Anything goes in a cottage garden, but for the prettiest outside space around, try these plants for a truly rural feel.

Click through the gallery of cottage garden plants using the arrows on top of the pictures on the left

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Delphinium ‘Black Knight Group': Larkspur is a classic garden plant, producing blue spires of bloom. Despite having a short flowering season, they can be encouraged to produce a second batch of bloom, if the flower spikes are cut down as soon as the blooms are over.

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Rosemary, or Rosmarinus officinalis: Deliciously aromatic foliage. From mid-spring, the spikes are sprinkled with blue-purple flowers that provide early nectar for the bees.

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Achillea ‘Coronation Gold': Wonderful with grasses in light, well-drained soils, feathery silver foliage gives rise to flat flower heads of creamy yellow. It's an essential in the traditional mixed border.

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Dianthus ‘Mrs Sinkins': An old-fashioned, ground covering pink, which has highly-scented, double, ragged white flowers from early summer through to autumn. Plant it in a pot, in the vegetable garden, in paving cracks or at the front of a border.

Photo: www.crocus.co.uk

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Cornflower, or Centaurea cyanus: the annual blue cornflower is best sown in autumn to encourage larger, earlier blooms, loved by bees and butterflies.

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Rosa rugosa ‘Charles de Mills': With hugely fragrant magenta-pink flowers, this old gallica rose is perfect in the mixed border - and as a cut flower to be enjoyed indoors.

Photo: www.DavidAustinRoses.com

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Hollyhock Alcea rosea ‘Nigra': With deep blackcurrant flowers towering to two metres, hollyhocks look fabulous in borders or grown in gravel.

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Lady's mantle, or Alchemilla mollis: Tolerating many soil conditions and sun or shade, Lady's Mantle with its fan-shaped leaves and frothy acid-yellow flowers, will self-seed into gravel or cracks in paving.

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Cranesbill geranium ‘Johnson's Blue': The elegant clear blue blooms of this sprawling cranesbill work wonderfully with roses.

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Lavender Lavandula angustifolia: Although originally a Mediterranean shrub, lavender is the quintessential cottage garden plant. Enjoy it by paths and doors, where its scent can be fully appreciated.

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