Garden shopping guide
Pretty Plants for a Cottage-Style Garden
One of the things I like most in a garden is the combination of structure and softness. Flowers are beautiful, but the garden often feels more finished when something evergreen gives it shape underneath all of that color. These are a few plants currently saved in my LTK that work especially well for that kind of look.
Updated August 202601
Little Missy Dwarf Boxwood
A smaller boxwood can provide the green structure that keeps a garden bed from feeling empty when seasonal flowers are between blooms.
Two sizes are currently linked. Climate, light, soil and planting location still need to be checked for your own garden.
Little Missy Dwarf Boxwood — 1 QT
A smaller boxwood option for adding evergreen structure; confirm local conditions and current plant specifications first.
View the smaller boxwood ↗Little Missy Dwarf Boxwood — 2.5 QT
A larger linked size of the same boxwood; suitability varies by climate and planting location.
View the larger boxwood ↗02
Purple Homestead Verbena
Purple flowers add an informal, softer layer around more structured evergreen plants.
Purple Flowering Homestead Verbena
Purple flowers can add a softer, informal layer around structured evergreen plants.
Shop this plant ↗03
White Bleeding Hearts
Bleeding hearts bring a completely different flower shape into the garden and can create a softer woodland/cottage feeling.
Bleeding Hearts Alba
White bleeding-heart blooms bring a different flower shape and a woodland-cottage feeling.
Shop this plant ↗04
Putting the Look Together
Layer evergreen structure with flowering perennials, vary bloom shapes and heights, and repeat a restrained group of colors so the bed feels collected rather than rigid.
As I add more garden finds to my LTK, I’ll keep building this guide with plants and garden pieces that work with the same relaxed look.