Gardening Like Piet Oudolf

If you’ve ever walked the High Line in New York or walked through Chicago’s Lurie Garden, you’re well aware of the work of nurseryman and garden designer Piet Oudolf . His natural-looking gardens are awe-inspiring even to non-gardeners!

But for even the most passionate horticulturists and gardeners, Piet Oudolf ‘s gardens confront us with thousands of questions. How does he manage to create such beautiful gardens that look unkempt, but don’t look like abandoned lots? What is this splendid plant that I have never seen in my life? Where did he get the idea to combine this plant with that other plant? What? It’s beautiful even in the fall, when you don’t cut the flower stems?

In short, whether we contemplate these gardens with the eyes of the heart or with the eyes of reason, they are fascinating!  

Piet, the Designer and Nurseryman

Originally from the Netherlands, Piet Oudolf is first and foremost a garden designer. Faced with the lack of availability of certain plants that he particularly liked, he became a grower and nurseryman, with Anja , his wife. The nursery was therefore attached to their residence, in a small village in the west of the Netherlands, called Hummelo. His garden became a wonderful experimental site that allowed him to refine his art and introduce an impressive number of new perennials worthy of note. Hummelo’s garden has welcomed thousands of admirers, but it has been officially closed to the public since 2018. There is a magnificent perennial plant named in honor of this garden, the ‘Hummelo’ betony (Stachys ‘Hummelo’), which Oudolf often uses in his designs.  

A Naturally Traced Route

It would be wrong to claim that Oudolf is the ultimate creator of the natural approach to gardening. Every bit of history has paved the way for Oudolf’s creative work . We can go back to the English landscape gardens of the 18th century, which abolished straight lines (let’s just say that this is an extreme simplification of this landscape approach!) We cannot ignore the influence of Gertrude Jekyll‘s mixed perennial beds in the 19th century, which launched this idea of plants that drift in each other. Then Vita Sackville-West followed with her informal plantings in Sissinghurst in the 1930s. And so on!

Where Oudolf’s work stands out is mainly in this immense knowledge of plants at all stages of their growth. Indeed, for a plant to obtain its seal of acceptance, it must possess certain characteristics.

For example, Oudolf was interested in the appearance of the foliage in the spring, before the flowers arrived. He also noted the aesthetic appearance of the dried flowers and fruits, after flowering. The plant’s shape, longevity, vigor or ability to reseed are also details that are taken into consideration. In short, flowering is not the main attraction of the plant. It is one of the characteristics of the plant.  

The “Recipe” for an Oudolf Garden

Before giving a flat method to apply to imitate nature without being part of it, it is absolutely essential to underline the instinctive, even poetic, character of the creation and planting of gardens of natural inspiration. Even on paper, those gardens look different! The plan is not precise and it allows a more intuitive design. This plant will go more or less here. Let’s plant this other plant sparsely across the flowerbed and fill the space with a small ornamental grass.

In general, and this is a fact that comes up in several books on more natural-looking plantations, we should devote about 70% of the space to structural plants. The other 30% is given over to filler plants. Also, on large areas, one of the tricks is to create a block of five or six plants, which we reproduce, but by varying the proportions of each plant. For example, we would plant a large mass of pink astilbes in the first block, and three small groupings of pink astilbes in the second block. In the first block, we would find small molinia (Molinia spp.) arranged sparsely, but they would form a wide band in the second block.

Also, Oudolf groups plants according to the desired effect or a feeling to express: arid, luxuriant, airy, exuberant, silvery… In all of his books, whether it is Planting the Natural Garden or Planting: A New Perspective, Oudolf is very generous in sharing his knowledge. His selections of perennial plants and his planting plans are enough to make enthusiasts salivate.  

What is a Structural Plant?

In the very design of any garden, plants do not all have the same weight or value. Some plants, by their shape or stature, figure more on the list of remarkable and noticed plants. These are what I sometimes call celebrity plants. The difference is that in my case, a celebrity plant is often a plant that bears impressive flowers. For Oudolf, we relegate flowering to the background. A structural plant has a beautiful stature in all seasons. It is a plant that is noticed and stands out.

Structural plants are not necessarily tall plants. For example, yarrow (Achillea spp.) and autumn sedums (Hylotelephium spectabile) are considered structural plants.

In general, these are plants that offer a flowering that stands out, but also dried flowers and dried fruits worthy of mention. They also have sturdy stems or a great architecture. Let us cite as an example the amsonias (Amsonia spp.), goat’s beard (Aruncus spp.), asters (Symphyotrichum spp.), coneflowers (Echinacea spp.), Bee balm (Monarda spp.) and Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum).  

What is a Filler Plant?

Filler plants are generally fine-textured or discreetly flowering plants. Their role in the layout is to enhance the value of the structural plants. This does not make them less interesting or less beautiful plants. They sometimes allow a pause, a visual break that helps to “read” the landscape more easily. In a way, Oudolf also calls them the matrix. For some cases or for some areas, it may be a single species that fills all the empty spaces between the structural plants.

In general, these are plants that are grown in large clumps. They can be small ornamental grasses, such as the autumn Moor grass (Sesleria autumnalis) or the prairie dropseed (Sporobolus heterolepis). Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’ (Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’) or some perennial geraniums (Geranium spp.) can also become effective filler plants.  

Don’t forget the Scattered Plants!

And this is where the little finishing lies, the one that gives Oudolf’s gardens his signature. In nature, some plants appear as small spots of color that pop here and there. In the most random organization possible, these are generally plants that reseed themselves or that are very docile.

The ideal way to achieve a spontaneous effect is to throw seeds randomly. But you can also have fun inserting these plants without following a specific plan, going by feel.

Hollyhocks (Alcea rosea), the avens (Geum spp.), several perennial geraniums (Geranium spp.), or oriental poppies (Papaver orientale) lend themselves well to this scattering game.

Oudolf’s gardens are a happy marriage between technical knowledge and an artistic vision. We cannot achieve such results without having a very in-depth knowledge of our ingredients, that is to say the plants and an equally knowledge of their growing medium, the soil. This knowledge is acquired over decades of experimentation. And as I often tell my students, there is a lot of knowledge about plants that is not found in books. You have to grow them in different places to know your plants well!

Then, poetry! The emotions generated at the sight of Oudolf’s gardens are also part of the creator’s talent. The art of composition, of the placement of the flowerbeds, of repetition, of seasonal evolution. All this, put together, forms the enchanting portrait that stands on the fine line between the ornamental garden and the wild and natural meadow.