13 Charming Shrubs for the Cottage Garden

A well-executed cottage garden is a magical place with layers of evergreens, perennials, shrubs, trees, herbs, edibles, and annuals coming together to create a symphony that is both wild and orderly. 

A proper cottage garden should tell the tale of its owner’s heart and soul. It’s a space filled with all of your favorite things, both living and found items. Every bit should work to tell the story of the person who created it and tends to it.

As with most forms of landscaping, this space needs a solid and noteworthy foundation. A few strategically placed fruit trees make a lovely frame, but the foundation of the cottage garden is shrubby plants. I’m always a fan of adding as many flowers as possible to this space. Here are some of my favorite shrubs to build a beautiful foundation for your cottage garden. 

Note that some of these species may be invasive in your area, and it’s worth learning which ones are before choosing your plantings.

Lilac

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Bloomerang Lilac Bush

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Gardenia

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ScentAmazing® Gardenia

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Camellia

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Purple Haze Camellia

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Camellia ‘Purple Haze’

	common name Camellia ‘Purple Haze’
	botanical name Camellia sasanqua ‘Purple Haze’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 4’-5’
	hardiness zones 7-9

Camellias are beautiful and evergreen, with large, showy flowers against deep green, glossy foliage. Depending on the species, they are versatile in terms of sun, with C. sasanqua being more sun tolerant and C. japonica preferring dappled light. They like slightly acidic soil that holds moisture but drains well. 

‘Purple Haze’ is perfect for the cottage garden. Its unusual purple flowers are unique, a rare color for this plant. It’s a nice-sized shrub, maturing to about five feet tall, and makes a gorgeous hedge. One of the best things about camellias is that they bloom in the winter, while most plants are dormant. This variety lights up the garden from late fall to early winter. 

Rhododendron ‘Nova Zembla’

	common name Rhododendron ‘Nova Zembla’
	botanical name Rhododendron x ‘Nova Zembla’
	sun requirements Partial shade
	height 5’
	hardiness zones 4-8

Rhododendron is another evergreen shrub that showcases stunning flower clusters in the spring. It’s known for its superior flowering ability, which lights up partially shaded areas. Rhododendrons also have a vintage appeal that hearkens back to times past, which suits the cottage garden perfectly. 

‘Nova Zembla’ has brilliant pink flower clusters that cover the entire shrub. It’s flexible about light and likes acidic soil rich in organic matter. Pile leaf litter around your rhododendron to give it a pH and nutrient boost. Once established, these are low-maintenance and provide a ton of color with very little effort.

Rose ‘Cinnamon Hearts™’

	common name Rose ‘Cinnamon Hearts™’
	botanical name Rosa x ‘VLR13003’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 2’-3’
	hardiness zones 3-9

Roses are the quintessential cottage garden staple shrubs. Who doesn’t love a beautiful blooming rose? If you have a well-lit space in your yard, roses are one of the most gratifying shrubs to grow. They can be a bit picky, but this is the type of garden you likely spend a lot of time in, so you shouldn’t have a problem giving it the attention it needs. 

‘Cinnamon Hearts™’ is an attractive, compact rose with excellent disease resistance and cold hardiness. This makes it lower maintenance than the average rose bush. It’s compact, so you can use several of them as a low hedge or mix them with other mid-ground lovelies like lavender and herbs. It’s a repeat bloomer that brings joy all through the warmer months.

Lilac ‘Bloomerang^®’

	common name Lilac ‘Bloomerang®’
	botanical name Syringa x ‘Bloomerang’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 4’-5’
	hardiness zones 3-7

Lilacs are big bloomers, and they smell heavenly. They also make stunning cut flowers, so you can bring a bit of the garden indoors to enjoy. They come in different sizes, and for this purpose, we like a more compact cultivar. Because they are deciduous, give them some evergreen neighbors to keep things green year-round. 

‘Bloomerang^®‘ is the original repeat-blooming lilac. It flowers wonderfully in spring, producing large panicles of fragrant lavender blossoms. Then, it continues to produce blooms in flushes throughout the summer. It has excellent disease resistance, making it low-maintenance in addition to being beautiful. 

Hydrangea ‘Incrediball^®’

	common name Hydrangea ‘Incrediball®’
	botanical name Hydrangea arborescens ‘Abetwo’
	sun requirements Partial shade
	height 4’-6’
	hardiness zones 3-9

Hydrangea shrubs are another cottage garden classic. Their fluffy flower heads and large, soft foliage have a vintage charm. They are happy with middle-of-the-road conditions across the board, partial shade, moderate moisture, and most soil types support these shrubs. Just don’t let them dry out. 

‘Incrediball^®‘ is famous for its extra-large flower clusters. Big, plush, and round, they start out pale green and fade to white as they mature. They can be up to 12 inches across! This sturdy cultivar stands up excellently to weather and wind. Its strong stems hold those massive blooms upright, even in the rain.

Spiraea ‘Poprocks^®’

	common name Spiraea ‘Poprocks®’
	botanical name Spiraea japonica ‘Odessa’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 2’
	hardiness zones 3-9

A slightly less well-known but no less beautiful shrub that works excellently in the cottage garden, spiraea is gorgeous and low-maintenance. It works just about anywhere as long as it gets a decent amount of light. There are several species with different growth habits, each one as lovely as the next. 

‘Poprocks®’ is a compact variety that blends nicely with other mid-sized plants. It matures to about two feet tall and makes a wonderful walkway border. It has a long bloom time beginning in late spring and produces copious amounts of candy pink blossoms in small clusters all over the bush.

