Piet Oudolf's ideas for a stylised and harmonious planting scheme | House & Garden

24.09.2024 - 04:13 / houseandgarden.co.uk / Clare Foster

EVA NEMETH

Putting plants together is second nature for Piet Oudolf, who has been developing his distinctive planting style for over 30 years. Over time, his aesthetic has progressed from simple block planting (with drifts of single species) to a more subtle, naturalistic approach. He often likes to use a matrix system, comprising of a few dominant species — or a single one — usually a grass such as Sporobolus heterolepis — through which other plants emerge. At Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Piet transformed a 6,000-square-metre field into a sea of 27,000 plants. His simple design has interconnecting paths criss-crossing the space, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the plants.

Here, we pick a representative selection of plants from this scheme, which are all designed to work in a tightly knit composition, coming into flower in summer to late summer. ‘The point is this combination could have infinite variations as all the plants work well together,’ says Piet. ‘Each has its own character and was chosen to sit easily with its neighbours. When I’m selecting plants, I don't look so much at colour but at form and shape, both when they flower and after. Then, it's about arranging them in irregular, repeating patterns.'

PLANTING LIST

1 Agastache ‘Blackadder’ 2 Echinops bannaticus 3 Anemone x hybrida ‘Robustissima’ 4 Bistorta amplexicaulis ‘Firedance’ 5 Helenium ‘Moreheim Beauty’ 6 Dianthus carthusianorum 7 Lythrum salicaria ‘Blush’ 8 Spodiopogon sibiricus 9 Thalictrum delavayi 10 Anemone hupehensis var. japonica ‘Pamina’ 11 Eryngium yuccifolium 12 Aruncus ‘Horatio’ 13 Helenium ‘Kupferzwerg’ 14 Echinacea purpurea ‘Fatal Attraction’ 15 Salvia ‘Blue Spire’ 16 Bistoria amplexicaulis ‘Alba’ 17 Echinacea pallida 18 Amsonia hubrichtii