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
Several Echinacea Bravado plants by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden display rosy-purple blooms with orange-brown centers among lush green leaves, brightening the vibrant garden with more flowers and foliage in the background.
Perennial

Echinacea Bravado

Big rosy-purple daisies, ten to twelve centimetres across,…

Sow: Feb–Apr · Sep–Oct
£2.30 View
Feverfew by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd features small white daisy-like flowers with yellow centers and green, serrated leaves, ideal for outdoor cottage gardens and often started from seed as a medicinal herb.
Perennial

Feverfew

Clouds of small white daisies with yellow button…

Sow: Feb–Apr · Sep
£2.30 View
Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden’s Forget-me-not White features dense clusters of small white star-shaped flowers with yellow centers, nestled among green leaves and grass—a lovely addition to any spring garden or meadow.
Biennial

Forget-me-not White

The white form, and the one to reach for when a corner is too dark for colour

Sow: May–Jul
£2.20 View
Gaura 'Pink Bouquet'
Perennial

Gaura 'Pink Bouquet'

Soft pink four-petalled flowers scattered along slender arching…

Sow: Feb–Apr
£3.40 View
Geum Lady Stratheden by Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd features clusters of yellow semi-double flowers among green foliage—perfect for adding charm to any cottage garden perennial bed.
Perennial

Geum Lady Stratheden

Warm buttery-yellow semi-double saucers on slender wiry stems,…

Sow: Feb–May · Sep
£2.35 View
A striking scarlet-red Geum Mrs Bradshaw flower from Bishy Barnabees Cottage Garden Ltd blooms in a cottage garden, standing out among others along a mulch-covered path with green trees and a cloudy sky in the background.
Perennial

Geum Mrs Bradshaw

Scarlet semi-double ruffled flowers with a cluster of…

Sow: Feb–Apr · 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.