Best Plants for a Cottage Garden

(Hibiscus syriacus)

A cottage-garden favorite, this species is a shrub covered in large, trumpet-shaped dark-pink flowers and toothy dark-green leaves from June to October. 'Sugar Tip,' sometimes also called 'American Irene Scott,' bears light-pink double flowers and uniquely streaked white-and-blue-green foliage in a cultivar that holds up well to humidity, drought, and poor soil.

Grows 8 to 12 feet high and 4 to 6 feet wide in USDA Hardiness Zones 5 to 8; full sun to part shade.