Pictures of Cottage Garden Flowers. Photos of flowers in an English summer garden.

Summer time in an English garden and if the weather is good, as it is some days the flower beds are buzzing with bees and vibrant with colours. We all have our own style of gardening and some like their beds hot with flaming oranges, reds and yellows; while others prefer the gentle pastel shades which harmonise rather than contrast.

If it is raining well we have to give thanks for that too, for without our rainy days we would not be able to grow such a vast array of plants succesfully.

The English garden owes much thanks to the Victorians who were great plant gatherers on their trips abroad. We have one or two plants that we wish they had left in the places that they had found them, as let lose in our climate they have become rampant and difficult if not impossible to confine and contain. To concentrate on the more pleasant aspects of plants, we have in this country a great tradition of evolving gardening styles. Even those who are less than enthusiastic gardeners cannot help but have heard about our fabulous Chelsea Flower Show held once a year in London. This is an annual show case of some of the best of garden design both traditional and modern ideas sit side by side on the show ground site for the time it takes to construct the gardens, let the members of the public visit and then dismantle the gardens and return the place to its former appearance.

One of the styles of gardening that is commonly associated with the English style is the cottage garden style. Of course what we think of now as cottage garden style has evolved from the original cottage gardens into a more romanticised version of the humble cottage garden of the past.

Some of the more traditional plants would have been Lavender. The sweetly scented lavender flowers were often gathered and dried and sprigs were sometimes used in airing cupboards giving the laundry a delicate perfume. Sometimes the dried flowering stalks of the Lavender plant were laced together with ribbons in a decorative fashion and these are still sold sometimes at craft fairs in this country.

We now have many varieties of Lavender available from the majestic tall varieties down to the neat dwarf varieties. The taller versions were the ones that were most likely to grace the older style cottage gardens.

Hollyhocks are drought resistant, and do well in full sun garden locations that might be too hot or dry for some other plants.

 Hollyhocks grow easily where they self seed. It is difficult to transplant hollyhocks.

"Lavender Blue" or "Lavender's Blue" dates from the 17th century and is an Old English folk song and nursery rhyme.

If you sow seeds fresh from your foxglove seed pods they will germinate quickly, usually they will be ready to collect and sow in the months of June, July and August.

Collect the seed from the seedpods as soon as they turn brown.

Sow the seeds in the flower border where you want them to grow.

• Do not grow foxgloves in a garden where children visit or play or have them growing near to a boundary where children walk past, as this plant is not suitable as it is poisonous.
• Foxglove plants are also dangerous to animals, so the same applies i.e. avoid planting if you have pets in the garden.

The same flower two names - the aquilegia or columbine, while the country name is granny's bonnet.

They flower early in the year and in a range of colours, they self seed easily.

Again this plant is considered poisonous so it is to be avoided in gardens where children would have access to it.

The aquilegia flowers in the picture were grown from seed.

The foliage in the background of the photo is from a Love-in-the-mist plant.

Love in a mist also known as Nigella is an old cottage garden flower.

It is good for sowing  where there is a gap in the flower borders.

Love in a mist has a beautiful ferny type foliage.