Bishy Barnabee’s Cottage Garden

Cottage Garden Seeds

The timeless favourites that built the cottage garden look

Quick picks
Sow this monthSpring favouritesCut flowersFor the vasePollinatorsBees and butterfliesHardy annualsAutumn-sow readyEasy to growFirst-time friendlyUnder £2.50Stock up favourites
120 products
A hand holds a bouquet of Achillea Rubra Red flowers by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd, with vibrant deep pink blooms and a natural border-radius effect, set in a sunny garden among other pink and white yarrow, trees, and blue sky.
Perennial

Achillea Rubra Red

Deep ruby-red plates over feathery silver-green foliage, and…

Sow: Feb–Apr · Sep–Oct
£2.30 View
Clusters of white Ammi majus flowers by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd bloom densely on green stems, with a few purple blossoms in the sunlight and dreamy blurred trees and a structure in the background.
Annual

Ammi majus

Flat white lace-cap heads on tall slender stems…

Sow: Mar–May · Sep–Oct
£2.20 View
Vivid blue, star-shaped Borage flowers and fuzzy buds from Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd grow on hairy stems with large green leaves, set in a leafy garden beside a wooden fence, bringing vibrant life to the scene.
Herb Seeds

Borage

If you grow one plant for the bees, grow borage

Sow: Mar–Jun · Sep
£2.30 View
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Growing cottage garden classics — your questions answered

What makes a flower a cottage garden classic?

Cottage garden classics are the informal, abundant, self-seeding flowers that filled English country gardens long before bedding-out came into fashion. Think foxgloves, hollyhocks, larkspur, nigella, and cornflowers — flowers grown for their charm and forgiveness rather than uniformity. They mix happily, draw pollinators, and reseed themselves into the cracks of paths and borders.

How do I create a relaxed cottage garden look?

Plant in groups of odd numbers, mix heights deliberately (tall spires at the back, mounding shapes in the middle, low spreading edges at the front), and resist the urge to space everything evenly. Allow self-seeders to do their own thing. The cottage garden look is built from layered abundance, not order — small drifts of many species rather than blocks of a few.

Which classics should I sow first?

For instant cottage garden charm, start with cornflowers, calendula, nigella (love-in-a-mist), and cosmos — all easy from direct-sown seed and flowering within ten to twelve weeks. Add foxgloves and hollyhocks the year after; these are biennials that flower in their second summer, and once established they self-seed for years to come.

Will they come back next year?

Most cottage garden classics will self-seed reliably if you leave a few spent seed heads on the plant in late summer. You will often get drifts of seedlings the following spring — exactly the natural-looking effect that defines the style. A gentle hand with the hoe in spring is the only weeding skill required.