Above: Grasses form a matrix around colorful purple asters in Oudolf’s Hummelo garden. Some of his favorite repeating plants are Salvia pretensis ‘Pink Delight’ (for color, structure, and tidiness) Hosta ‘Halcyon’ (because it looks good from spring to fall), and Aster oblongifolius ‘October Skies’ (which flowers late, in tidy mounds). The secret to getting a similar look: “Good repeating plants need to have a distinct personality and a long season of interest, or at least disappear tidily or die back discreetly,” says Oudolf. “It creates a feeling that ‘this is one place, with one design and one vision.'” Above: In the long borders he designed to flank a pathway at the Trentham Estate in England, Oudolf punctuated the landscape with several clumps of identical grasses. “Repeating plants at regular intervals adds rhythm and variation,” says Oudolf. For structure, choose repeat bloomers, long-season perennials, and grasses. (The difference between the two is structure plants provide “clear visual interest until autumn at least” and filler plants are “only used for flower or foliage color, becoming formless or even untidy after mid-summer.”)Ībout 70 percent of a garden should be filled with structure plants the other 30 percent can be filler. Oudolf says perennials fall into two categories: structure and filler plants. For more, see Hummelo: Landscape Designer Piet Oudolf’s New Book. It’s a romantic, forgiving look, not unlike the effect you get from rubbing Vaseline on a lens before snapping a photo. Grasses set a mood in a garden, like candlelight at a dinner party. Plant grasses in masses to create a soft, blurred background for other plants. Above: One of Oudolf’s favorite techniques is to mix grasses and flowering perennials. By late winter, when stalks break off or start to look scraggly, sad, or deflated, cut back everything to the ground. Sturdy stalks and dried seed pods will stand up to frost and snow, coated in white, will take on an ethereal otherworldliness.įor a similar look: Choose perennials and grasses that grow to a height of two to three feet, so their stalks and stems will stick out of the snow in a distinctive way. (Avoid perennials “that collapse into mush with the first hard frost,” says Oudolf.)Īfter flowers wither, leave the plants in place instead of cutting them back.
To create a four-season garden, start by planting perennials and grasses that thrive in your USDA Plant Hardiness Zone (if you don’t know your zone, enter your zip code here.) The hardier the plant, the better it will withstand changes in weather. The secret: Embrace decay instead of rushing into the garden with your pruners at the first sign of wilting. Stripped bare, stalks, stems, and seed pods become architectural elements in the garden. Oudolf chooses plants more for shape and texture than for their blooms. Above: Winter in Oudolf’s frosted Hummelo garden in the Netherlands.įlowers fade. Photography via Hummelo,courtesy of The Monacelli Press. Hummelo and Planting: A New Perspectiveare our two gardening bibles (and we quote from both below). Reading them, you learn that signature Oudolf style calls for drifts of grasses, perfectly appropriate perennials, and garden beds that look beautiful even in the depths of winter. Here are 10 of Piet Oudolf’s best ideas to steal for your own garden. The Dutch landscape designer-whose work is instantly recognizable for its dreamy romanticism and oft-copied for its emphasis on sustainable, sensible plantings-makes it look so easy. If the world of gardening has rock stars, Piet Oudolf qualifies as Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and Prince rolled into one. Icon - Check Mark A check mark for checkbox buttons. Icon - Twitter Twitters brand mark for use in social sharing icons. Icon - Pinterest Pinterests brand mark for use in social sharing icons. flipboard Icon - Instagram Instagrams brand mark for use in social sharing icons. Icon - Facebook Facebooks brand mark for use in social sharing icons. Icon - Email Used to indicate an emai action. Icon - Search Used to indicate a search action. Icon - Zoom In Used to indicate a zoom in action on a map. Icon - Zoom Out Used to indicate a zoom out action on a map. Icon - Location Pin Used to showcase a location on a map. Icon - Dropdown Arrow Used to indicate a dropdown. Icon - Close Used to indicate a close action. Icon - Down Chevron Used to indicate a dropdown. Icon - Message The icon we use to represent an email action. Icon - External Link An icon we use to indicate a button link is external. Icon - Arrow Right An icon we use to indicate a leftwards action. 10 Garden Ideas to Steal from Superstar Dutch Designer Piet Oudolf - Gardenista Icon - Arrow Left An icon we use to indicate a rightwards action.