tall
Culture: Sun to Light Shade
Origin: England, Iran, Mediterranean Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $30.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $30.00Next crop available: 03/06/2026Sold out -
Ruscus aculeatus 'Elizabeth Lawrence'
Item #: 5932
Zones: 7a to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 24" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Shade
Origin: England, Iran, Mediterranean Europe, Southern Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $29.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $29.00 -
Ruscus aculeatus 'Wheeler's'
Item #: 1371
Zones: 7a to 9b, possibly colder
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 54" tall
Culture: Part Sun to Light Shade
Origin: England, Iran, Mediterranean Europe, Southern Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $29.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $29.00 -
Ruscus x microglossum 'Eco Gardens'
Item #: 3425
Zones: 7b to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 15" tall
Culture: Light Shade to Shade
Origin: Southern Europe
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $29.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $29.00 -
Salvia 'Amistad' PP 23,578
Item #: 6611
Zones: 8a to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 42" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $22.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $22.00 -
Salvia azurea 'Little Boy Blue'
Item #: 10547
Zones: 4a to 8b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $21.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $21.00 -
Salvia 'Big Blue'
Item #: 16696
Zones: 7b to 10b
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 48" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $21.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $21.00 -
Salvia chamaedryoides
Item #: 688
Zones: 7a to 10b
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 18" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Mexico
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $22.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $22.00 -
Salvia darcyi 'Presidio'
Item #: 17484
Zones: 6a to 10b, possibly colder
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 54" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Mexico
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $22.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $22.00 -
Sold outSalvia farinacea 'Augusta Duelberg'
Item #: 6823
Zones: 7b to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 30" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $21.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $21.00Sold out -
Sold outSalvia farinacea 'Henry Duelberg'
Item #: 6822
Zones: 7b to 9b, at least
Dormancy: Winter
Height: 36" tall
Culture: Sun
Origin: United States
Pot Size: 3.5" pot (24 fl. oz/0.7 L)
Regular price $21.00Regular priceUnit price perSale price $21.00Next crop available: 03/13/2026Sold out -
Salvia 'Feathers Peacock' PP 33,993
Item #: 18547
Zones: 4a to 8a
Dormancy: Evergreen
Height: 16" tall
Culture: Sun to Part Sun
Origin: Hybrid
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.
























