Buying plants for colourful cottage garden

[SilverSixpence]

Can anyone advise on what I should buy and where from? I have a completely bare patch approx 4 sq metres to fill with colour. It only gets partial sun. I love cottage gardens and would like to recreate the look. Is it realistic to plant lots of new plants to bloom this year?

classic cottage garden plants are things like lupins, hollyhocks, aquilegia, rambling and bush roses, and honeysuckle, with bedding such as candytufts, marigolds and nasturtiums. But afaik, all of these love sun. Hope a really green-fingered person comes on soon and can suggest cottage garden plants for partial shade.

Some partial-shady plants that are cottagey in a way are hydrangea, some types of clematis climbers as well as any form of mint.

What exactly is it about cottage gardens you like? Is it the many colours mixed together, the jumbled up planting, the mixing of edibles and flowers or the specific plants?

Getting a more precise idea of what you like will make it easier to recreate it with plants more adapted to your conditions.

I like the colourful mix of flowers and the classic cottage garden flowers like climbing roses, hollyhocks, delphinium etc. I will assess how much sun we actually get tomorrow as until yesterday the whole bed was overshadowed with ivy. Will post a photo too.

I would recommend ground cover hardy geraniums ,they're brilliant and are virtually impossible to kill and look after themselves just getting bigger every year .They are a gardening must have !

Plenty of plants you can grow in semi shade - geraniums as Floral suggests, Aquilegia, Peonies, Alchemilla, Astrantia, Digitalis, Campanula, Honeysuckle and climbing roses if there is sun at the top of the plant.
Now isn't the best time to be planting, can you wait until autumn?
Cottage gardens are often created from a random selection of plants which are gifts or from cuttings/seed (or local plant sales) so might be worth bearing this in mind.

Oh really I thought now would be a good time, I am basically a beginner but have grown a few things from seed and have plug plants growing. Should I just do what I can with those this year then wait for autumn? Would I be planting seeds or bulbs then?

If you have seedlings and plug plants then yes do plant now but I wouldn't plant any full sized perennials now unless you are happy to do lots of watering!
Autumn is the best time to plant most things, shrubs, perennials and bulbs.
This is a great site for browsing, advice and plant shopping (great quality plants)
www.plantsforshade.co.uk/

I'm not sure when we planted our geraniums ,they were quite small when I got them ( think my mum ordered them on the Internet) ,we have moved them around a couple of times and a few if them are in a very shady ,damp bed yet they still thrive .

Thanks Pannacotta that website looks useful. I will try not to buy too many plants now and hold on until autumn! i did buy a pretty pale pink rhododendron which I will plant in the corner and keep my fingers crossed.

This is a picture of the garden as it is now, it is the left hand bed that needs filling up.

Crocus sell a nice looking ready made cottage garden - obviously I can buy the same plants from somewhere else (hopefully cheaper ) - would this work albeit an expensive option?

You could do that, Crocus mark up is huge so don't buy from them but no harm in getting ideas.
The site I linked to is good for ideas and advice, they will suggest good and easy plants if you email them details of the soil/aspect etc.

Crocus are terrible find a local nursery or garden centre they usually have sections devoted to different flowers ie. rock garden, water,shady,ferns and cottage etc. A decent nursery will help if you need it

To get a cottage effect I would prioritise covering the fences with vine eyes/wires and planting some climbers and getting some tall shrubs to break up the fence lines and soften the views.
Buddleia are fast growing and very cottagey, try honeysuckle, sweet peas, climbing roses, clematis for the fences.
Easy plants like foxgloves like part shade and will self seed and are good for quick results, buy some in flower now and you will have them forever.

I would also stain the fence panels and concrete posts mid or dark green to make them stand out less.
Concrete panels are not really in keeping with a soft cottagey look.
Some lovely pics here of a small plant filled cottage garden
joanne-orangecottages.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks pannacotta we are having the fences painted in a month as they've only just gone up and need to weather a bit. I started another thread on that but was thinking of using muted clay by cuprinol to make the fences stand out less. I can't do much about the concrete unfortunately as we've already blown the budget replacing the fence!

We have a couple of foxgloves now, one is flowering nicely and one is new. I do plan to put in some honeysuckle and climbing roses . I don't know what vine eyes are, will look them up!

We had a huge ivy up (about 8 feet) on the old fence and since taking that down we have much more light in the garden so I will try using plants for full sun as well as for partial sun.

You can use wood stain on concrete too it works fine, just looked up the colour and it looks pretty.
There is always a trade off between privacy and light in a garden but if you use deciduous climbers and keep them within check then you wont block too much light. What aspect is the garden?

Btw having looked at your photo again I think dark green wood stain would work well on your fences as it will blend better with the planting, rather than a pretty light colour which may draw attention to your boundaries.
This article has some good planting suggestions
www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/jul/03/english-cottage-gardens

Placed an order from Beth Chatto gardens for my birthday

Not sure quite what I am doing but have bought echinacea, delphinium, sedum, alliums agapanthus and agastache

Will buy climbers after the fence is painted and bulbs to fill the gaps in autumn

Do you know anybody that you can have some plants from? I've started from scratch too and had the basics of a cottage garden from one of mums friends. I also swap stuff with a colleague. If you want to have a go at planting from seed, most perennials will flower next year. I've also picked things up cheaply at a local church fair and the kids school summer fair. I have planted out supermarket pots of herbs and had lots of success, especially with chives -which I love. Like mini alliums, the bees love them, self seed, great colour and will grow in semi shade.

Sounds lovely OP and I do agree with Parliamo, cottage gardening is all about getting plants from family/friends/neighbours/plant sales etc and yy to growing from seed too.
Alliums are perfect as Parliamo says - easy to grow, pretty and great for bees/butterflies.
Delphiniums are not the easiest plants - loved by slugs and they need staking so do get the stakes in before you plant.
What is your soil like?

A very easy thing that looks lovely in a cottage garden is a wigwam of bamboo with sweet peas climbing on it - or in fact edible peas, which are quite pretty too.