Displays sweetheart plants outside cottage's front (7)
I believe the answer is:
evinces
'displays' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'sweetheart plants outside cottage's front' is the wordplay.
'sweetheart' becomes 'e' (the heart/centre of 'sweet').
'plants' becomes 'vines' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'outside' is an insertion indicator (some letters go outside others).
'front' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'cottages' is 'c'.
'vines' going around 'c' is 'vinces'.
'e'+'vinces'='EVINCES'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for evinces that I've seen is " Clearly shows".)