Dream Plants For The Natural Garden

Henk Gerritsen & Piet Oudolf

Editions

Review

Piet Oudolf is very much in the vanguard of the naturalistic movement in garden design today, using strong perennials, wild plants and bold grasses to produce the balance between structure and natural growth which typifies his style.

In this his fourth book (and indeed his fourth collaborator in fellow Dutchman Henk Gerritsen) he introduces us to  his choice of 1200 of the most beautiful and dependable plants which fulfil the requirements of their shared philosophy of “ the practical perspective of natural gardens”.  This would seem to encompass only those specimens which can be relied on to flourish in an average garden and where human intervention is kept to a minimum.  They have omitted plants which depend upon special environments, such as water or bog plants, rock plants , those which thrive on beaches or in deserts and any too delicate to prosper in their rough and tumble world, leaving us with a range of perennials ,bulbs, grasses, ferns and small shrubs which - they promise - will be able to survive competition from one another and the vagaries of weather (excepting catastrophes) and will do what is expected of them for many years to come: growing, flowering and setting seed.

After this clear declaration of intent, the authors hereafter classify the categories according to behaviour, which results in some curious chapter headings, implying that plants can be tough, giant, colourful, playful l(that means those which are usually self-seeding) capricious, invasive-but-worth-it, etc.  That idiosyncrasy apart, the miscellany is truly mouth-watering and with their undoubted practical experience to back up their rigorous standards, our gallant Dutchmen offer real temptations.

I feel an impending mood of abandon in the garden this summer. - review by Stewart Grimshaw