Today we’re off to Texas to visit a gardener who makes the most of a small garden space, filling it with a collection of lovely, cottage-style blooms.

A small garden space doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful and filled with flowers. This garden leans heavily on classic favorites like roses to make a romantic space.

A little bouquet of early bloomers, picked before a recent freeze, includes daffodils (Narcissus hybrids, Zones 3–8) and hyacinths (Hyacinthus orientalis, Zones 3–8).

In the summer, the rose bushes provide romantic bouquets as well. This one includes the blooms of the roses ‘Quick Silver’ and ‘Blue Girl’, both of which have flowers in that elusive lavender color that is so rare in roses. No true blue rose exists, but these come close.

Gardeners know that unassuming starts like this bareroot rose bush, looking thorny and vicious, can turn into the most beautiful parts of a garden.

Dahlias are a favorite too, including this dinner-plate variety, ‘Belle of Barmera’ (Zones 8–10 or as a tender bulb), which produces truly enormous, deliciously colored blooms.

Dahlia ‘Pennhill Dark Monarch’ is another stunning, huge-flowered variety, with informal petals in a mix of colors.

Flowering quince (Chaenomeles speciosa, Zones 4–8) is an early flowering shrub. This one produces huge numbers of double red flowers to get the gardening season going with a bang.

Here’s another garden bouquet, this one including Oriental poppies (Lilium hybrid, Oriental group, Zones 3–9), which give it a rich, powerful fragrance.

If you want to see more of this garden, check out instagram: @redcherryontop

Have a garden you’d like to share?

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