Cottage Garden Flowers
Among the Cottage Garden Flowers are old-time garden plants that were very popular in the old days and particulaly common around old cottages and farms in the southern parts of Sweden.
Inventories of wild plants in Sweden reveal the presence of garden plants in nature. At some point, these were intentionally planted and either escaped from gardens, or survived long after the cottages and farms vanished.
The Cottage Garden Flowers can be used as inspiration by those who want to choose plants suitable for the garden of an old house, or who simply enjoy "old-fashioned" flowers.
Iris
Irises (genus Iris) have long been cherished garden plants. Almost 3500 years ago, King Thutmose III of Egypt had irises in his garden. In Sweden, they have been cultivated at least since the 17th century, both as ornamentals and as medicinal plants.
There are over 300 wild species of Iris. Two of them are native to Sweden: yellow iris (I. pseudacorus) and blue iris (I. spuria). The most commonly grown irises in our gardens are cultivars and hybrids resulting from crosses of a number of wild species.