Popularly known as the “Rembrandt of gardens,” Piet Oudolf is the gifted Dutch designer responsible for the London Olympic Park, New York High Line, and many other green spaces worldwide. His work integrates the wild into cultivated and urban areas.
Piet Oudolf, 79, a trailblazing gardener of our era, has reinvented the Glasshouse borders at the Royal Horticultural Society’s premier Wisley Garden in the UK, a project originally created by him two decades earlier. This upgraded two-acre area will be unveiled to visitors next month.
Oudolf, at his studio in Hummelo, the Netherlands, noted that the earlier design had become lacklustre over the years. Even while the borders maintained their attractiveness, he felt it was time for a refresh, prompting a design overhaul as well. Amidst his work, a Japanese film team documents his planning process for a new garden in Tokyo.
He pioneered the “new perennial movement,” which features plants that mirror the natural environment, exhibiting strong forms and textures with grasses and species with globe or umbrella-shaped flowers, such as fennels, achillea, angelica, and alliums. This approach is accentuated with colourful blossoms like Liatris spicata, echinacea, and prairie daisies.
Oudolf’s latest composition at RHS Wisley replaces the former twin borders with a collection of swirling patterns, housing 36,000 plants. This transformation was achieved with the dedication of six horticulturists, a landscaper, RHS’s full-time staff of 100, and 150 volunteers.
While Oudolf typically works with a palette of 50 to 60 plant varieties, he selected 150 for Wisley, including peculiar shrubs and trees to leave the visitors in awe and inspire their own garden endeavours. His aim was to forge a landscape for people to meander through and discover.
Oudolf’s “new perennial” style, gaining prominence in the ’70s and ’80s and made globally renowned through the High Line in New York, has since reshaped the way people perceive public spaces. The New York Times highlighted its profound impact on the city following its opening in 2014.
In addition to the High Line, Oudolf has crafted many notable gardens, including Maggie’s Garden at the Royal Marsden hospital, the Tokyo Park, Vitra in Germany, Noma restaurant in Denmark, and a section near London’s Olympic Park stadium, featuring 60,000 plants. Last year, he was honoured with the Elizabeth Medal of Honour at the RHS Chelsea flower show.
The planting process for Wisley’s 4,000-square-meter beds started mid-March, with an opening planned for May 15th. Oudolf shows excitement in his design sketches on his computer, feeling a sense of excitement with each project.
In an interview about the redesign, he expressed his desire to create a unique experience without a focused endpoint, allowing for an immersive journey through the garden space.
Oudolf, who left school at the age of 16, developed a passion for plants and went on to study machinery, maintenance, and horticulture. In the ’80s, he diverged from traditional post-war garden styles, introducing wild and exotic plants. He became renowned for incorporating typically unwelcome plants like angelica and tall grasses like Calamagrostis “Karl Foerster” and North American natives such as Joe Pye weed. In his garden designs, Piet Oudolf includes tall plants like Joe-Pye weed with its pink-tinged tops. He often selects plants such as yarrow, lychnis, aster, stachys, sea holly, eryngium, and globe thistles like Echinops ritro. His designs aim to make people take in their environment rather than just passing through, focusing on living in the moment and enjoying the current experience.
Part of the Wisley garden consists of blocks that showcase single or a few species with a strong visual or structural presence, with intermingled plants that add variety. Four areas specifically aim to inspire visitors to consider including these types of plants in their own gardens.
Oudolf’s design philosophy includes the movement and flow of colour, the way light filters through grasses, the energy of growth, and the natural cycle of life and death. He emphasizes leaving plant “skeletons,” or seedheads, to maintain visual interest during winter.
Historically, perennials were trimmed down after blooming, especially as they went to seed. However, Oudolf has become well-known for his appreciation of plants that maintain their appeal into the winter months. He emphasizes that many plants still retain strong character during this season, and their structures provide striking compositions that shouldn’t be cut back.
Today, he is adapting his plant selection to address climate change and biodiversity loss, focusing on plants that coexist harmoniously and support wildlife. He highlights the growing appreciation for plants that attract insects and provide food and shelter.
Oudolf describes his design aesthetic as “looser” and focuses on creating large, natural-looking areas with many grasses that remain beautiful after blooming. The remaining seedheads and structures become an integral part of his designs.
His approach to gardening is likened to a stage play, where every plant plays a role. There must be principal actors, or main plants, as well as supporting characters to complete the performance.
