Davie,
I'm in 10a on the Gulf coast and I love cottage gardens too. Especially the pinks/purples with oranges and yellows. I won't be able to achieve the exact look that I had and loved in Ohio but there are still options. My first couple of years in Florida, I tried my darndest to grow big Dutch iris, lilies of the valley, bleeding hearts, lamb's ear, bee balm, etc. that thrived in Ohio but couldn't handle to overbearing heat and humidity here. So, I finally decided that I needed to work with what would grow here and provide a similar look.
I put in a new butterfly/hummingbird garden about a year ago that has been through Irma, our only hard freeze in 8 years and less than 2" of rain this year and is still thriving. It's mostly pink/purple/orange and and yellow with some red thrown in. I don't grow roses out of habit (we had nosey little dogs for years who liked to smell the roses when outside to do their business and always came in scratched up). I planned the plant placement perfectly (or so I thought) before planting. But, I wasn't prepared for how big everything gets here in SW Florida LOL
Before you start, the most important thing to do in my mind is to work in tons of good compost and soil. Before I put the plants in this garden in, I rented a roto-tiller and worked up the grass (if you can call anything in Florida grass LOL), raked out the grass, stones and shells, and tilled in 40 bags of compost and as much soil TWICE. Believe me, it paid off.
There's a few cottage style plants that I have tried over and over in Florida with little to no success: butterfly bushes and hydrangeas. The BFB looks great for a few months then overnight the nematodes kill them. I am trying one last time to grow one in a huge pot but if it dies, it will be my last. If you're in 9a or cooler and have some shade, oakleaf and lacecap hydrangeas can be grown. I was in 9a for the first 9 years in Florida and had some success with them there under the pine and oak canopy. But, here in 10a they wouldn't survive in my all sun garden.
Here's some plants that do great for me and provide a cottage feel and are good nectar plants for hummers and butterflies:
Salvias: Amistad (purple), Phyllis' Fancy (pale lilac), Faye Chapel (red) and coccenia (red)
Porterweed: purple, red and coral
Penta: Lanceolata (tall pink, red and violet)
Firespike: red and magenta
Misc: Red shrimp plant, lantana (pinks, yellows), Mexican sunflower (orange), Lion's Ear (orange), African Iris (white with pale lilac center), walking iris (purple, whites and yellows)
Daisy like flowers: Gerbera daisies (they stop blooming when it gets really hot here but start back up when temps drop a little), osteopurmum (whites, pinks, yellows), cosmos (annual), cape daisy (yellow)
Vines: tropical morning glory (on a trellis or arch with big blue blooms all year for me), passion vine (Gulf fritillary and zebra longwing) and Dutchman's pipevine (pipevine and goldrim host plant)
What is the exact hardiness zone for your Florida garden? There's a huge difference between what is hardy and reliable in 9a versus 10a. Here's a link to the USDA Interactive Plant Hardiness Zone Map
Good luck! We look forward to seeing some of your pics.
Rhonda
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crinums, aztec and oxblood lilies
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