Isabelle Palmer reveals how to create a container display with old-fashioned favourites

With a little planning, you can create a wonderful floral container display with old-fashioned favourites that evokes the feel of a country cottage garden

Summer is a time to enjoy life outdoors and in the garden. Even if you live in a busy town or city, with only a small courtyard at your disposal, you can create a container cottage garden that conjures up images of summer days, and enjoying an abundance of wildflowers, meadows and hedgerows.

Cottage garden pots

Cottage gardens may take their inspiration from the countryside, but with a few choice containers can easily be created in any urban space, too. Most cottage gardens are informal affairs, often a happy blend of ornamental and edible plants that would have supplied the cottage dwellers of the past with fruit, herbs and flowers.

Very often, the containers would have been anything going spare – whether this was an old trough, metal bucket, Belfast sink or a wooden half-barrel. You can recreate that look at home using containers made from classic materials, such as aged zinc, beaten metal, terracotta and wicker. I like to use galvanised metal dolly tubs and zinc planters, which are large and can be filled with an abundance of flowers. A reclaimed onion box or wine crate also makes a perfect container, the warm tones of the wood providing a perfect foil for the plants. If you crave a little colour, then just paint an upcycled container.

Soft tones and muted colours

Gentle, soothing tones and soft colours are the order of the day in a cottage garden, so look out for flowers in shades of purple, mauve, lilac and pink, and add whites and creams to lift the scheme.

One of my favourite schemes uses large zinc planters filled with mauve, purple and white flowers. For thriller plants I use Campanula persicifolia, with its lovely mauve flowers on tall stems, Hydrangea macrophylla and the feather reed grass, Calamagrostis x acutiflora, whose beige plumes wave softly in the summer breeze.

I underplant these thriller plants with white snapdragons, white dahlias, English lavender and purple Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’.

If you’d prefer a warmer colour scheme, then fill a planter with flowers in shades of pink, soft apricot and cream. I like to combine the statuesque foxglove Digitalis purpurea ‘Dalmatian Peach’ with Achillea ‘Summer Berries’, Echinacea ‘Sunseekers Salmon’ and Salvia ‘Kisses and Wishes’. I also include some English lavender, with its divine fragrance that evokes a cottage garden.

Summer brights

Some cottage gardens, however, are a veritable riot of colour, so don’t hold back from using hot and fiery colours and fill your containers with summer brights – the jewel box of colours can look amazing in the bright, sunny days of summer.

For these colour combinations I tend to favour more natural-looking containers. A particular favourite is a reclaimed onion box packed with scarlet, orange, dark pink, purple and black flowers above a backdrop of lush green leaves. A winning combination includes the Lupinus ‘Gallery Red’ crimson Salvia ‘Ember’s Wish’, soft pink Astrantia ‘Roma’, deep purple Aquilegia vulgaris var. stellata ‘Black Barlow’, Anemone Saint Brigid ‘Governor’, Osteospermum Serenity Red, nearblack Viola ‘Molly Sanderson’ and Verbena ‘Lanai

Early Deep Red’. This selection highlights the importance of foliage – the fan-like lupin leaves adding an extra layer of interest and drama to the scheme.

If you want to go all out with colour, then a large metal dolly tub filled with rainbow hues is the answer. There is no attempt at harmonising the shades here, so just choose a range of bright colours, sit back and enjoy the show. We are spoilt for choice at garden centres at this time of year in terms of colour, but the following selection is sure to make an impact: pale blue Campanula persicifolia ‘Cornish Mist’; red snapdragons; Anemone coronaria ‘De Caen Group’ and Saint Brigid Group ‘Lord Lieutenant’; Dahlia ‘Sweet Nathalie’ and pale orange ‘Rachel’s Place’; Papaver nudicaule Gartenzwerg Group and Spring Fever Series; and Petunia ‘Tumbelina Susanna’ with its ruffled pale yellow flowers.

Don’t feel you have to follow a specific colour theme. The plants traditionally grown in cottage gardens tend to be self-seeders, which can lead to many unplanned but still wonderful results; a jumble of different colours and textures is absolutely fine. Just make sure you include plants of various sizes, from low-growing thymes to stately delphiniums, as well as those with different habits and textures. You are trying to recreate a feeling of abundance and informality.

Ubiquitous cottage garden blooms

There are so many lovely cottage garden plants to choose from to try and replicate the soft, romantic look, with lots of flowers tumbling together, but in containers. I opt for traditional, old-fashioned flowers that take you back to yesteryear, like majestic delphiniums, structural lupins and tall foxgloves. Add a selection of plants with daisy-like flowers, such as echinacea, anthemis and cosmos, and include scented flowers, such as roses, lilies and nicotiana – Nicotiana x sanderae ‘Perfume Deep Purple’ is a real favourite for its gorgeous colour as well as the scent. These are all mainstays of the cottage garden. Climbers, too, with favourites including wisteria, climbing roses and sweet peas. It is easy to grow container climbers by training them up garden canes or a framework of twiggy branches for a more natural look. The flowers of sweet peas are delightful and can be cut regularly to enjoy their fragrance indoors.

No self-respecting cottage garden would be without a collection of herbs, as these were the mainstays of the cottage cooking pot and medicine chest. Fragrant English lavender is ubiquitous, but so are other herbs such as sage, marjoram, rosemary and thyme. Not only can these be used in the kitchen, but their various scents are so evocative, and nothing could be better than sitting in your garden enjoying the colours and scents of your container cottage garden.

Many of these beautiful cottage garden plants will also attract bees, butterflies and other beneficial insects into your outdoor space, so you will be doing your bit for the environment, too, by including them in your container scheme.

The beauty of the chosen flowers in your container speak for themselves, but there are a few things you can do to finish the look. Adding a decorative trim, such as pebbles, chippings or moss to the top of the container not only provides a final flourish, but also slows down evaporation.

Opposite: A palette of soft pastels, such as mauve, lilacs and pinks, combined with whites and creams can always be relied on to provide a cottage garden feel, like here with English lavender, white snapdragon, and bellflowers Left: The pretty planting choice in this container is based on a combination of shades of pink, enhanced by the apricot foxgloves that add height, while achillea flowers attract bees and other beneficial insect visitors

Above: The simple flowers of petunias, anemones and poppies create an informal combination that is perfect for a curved zinc dolly tub Top right: A cottage garden on a miniature scale, here pinkish red lupins, African daisies and salvias create a harmonious scheme in a rustic-looking old onion box repurposed as a planter Above right: The aim with the flowers here is to create a kaleidoscope of colour

Above left: Try various mixed combinations of plants in a cottage garden container, such as large, daisylike cosmos with roses and trailing ivy, but try to achieve a soft look, with the flowers all tumbling together gently Above right: Herbs were a mainstay of traditional cottage gardens so include some in your container garden display