Chapter 2: Choosing My First Blooms: English Border and Cottage Garden Classics
From Lawn to Legendary Dark Romantic English Fairytale Garden
I’m transforming my seemingly normal south suburban backyard into a Dark Romantic Fairytale Garden and I’m bringing you on this adventure with me.
It’s early in the evening on a long summer day. The sun is deep and setting fast. The last of the day’s strong golden rays of suddenly light burst forward blanketing the garden with in a veil of intense golden light. The garden ignites in a burst of colors of rich pinks and oranges, sultry reds, and deep oceanic blues and purple so dark they’re nearly black. The sun then fully sets, setting the sky into a rage of color. Evening settles in. Tiny pin pricks of fairy lights begin to glow all around the garden, the soft cast of each glowing light teases petals and every leaf it touches. A cool breeze rolls along the garden path, spreading the intoxicating scent of jasmine, lilacs, and rich roses. The moody garden comes to life, becoming the perfect setting for a dark romantic fairytale.
Er, rather that’s what I envision my garden to be: a Dark Romantic English Garden worthy of fairytales.
As someone who truly believes magic isn’t just for storybooks, I’m on a journey to weave Dark Bohemian Fairytale Romance into every aspect of my life, starting right here in my cottage I share with my husband, Max, and our Pomeranians, Aokū (Ow-Koo) and Louie, deep within the suburbs of Chicago.
Today, I’m continuing my quest of transforming my seemingly normal, small suburban back yard into the Dark Romantic English Garden I’ve read about in fairytales. During this stage of adventure, I’ll be sharing my experience of choosing my first blooms for the garden: English Border and Cottage Garden classics.
At this stage in my life, I’ve learned that creating beauty around you is a powerful act of self-care and joy. I’m also old enough to realize that when you dream of something for several years, it’s time to put yourself first and finally take action to make dreams a reality. After coming home from my long 9-5 job, I want to smile as I step into my magical space where I enjoy unleashing my creativity and romanticize everyday living.
From Lawn to Legendary Dark Romantic English Fairytale Garden
The Inspiration and Vision
My vision for my garden begins with inspiration from the climbing roses in Beauty and the Beast, the English gardens in Pride & Prejudice (c. 2004), and the magical gardens in every romance fantasy novel (queue Spring Court vibes from “A Court of Thorns and Roses” by Sara J. Maas). My goal is to blend the richness of an old formal English garden with lots of roses, a small kitchen garden, and plenty of cozy places to read all within our small suburban backyard to create a Dark Romantic English Fairytale Garden.
Practical Considerations
There’s several key factors that need to be kept in mind when considering what kind of blooms and shrubbery to plant in the garden: our USDA Hardiness Zone 5-now Zone 6, the fact we have two dogs who need space to run around, and we tend to host large outdoor holiday gatherings throughout the year.
Since we have dogs, entertain outdoors often, and spend time outside every change we get, I want to be able to use entire backyard and therefore a formal garden is not practical for us. I’ve ultimately decided to separate our backyard into three zones: Dining zone, English Border Garden zone, and a Kitchen Herb Garden zone. Where the three zones meet, I plan to put a large screened-in gazebo and fire pit section with lounge chairs, all while keeping a good portion of our lawn to allow for our small dogs to run about.
My journey to creating a Dark Romantic English Fairytale Garden begins with the basics: an English Border and Cottage Garden full of classic blooms.
What are classic English Border and Cottage Garden plantings?
Gardener’s World based out of England is my personal favorite resource for all things English Border Garden and Cottage Gardening. If you’re not a subscriber, I do recommend reading “OUR 20+ FAVORITE COTTAGE GARDEN PLANTS & FLOWERS” from Garden Design. They’ve listed out classic cottage garden plant and flowers as well as tell you what should be planted in the front, middle and back of the garden based on their growing height as well as succession planting. It's become a valuable article for me to reference as I’ve began planning out my gardens and so I highly recommend reading the article!
Classic English Border Garden and Cottage Garden Blooms and Which Ones I Chose for My Garden
While there’s so many classic plants and flowers to choose from, I was quite particular in my selection in what I wanted to have in my garden. Having the “classics” were a must since my garden vision was initially based off classic romantic English gardens.
Here’s a list of iconic English Garden plants:
Allium
Bee Balm
Black-Eyed Susan
Butterfly Weed
Catmint
Clematis
Coneflower
Cosmos
Dahlia
Delphinium
Dianthus
Foxglove
Garden Phlox
Holyhock
Lavender
Roses
Shasta Daisy
Sweet Pea
Yarrow
Zinnia
To be frank, I am personally not fond of Black-Eyed Susans or Shasta Daisies so they will not be finding a home in my garden.
Many of the classic English border and cottage garden plants have a dark rich color variation and therefore I’ll certainly be looking to incorporate those into my garden.
I further needed to add my vision of what would make a garden “dark.” To me, a “dark” garden has plenty of dark burgundy (even black blooms) and foliage.
Black Lace Elderberry
I already own a Black Lace Elderberry bush in our front yard, and I absolutely love it. The shape of its leaves remind me of a Japanese maple. Its leaves are dark purple in color in the sun and turn jet black in shade and on overcast days. Tiny pink flowers bloom and pop against the dark foliage. Elderberry bushes can grow to be bigger than small trees and offer shade in full-sun backyards. I have added this to my list for the back yard as well.
Smoke Bush
Much like the deep, almost black foliage of the Black Lace Elderberry, smoke bushes have deep burgundy colored leaves and a pink bundle of blooms that remind me of cotton candy.
Here are the Main Classic English Border and Cottage Garden Blooms I Chose for My Zone 6 Dark Romantic English Fairytale Garden
Delphinium
“Light Blue White Bee”
“Red Lark”
“Delgenius Breezin”
“Delfina White Black Bee”
Hollyhock
“Black as Night”
“Mars Magic”
“Chater’s Maroon”
Foxglove
“Camelot Rose”
“Camelot White”
Lupine
“Westcountry Tequila Flame”
Echinacea
“Green Twister”
I consider this list as my base selection of plants to repeat in every zone for which will anchor the garden and unify the garden zones. Of course, I will plant much more than what I have listed, but what I end up planting out in each zone will be determined by the zone’s function.
As much as I would like to have my back yard completely transformed in one season, it’s quite possible this will take me the entire year to complete, maybe even longer. All in all, I feel I have a good vision of how I want the backyard to be experienced as well as a plan with practical framework in place for my backyard transformation.
I’m looking forward to continuing this journey of transforming my seemingly normal south suburban backyard into a Dark Romantic Fairytale Garden and I hope you’ll join me!
Adventure Awaits Us!