How to Create a Romantic Garden

The whirring susurrus of cicadas, roses a rich cabaret clambering over iron cast gates and stony walls, the ethereal flapping of butterfly wings – these are the sounds and sights at the heart of a romantic garden. A romantic garden is very similar to a cottage garden in its effusion of frilly, lacey plants, but it also has motifs that point to a romantic leaning. 

What does a Romantic Garden Look Like? 

While not everyone’s idea of romance is the same, the romantic garden essentially focuses on a sense of romance that is enduring, in contrast to the cheap passions of today. Less about easy pleasure, it shouldn’t point to a passion that is messy, all-consuming, but rather a fairytale-type romance, filled with eternal yearning – the kind that poets and gardeners alike dream of. Cascading flowers spill over informal borders, paired with topiaries and hedges to create a sense of light structure, while ornamental grasses add movement. Romantic gardens also feature secluded areas, perhaps under the shade cast by a large oak tree, to sit and reflect. 

Even if you are averse to romance, you can’t help but admire the inherent beauty of a romantic garden. In a world plagued by an epidemic of loneliness, perhaps a romantic garden is the one thing that can help you feel less bleak. 

Key Features of Romantic Garden Design:

• Informal, meandering edges overflowing with plants 

• Old fashioned plants such as roses, lavender, delphiniums, and wisteria 

• Exuberant plantings of cottage garden flowers, often with lacey appearances 

• Old stone masonry and wrought-iron gates to conjure a rustically romantic atmosphere 

• Soft pinks, mauves, pale blues, and creams 

• Secluded areas to sit 

1. Select Romantic Flowers            

A romantic garden is chock full of flowers all weaving together in paradisiacal glory, almost like a flouncy Victorian dress. Although many flowers are pleasing to the eye, not all are fit for inclusion in a romantic garden. As a general rule, rely on a few guiding descriptors, such as billowy, exquisite, or lovely, to choose your plants – delphiniums, alliums, rose campion, and hollyhocks are worthy mentions. Avoid intense colors like blood-red, midnight blue, or bright orange, and instead focus on a calming palette of soft pinks, pale blues, and whites. Old-fashioned classics such as old-garden roses, hydrangeas, peonies, and lavenders are favored. 

Select flowers that give off a ‘noncommercial’ feel, such as Sea Foam Camellia and Blue Chiffon® Rose of Sharon. It is not enough to scatter plants haphazardly or plant en masse; this can result in boring, chaotic configurations. Instead, many plants are consciously layered along garden paths – or if you’re cultivating a potager garden, arranged in geometric raised beds. Ornamental grasses help form an undulating backbone, while alliums and crocus punctuate dull lawns. Try to achieve a balance between planning and spontaneous activity, as sometimes wonderful flower combinations can happen fortuitously. 

2. Add Fragrant Flowers 

The cloying scent of perfume can be an affront to the senses. On the other hand, the scent of magnolia drifting through the southern breeze beckons with its siren-song, inspiring you to head out into the garden and smell it. Grow forget-me-nots in sweet-scented clouds, where their tiny blooms will peep through blades of grass. Fragrant sweet pea is a pleasant flower that serenades gardeners. Another important aspect is to plant for all occasions, including nighttime. 

Night-blooming flowers are often underappreciated, but they’re the ones that stay open when other blooms fade – they also do a good job of attracting night pollinators like moths. Some, like jasmine, are imbued with fragrance; others are luminous and pale, reflecting moonlight. Solar lights, intended to attach to Vego beds, glow beautifully come sundown. 

3. Structure with Hedges and Masonry

Although much is freeform in a romantic garden, there is still effort put into curating a timeless, immersive space. Elements such as raised garden beds, clipped hedges, and arched trellises are cost-effective ways to enforce structure and mold the overall form of your garden. An old, mouldering stone gate languishing near the front adds instant appeal, but for modern gardens, contemporary trellises work well – load with clematis and climbing roses to evoke the charm of a 19th century pleasure garden. 

4. Grow Roses   

It already has been mentioned, but roses truly are the hallmarks of a romantic garden – substitutions like knock-out roses and peonies never quite achieve the florid effect of old garden roses. Many David Austin varieties retain the fragrance of the old roses and trail beautifully, evoking the feel of the Old French countryside, with its estates and manor houses. Still, if you’re looking for a vigorous grower (and you’re kind of a neglectful gardener), the robust Peggy Martin rose is one that can withstand the devastation wrought by hurricanes. 

5. Add Metalwork 

Nothing is more of a buzzkill than a terrible-looking garden gnome, a chewed-up patch of grass, or an ugly shed. While there are ways to obscure unpalatable elements, metalwork can actually beautify your yard. Metal sculpture and metal bird cages, often salvaged from antique shops, may just be the thing that will make you fall in love with your garden. 

6. Let Nature Takeover    

Romantic gardens are supposed to be wild and exuberant – overgrown masses with overlapping tendrils and a profusion of flowers. Traditional romantic gardens are informal yet well-tended, but a new version could well include ‘no-mow’ lawns that mimic natural woodlands. Let your lawns run wild by replacing them with wildflower patches and a carpet of pliant groundcovers. Because many groundcovers have weed-suppressing properties due to the dense barriers they create, you won’t have to worry about weeds. In the fall, leave a bit of your leaf litter on the ground for overwintering insects.