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When to plant a cottage garden border?

Windways137Windways137 Posts: 18
in Plants
Hi all,
We are currently redesigning our garden and want to plant our flower beds in a cottage garden style. There is loads of advice online about what type of plants to put in but when is the best time to plant it? I’m guessing spring but was wondering if maybe you could plant it up in autumn and whether any of it could successfully be planted from seed (bearing in mind we are very amateur gardeners!)
Many thanks 

Posts

  • pandakoalagirl49lS9c8QR_pandakoalagirl49lS9c8QR_ Posts: 71
    what plants do you think of as cottage garden? a lot can be planted in the summer to come up in spring e.g. honesty, wallflowers, foxgloves, delphiniums, poppies, cornflowers. Some of these can be sown in autumn, like poppies, right up to about November, like sweet peas. Or you can get a heated propagator and grow your antirrhirum, dahlias, cosmos over the winter.

    Alternatively yes you can wait till spring and grow a huge array of flowers from seed - mallows are nice, cornflowers, pansies...

    Roses you can buy bare rooted in November and they will come out the following May or June.

    I mean it starts with what your idea of a cottage garden is. You just have to think about what flowers you really love then Google the best time to sow or plant them. x
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,043
    Decent sized hardy perennials can be planted in autumn. Spring is good too. Then they can grow some roots before the cold of winter or the drought of summer. Hardy annuals can be sown in autumn or spring. Half hardy annuals must be planted out after risk of frosts, can be sown on a window sill or bought as plug plants in spring.
    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • edhelkaedhelka Posts: 2,351
    Perennials can be planted almost anytime, if they are big enough, if it isn't too dry or if the ground isn't frozen.
    Big enough = 2l pots. If they are smaller, like 9cm pots, it depends on the plant and on the timing, some can be planted, for others it is better to pot on and let them grow bigger.
    Timing for growing from seeds is different for every plant. Some are easier or quicker than others.
    I would recommend checking this supplier https://www.secretgardeningclub.co.uk
    They have a good range of plants from £1.99. If you buy 9cm potted plants now, they will have enough time to get big enough before the winter.
  • WelshwindyhillsWelshwindyhills Posts: 58
    I’m busy already dividing and planting my existing cottage garden.  Here’s a tip for a bargain - try looking in the sale at your garden centre.  The CG plants eg lupins, delphiniums, hollyhocks etc may look a bit sad and unloved now, but 9/10 they’ll thrive next year.  I trim them up, pop them in a bit of compost in the border, perk them up with a dose of Tomorite and keep my fingers crossed! 
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I don't know whereabouts you are @Windways137, but if you buy small plants at this time of year, and you're in a colder, wetter area, it would be better to let them grow on, and plant out later in spring, or even summer. That will depend on the plants too. 
    Planting small plants in autumn here, for example, is pointless  :)
    Many nurseries and GCs will have perennials which are filling pots just now. Some will also have sales. Large perennials can often be divided into two, and sometimes three, plants to pot on and grow for next year. Very good value  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    I can't speak for the harsh wilderness of Scotland, but Autumn or Spring are seen as the optimum time for planting in most of the UK. August is really good if you can commit to watering, as the plants roots will establish well before winter. 9cm stock is becoming the norm for most perennial planting on 'professional schemes' (the latest plantings at Chatsworth were almost all 9cm). There are always exceptions and you should look at the plant descriptions carefully... a plant that is discribed as slow to establish is better planted as 2 or 3l stock, and plants that are susceptible to winter wet are probably best planted in spring unless you have perfect drainage. (They will withstand wet soil better when fully established).

    Growing plants from seed is a good idea but I would focus on plants that flower in their first year from seed, unless you are very patient and have a lot of space for a 'nursery'. I tried Verbascum chaixii 'Album' and Dianthus carthusianorum this year, sowing indoors under growlights in April, and they bulked up fast and started flowering in July.
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    @zehrsonthelake11 ... great to have contributions from 'across the pond' ... however the advertising of businesses is not allowed on this forum without payment ... and as you're posting on what is almost wholly a UK site there is little point in your paying for adverts  ... and for the same reason there really is little/no point in your posting live links to your business website ... unless of course you provide free shipping to the UK? 

    So be a good pal ... carry on joining in and making helpful contributions to the forum ... but don't take the p by advertising your business ... you'll find your posts will be flagged by members and deleted by the Mods. 
     :) 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • YessicaHaircutYessicaHaircut Posts: 164
    @edhelka, thanks for the link to the Secret Gardening Club website - I've just bagged myself some bargain plants. :)
    Sussex coast
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