Piet Oudolf At Work

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The book is so new, it exists only in digital form. As we gather around his Apple display, Piet intently takes us through the spreads, filled with his sketches, drawings, and evocative photography of his most recent projects, captured over this past decade. He makes running comments all the while. Ahead of his new book’s publication, Oudolf tells us why he’s wary of being called an artist, why he shies away from fashion, and what one quality he prizes above all others when setting out on a new project. In the book’s final essay Evolution of a Plantsman, Rosie Atkins, the founding editor of Gardens Illustrated and early supporter, chisels out a diamond-cut synopsis of his history to date: “Piet Oudolf’s career is defined by what he calls his ‘healthy obsession with plants’, and the plant knowledge he has accumulated over the years is the key to his ground-breaking designs”.

There’s no better summer book than a book filled with large, full-bleed images of beautiful gardens.’– Fast CompanyDream Plants for the Natural Garden (2000) with Henk Gerritsen–originally published in the Netherlands under the title Méér Droomplanten (1999) My first glimpse of Piet Oudolf At Work on Phaidon Press could hardly have happened at a more auspicious time and place. Kingsbury, Noel (10 April 2013). "A Wilder Way". New York Times. T Magazine . Retrieved 23 May 2016. Obrist: When we collaborated on the garden for Peter Zumthor’s Serpentine Pavilion in London, you explained to me the 70 percent rule. There are two kinds of perennials: structural perennials and filler perennials. You said that 70 percent should be structural and the rest filler. Step into a Piet Oudolf garden and you are transported into a dreamlike meadowscape, filled with perennials, seasonal color, and texture. Made in close collaboration with Oudolf, this book showcases gardens throughout his career and across the globe - from New York's acclaimed High Line to the newly planted Vitra Campus in Germany. The book offers fresh insight into the work and creative practice of Oudolf, both from a horticultural and artistic perspective, showcasing high-profile and lesser-known gardens, including Chicago's Lurie Garden, Hauser & Wirth Somerset and Menorca, Venice Biennale, Singer Museum, Belle Isle in Detroit, Noma, and others.

But Piet’s best-known project remains, without doubt, The High Line. Here is how the new book describes the project. He also makes a convincing case that it may ultimately be Piet’s lesser recognized design work with woody plants and trees vs. matrix meadows that will stand the test of time. That will surely confuse future critics! High Line The small private courtyard garden that we did for the plantsman John Coke, in 1996. It was my first garden in England, Bury Court in Surrey where we For that reason, I’m all the more appreciative for this return visit to Hummelo after my last trip nearly ten years ago.I don’t see a difference between natural and naturalistic. I don’t know what the meaning of natural is. Is natural outside the garden and naturalistic inside the garden? His introduction also gives us a sense of the man himself, an early riser untouched by his celebrity, who remains curious and approachable. Unlike many designers, “Piet chooses to be an open book” sharing his knowledge and plans with trademark generosity. Westerkade, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2010. Picture credit: Walter Herfst Critiquing the critics

The interview with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Tino Sehgal brings out yet another side of Oudolf, as viewed through the lens of the contemporary artist. Fair enough, although I would argue that “movement” is an accurate enough term to describe the generation of designers and gardeners from around the world actively inspired by Oudolf’s work to pursue a more naturalistic path. A movement now supercharged by social media into a global community numbering hundreds of thousands of followers. Working with clients that don’t know or half know what to do can be very complex. Once you’ve started, typically, they may suddenly start coming up with ideas that are not your ideas. I can only do what is possible. I had that a lot at the beginning of my career. We were in a lot of magazines in the 90s and people would see a beautiful garden and they would call me and ask me to do their garden. Some of those people didn’t really understand what they were doing. Obrist: Your work is often described as part of the New Perennial movement. Please tell us more about this movement.created a matrix of Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Goldtau’; You can see the drawings for that in the book. The large semi-circular area at the top of the garden became the ‘Deschampsia meadow’, a prototype for the matrix plantings of later years. Imagine this: A bright Saturday afternoon in the Netherlands last September interrupted by sheets of rain. According to Kingsbury, the secret of Oudolf’s success is, “Piet’s ability to produce plantings that are highly coherent, in the sense that they are readily interpreted by the uninitiated but also sophisticated enough to appeal to connoisseurs of horticultural design.”