I am a huge fan of English cottage gardens. You know the kind that mix and mingle and ramble along planted with those old fashioned cottage style blooms. I love the layers of lovely. The tall beauties mingling with the low beauties that create a bed or path that delights from top to bottom. And when it comes to planting an English cottage garden look- it is all about just that- those layers of lovely. Today we are talking about another one of my favorites- Lambs Ear.
English Cottage Garden Style
Cottage gardens can be overflowing and natural – or they can be curated and kept tidy. They can be full of mostly foliage with flowers lining fences- or full of this and that and everything all in one
spot. I am all about the mingle. And there is no right or wrong way to do that. Really, it is up to you to plant what you love – and then just let them grow in and mingle together in the garden beds.
I think that is one of the beauties of a cottage style garden- no rules or specifics- it really is whatever you would like it to be. This and that- just this or just that. Go with what you love
Lambs Ear
One of my favorite color palettes for gardens of all types all year long – silvers, purples and whites with blush pinks and an occasional pop of color. And a favorite silvery green plant to include is Lambs Ear.
Lambs Ear is a soft, velvety perennial plant that grows and grows and grows. We started out with gallon size plants and they grow in bigger and better every year. They love full sun and most of their dazzle comes in the form of their fuzzy foliage. It is the softest gray green silver color that is just a delight as an underplanting. But Lambs Ear do actually bloom as well. Their flowers grow tall and are a shade of purple. Some gardeners grow them for the flowers but I would guess that most also enjoy what the foliage brings to the garden just as much if not more.
They brighten up underplanting and create a soft lovely look tucked under tall plants like foxgloves for a beautiful layer. Lambs Ear is easy to grow and set along garden paths or at the edge of garden beds is a perfect place to enjoy them.
Something here in California we are always paying attention to also is water usage. Lambs Ear is a water wise plant. Meaning they don’t require a lot of water to thrive so they are perfect for growing here.
Here is a blast from the past photo of the lambs ear blooming. You can see the tall spikes full of little purple flowers. They kind of remind me of a desert type plant when they bloom. Side note: Those holes in the lambs ear are not from bugs. They are from a crazy late hail storm we had the year I took this photo. It left holes in all the Lambs Ear and other plants bin the garden.
Lambs Ear & Other Cottage Plants
Lambs ear also pairs well with flowers like foxgloves, lavender, hollyhock, roses, etc. and also those lovely little rambling sweet peas. We have a huge amount of wild growing Sweet Peas on our property- and the sweet peas always mingle with the planted flowers for a sweet cottage garden look.
Most of these photos are older from when we first build the greenhouse and planted the path area since this is a Friday Favorites blog post. Just look at how the baby garden was back then! It is amazing to see where the garden started and just how much it has grown in over the past few years. Even the apple tree and Cecile Brunner roses have absolutely grown in so much!
The front of the greenhouse is now covered in wisteria and roses and the path- well it is full of pretty foxgloves and lambs ear. I will take some new photos to show more of the garden this year and share them here next week- but here is a screenshot from a recent video to show just how much the wisteria has gone a tad crazy this year.
It is definitely a rambling overgrown kind of garden and I love it. The best cottage gardens to me are the ones that make you smile – curated to perfection or full of rambling beauty and layers of lovely.
Do you have any Lambs Ear growing in your garden?
Happy Friday favorites everyone.
This garden is so pretty. We too enjoy having the overflowing look of an English garden. However, I have an unrelated question regarding trying to purchase country French bureaus for my bedroom. Do you suggest that they match? I have an iron bed with just a touch of gold highlights. I am having trouble trying to find a matching chest of drawers for my husband. They are a lot of dressers to choose from but few tall chests. I know matchy-matchy is out but I’m not sure if having so many different finishes will work. Any thoughts?
Love all your plants – everything looks so pretty. I’m waiting for the butterflies TO SHOW UP BUT SO FAR I ONLY HAVE FOUND ONE! I LIKE THOSE COLOR TOO & ALWAYS ENJOY ALL YOU HAVE PLANTED. tHANKS!!
Thank you!
So, so pretty Courtney. A perfect country cottage garden..Happy Wednesday..Judy
It's absolutely gorgeous and feels like a fairy tale. How I would love for you to invite me over for tea inside your beautiful shed and lovely garden!
Very pretty, I love the scattering of plants, and lambs ears and dusty miller are favorites.
So So pretty!!!
