Piet Oudolf

Closeby to De Wiersse is Kwekerij Piet Oudolf, the home, garden, and nursery of the well known Dutch garden designer, author and nurseryman. He has designed parks and gardens in the Netherlands, Sweden, Enlgand, Germany, and the United States and is part of the "New Perennial" movement.

In the United States, Piet Oudolf has put his mark on the Millennium Park in Chicago, Battery Park in New York, and most recently, the newly opened High Line in New York City. The High Line, with all sections complete, will be a mile and half long city park that is constructed on elevated train train tracks in Manhattan's West Side. I am excited to go see this when I get back home to NYC.

Piet's work is always a pleasure to look at and is a master at using texture and color. His gardens rely on mass plantings used in interesting combinations and the plants should have interest the whole season through, from foliage, to blooms, to deteriorating seedheads in the fall and winter. It is always wise to pay attention to the details of plants.....The nursery consisted of the selling area, a display garden, and there was access to the private garden too. Here is the display garden, with some of the very tall perennials that are used, such as Eupatoriums, grasses, Asters, Rudbeckias, and Helianthus.

All of the plants were labeled making it so easy to jot the name down, only to pick it up later and put it in your basket.

A display garden is the perfect way to sell plants, it is easy to get carried away and want it all...

A favorite of mine was Sanguisorba 'Busy Court'...

The lovely Echinacea purpurea 'Rubinglow'On to the private garden.. Neatly clipped Yew hedges mark the entrance to the private garden. Clipped hedges are very typical of the Dutch garden, and are noticeable almost everywhere you go.
More clipped but undulating hedges provided a backdrop for what seemed to be a chaotic symphony of blooms, seedheads and textures. The grass really seemed to emphasize the intense heat of the sun that day.

Another view of the magic.

The blooms of Echinops ritro 'Veitch's Blue' seem to be floating in a sea of Deschampsia cespitosa 'Goldtau'.

Amidst the plantings, Yew columns would rise up, giving more solidity to the garden.

Showing a bit of humor are these perfectly placed stone sheep. Sheep are common everywhere in the Netherlands.

The way out of the garden was a Beech arbor of an interesting shape. On the way through , you were able to get one last glimpse of Piet's creativity through windows cut out in the arbor.