Weigela ‘Czechmark Trilogy^®’

	common name Weigela ‘Czechmark Trilogy®’
	botanical name Weigela florida ‘VUKOZGemini’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 3’-4’
	hardiness zones 4-8

If you want to draw pollinators to the yard, a weigela shrub is the perfect addition to your cottage garden. It’s particularly appealing to hummingbirds and butterflies. Weigela is related to honeysuckle and has those signature tubular flowers. They come in shades of pink, red, white, and yellow. The foliage also comes in different colors, mainly green, but there are some gold and burgundy varieties, and they are stunning. 

Plant your weigela in a spot where you can enjoy the comings and goings of the hummingbirds that will favor it above other plants. ‘Czechmark Trilogy^®‘ is compact and flowers heavily. The blossoms come in three colors, hence the name. They appear in white, red, and pink, mingled together on the same branches. 

Rose of Sharon ‘Blue Chiffon’

	common name Rose of Sharon ‘Blue Chiffon®’
	botanical name Hibiscus syriacus ‘Blue Chiffon’
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 8-12’
	hardiness zones 5-9

Rose of Sharon is a cold-hardy hibiscus with a tropical appearance. Its large, flamboyant flowers and glossy foliage, often maple-like in shape, truly make an amazing statement in any landscape. Their huge blooms are perfect for the cottage garden. 

Blue is a rare color for flowers across the board, so ‘Blue Chiffon^®,’ a true blue bloom, is simply breathtaking. The large flowers have blue petals, smaller petaloids in the center, and a deep red starburst behind them with a white pistil. It’s a large shrub and well-suited to be a focal point. 

Abelia ‘Poco Loco^®’

	common name Abelia ‘Poco Loco®’
	botanical name Abelia x grandiflora ‘SMNAGBT’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 2’-3’
	hardiness zones 6-9

Abelia is a semi-evergreen, depending on your climate. In the South, it makes a wonderful foundation plant, as it is fast-growing and dense. It’s also a great privacy hedge, so it’s good for the outer borders or creating a space within your space. It’s attractive enough to stand alone as a specimen. 

‘Poco Loco^®‘ deserves top billing. In spring, the foliage starts out brilliant yellow-orange. It deepens to a cool green and then produces pink-tinted leaves as the season goes on. In summer, it produces sweet pink flowers, which round out the gorgeous and striking color combination. 

Daphne ‘Carol Mackie’

	common name Daphne ‘Carol Mackie’
	botanical name Daphne x burkwoodii ‘Carol Mackie’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 2’-4’
	hardiness zones 4-9

Sweet, lovely Daphne is more than just a pretty name. These evergreen and deciduous shrubs are well loved for their attractive foliage and wonderfully scented flowers. They are small and slow-growing, so they don’t take up an excessive amount of space. The space they do take is well decorated, and pollinators are appreciative of their late winter flowering habit. 

‘Carol Mackie’ is gorgeous with variegated, oblong leaves in green and cream. The pale pink flowers are heavily fragrant and bloom in mid-spring, as this is a late bloomer. It can be finicky about its environment and slow to establish, but it’s well worth the effort. 

Gardenia ‘ScentAmazing™’

	common name Gardenia ‘ScentAmazing™’
	botanical name Gardenia jasminiodes ‘ScantAmanzing’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 2’-3’
	hardiness zones 7-10

Speaking of stunning shrubs with deliciously fragrant flowers, gardenias are a favorite of mine. From their evergreen foliage to their creamy, white blossoms, they are difficult to beat for their value in the landscape. They also make a wonderful addition to the cottage garden. 

‘ScentAmazing™’ smells amazing! This compact gardenia has good cold tolerance and can thrive as far north as zone 7. It’s also tolerant of partial shade conditions, where many are not. This cultivar has smaller, single-form flowers, but they are just as fragrant as larger varieties. 

Sweetshrub ‘Aphrodite’

	common name Sweetshrub ‘Aphrodite’
	botanical name Calycanthus floridus ‘Aphrodite’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 6’-10’
	hardiness zones 4-9

You may know this plant by the name Carolina allspice. It has aromatic foliage with a spicy scent and grows to a substantial height, between six and ten feet tall. In late spring and into the summer months, it produces showy, fragrant flowers that are nice for cutting and adding to floral arrangements. 

‘Aphrodite’ has large, bold, red blooms that resemble colored magnolia blossoms. After the flowers fall, seed pods follow, which are also aromatic. The blooms dry nicely and retain their fragrance, making them great for potpourri. Don’t eat these pods. In spite of their common name, they are not edible!

Flowering Quince ‘Double Take Peach^®’

	common name Flowering Quince ‘Double Take Peach®’
	botanical name Chaenomeles speciosa ‘NCCS4’
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 4’-5’
	hardiness zones 5-9

Flowering quince is a new discovery for me, and what a wonderful discovery it is! These shrubs have a delightfully rounded shape and are incredible bloomers. These deciduous plants are a nice manageable size, and their dense foliage makes them a striking hedge. They are just tall enough to create some privacy, and when they bloom, they are magnificent.

‘Double Take Peach^®‘ is part of a series of varying colors with fluffy, frilly clusters of coral- to salmon-colored blossoms. It blooms in mid-to-late spring and can rebloom in fall if properly cared for. They adapt well to various soil conditions and are drought tolerant once established, making them low-maintenance as well as beautiful.