You have the best ideas for a garden fence! Beauty everywhere…
I really like the Lambs Ear, I hope it will grow in central Texas. The many colors in the garden are so pretty together. I enjoy looking at a meadow in the spring it is full of wild flowers. If the Lambs Ear is water wise it should grow well in Texas.
the place is so magical, make my hart sing!
So pretty! We luck up and found some gorgeous lambs ear growing on the side of a dirt round and of course I had a shove. So they came home with me! I’m in the process of fixing a flower garden in front of my barn shed I just moved from my old house to my new one, I’m so excited!!! What’s the name of the climbing rose in the foreground? I love roses!
The rose is called Cecile Brunner- it is beautiful! Sounds like your barn shed will be beautiful!
ioved it so naturAL
Thank you Sandra!
How you continuously improve on perfection in your garden and home is astounding. So Want to step thru your photo and into your gorgeous sanctuary. BraVa!
So kind Debra- thank you!
So beaitiful, amazing you can create an English garden in your climate. I have lamb’e ears, and am creating a new, low-growing gardwn along our long driveway with lambs ears, lady’s mantle, foxgloves, brunnera surrounded by creeping ajuga and creeping phlox. Your cottage colors inspire me. I’ll put in two tall pots of English garden roses,with solar lanterns. Thanks for your ideas.
I love all the incarnations of your garden Courtney! The Lamb’s Ear is lovely and so soft! 🙂 Thanks for the cottage garden inspiration!
Thanks Barbara!
Lamb’s Ears are so soft and pretty but I found out that the free ones I planted became rather invasive here in nc.
I love lamb’s ear and have had it in gardens of the past, but alas, my present garden lacks enough sun.
thought of you when at the farmer’s market recently…a grower had 5 gallon foxgloves priced at 2/$20! they were very healthy and huge—one bloom was about 8 feet tall! !
Oh wow!! What part of the country do you live in? I would love to find that size and that price here! Total score!
I have never heard of wild sweetpeas !but love all the things you post and have all your books !
My garden tends to be a ramble of plants and flowering shrubs, partially because a lot of my plants reseed and pop up in different areas and partially because i love flowers and can’t resist adding new ones that I am smitten by. I thought of you Courtney just yesterday when I was out in the garden gazing at my collage of flowers. I thought to myself my garden really does what it wants to. For a fleeting moment I thought this was not my plan. How did it get like this? then I realized that is the beauty of it. my gorgeous foxgloves are in their prime and mingle with bachelor buttons, clematis and a plethora of other plants. I try to keep a handle on some of the chaos but mother nature lends her creative ways and the garden is so truly beautiful. I can very much relate to your love of the cottage style garden. I love your greenhouse and cottage wonderland!
Hi Courtney I always love your wild and rambling garden. Mine is too. Just a word of warning with the Wisteria. Keep it in check. I live in NE and we had one on our pergola for about 30 years. It becomes woodier the older it gets and much heavier. We enjoyed the foliage and shade it created so much. A couple of years ago we made the decision to take it out because of the weight on the pergola and it was impossible to keep in check. we are now in our 70’s and I didn’t want my husband 15′ in the air trimming it anymore. I am sad it is gone but, the relief is huge. We are also still dealing with suckers all over the yard 30-40″ away from the mother plant. Be ware.
I have had lamd’s ear for decades and in sunny or semi sun areas, around trees with more shade. From Minnesota -40 low to 100° highs, north of Austin, TX, East coast. They are versatile! Mine were never really big, staying around 4-8″ max. They did bloom every year, but I liked them for the long, fuzzy whitish, silvery green appearance. They are “polite’ multipliers, getting thicker so you just divide and start another patch. the leaves are thicker, so do tolerate some dry conditions and heat for some periods, though regular watering is good, just dont create a bog!. Great for borders, beds, underplanting, container accents. just keep coming up every year. nice color combo with the slightly taller and greener sage perennial, also a littlrme fuzzy.they fit and enhance everywhere. not fussy, just fuzzy, and have never had problems with any bugs or diseases. Extremely easy care and appealing appearance and tactile. Kids love them. like rabbit ears and more that size vs bigger ears that lambs have.
another fuzzy friend is a native plant that grows wild but can be purchased and planted ss domestic. quite short, with fuzzy silvery leaves and a sl I w growing flower stem that has small flowers, usually yellow, all the way up the stem. flower stalk can be 3-5 ft tall, just an upright tall stalk, no branching. common l y seen in Englidh gardens, too. Verbascum.