In this video i visit 2 different gardens to examine how Piet Oudolf’s naturalistic planting style has changed over the years. Focusing where I can on how the style has leaned into encouraging pollinators as much as possible, to the benefit of us all. I visited Sussex Prairie Garden and RHS Wisley the prior being an earlier Piet Oudolf style planting and the 2nd being a much more recent Piet Oudolf design.
Plants seen in this video:
Bistorta: USDA zones 3 to 8
Symphiotrichum ‘Little Carlow’: USDA zones 3 to 8
Achillea (Yarrow): USDA zones 3 to 9
Vernonia ‘Summer’s Swan Song’: USDA zones 4 to 9
Schizachyrium (Little Bluestem): USDA zones 3 to 9
Pennisetum (Fountain Grasses): USDA zones 3 to 10
Rudbeckia (Black-eyed Susan): USDA zones 3 to 9
Eryngium (Sea Holly): USDA zones 3 to 8
in this video we’re going to look at P oldos planting and how it has changed over the years and we’re going to do this by looking at two gardens hello I’m Rosie Hardy this is Rosie Hardy gardening if you enjoy my gardening videos then please do subscribe as this really does help my channel I went to Sussex prairies which is a beautiful garden it’s a quite an old planting style of P oldos I went there in early September member so we will see what it looks like at that time of the year and then I have come to wisley to have a look at their new planting done by P oldal which comes sloping down the hill and again it’s a beautiful style of planting we will look at and see how his style has changed over the years I’ve immersed myself in this amazing Garden that is Sussex prairies and you just take these paths and you’re walking through the beautiful grasses that there are you come out to spaces where you can sit down and it is just fantastic big expanses of planting these are not your normal Gardens these it is a huge Garden it is a prairie style Garden it is fantastic it is really really great and whatever track you take you end up going to a completely different lot of planting so here here the grasses are tall there is an enemy behind there are hilans here you have Des scampia there there is a rankus there you know there’s miscanthus there there’s veronic cast’s huge sways of syot trium and then if we go to the next pathway around behind here it’s a junction so which way do you go you can see the big sways cyia trium huge big um dead flower heads off the classier and then just going through to lovely green so what you get is this Patchwork beautiful green here of the panicum which is a much later grass the dampas have gone over and you’ve got that wonderful flower there big sways of Hardy geraniums absolutely stunning now if we walk further down the pathway having come through the grasses you then come into this abundance of red Becka so your eyes are changing from Green through the soft tones through bright colors this one here this wonderful pers carer um this has seeded self-seeded it that they don’t mind you know the dead heads here of the veronic castrum all look fantastic so as the year goes on this Garden changes but the dead heads are allowed to stay there because they give food for the birds and they are just fantastic I love it just love it it is not just all about the prairie style of stuff there’s also water all the way around so these deep ponds where there is so much wildlife and then beside me here is an amazing Arium and this one is just towering above me fabulous thing it’s got really sharp um um so leathery leaves on it so that is something that you can think about for putting into these places but you know just a bit of wild area like this which has been opened up the other side is not as open there are bull rushes taking over so this has had a bit of clearing out you have to look after these places you have to do some maintenance but most of the time the planting will look after itself you just have to do a little bit of cutting back every now and again and then dividing you know you go through one area you divide it up you replant and that’s how you get it looking but having water lots of insects let’s walk down this path and I’m just going to take you on a little way so there are hedges in this garden and they hide the areas of really just large plantings of grasses with the pathways going through and then every now and again it is punctuated with bits of Art and you can see this is just a huge so this is nice and cool in here from the heat that’s outside you’ve got the lovely trees The Oaks and then you’ve got a nice bench you’ve got huge big SES of Hoster going down there this miscanthus looking cracking and the hedges on not complete so they are just stretches and some of them are cut uh in this way and they’re s of juer positioned so that you then come through a little Gap and they’re not necessarily straight edged either they go round and you come out again into the Open Spaces and then my goodness me wow suddenly a huge big expanse of red Becka I love this this is just so Wonder wonderful red Becka with grass behind very simple you do need the space though to be able to do something like this and big wide green grass areas and then Islands huge big island beds filled with beautiful herbaceous shrubs and grasses to give you a really wonderful display recently I set up an email newsletter and if you want to sign up then please click in the comments link below or scan the QR code on the screen now if you sign up you get an exclusive video this is a video of me explaining color combinations and plant combinations in real Gardens so we’re up at the top here and looking right the way down over this magnificent lot of planting your main track ofart pathway comes through and then winds its way and then occasionally there are diagonals but they’re curved diagonals going across it equates to having large island Beds which is brilliant it really works so well and the clumping is much more delicate from the point of view of previous p hold of plantings that I’ve seen because he is utilizing waves of material and grasses when you look at this plant it seems to be lighter when you look at Sussex prairies you are looking at an older style of planting and it is big miscanthus really tall very chunky you can hardly see through you have to go round to get your next surprise and they are really huge big suedes of one plant whereas here yes they are quite large patches but they are half the size they’re not such chunky plant material either it’s much more wafty the grasses are much more wafty they’re not stopping your view line they are transparent plantings and that is what is so much more different when you look at this in comparison to some of the older style of planting this border here is part of P old’s new style of planting whereby we haven’t got really huge big blocks of heavy grasses we ended up with really beautiful fine grasses which are lower and then the habous material is in small little waves which means you get far more interest and the eonia for instance is in a block here a block over there a block there so that it all carries on and gives you a really good flow and then you’ve got penum and in this beautiful Misty foggy morning the panaceum flower heads are looking stunning they’re covered in Dew really really beautiful this Airy grass here has low grass mounds and then lovely heads on it there are all sorts of different types of orium in here there are L macus there are Hardy geraniums still flowering keeping going we’re in late October there’s still a lot of color in here this has been put in as a pollinator friendly garden and the amount of flower that is still out late in the season is brilliant for feeding those late pollinators and again with this Mist you’ve got something like this grass here it’s very hairy and what you’re getting is all of the DW just sitting on there so it looks frosted even though it isn’t because this is a warm morning then you’ve got the green festuca underneath so utilizing two grasses to give you this lovely effect and then it is set off behind there with the seed heads from the copium which is a lovely umbellifer so having all the seed heads still in here is brilliant for the birds having late flowering is excellent and it’s just that mix of grasses not heavy though it is a light Airy space and I think this is a really wonderful thing and these Borders or this border with its waving Pathways that go up and through and across the hillside fit in amongst the cotton and the prunus the old Shrubbery that was here before what I love about these borders is that I’m being introduced to some plants that I’ve not seen before and they are brilliant plants so we’ve got this beautiful low growing vonia here which is summer swansong it’s got incredibly dark purple stems beautiful dark purple flowers and very thin leaves so it’s really great and then behind it you’ve got this one wonderful white frothiness which I think is a eupatorium and then you’ve got some taller grasses in there which are the melenia and the beauty of using those is that the actual Leaf is lower and then you get the heads and the seed heads over the top of it so it is all looking really really good and you the ailia here the soft yellow and it’s great it looks fabulous and as you look down through to the wonderful Greenhouse here the wonderful glass house here and wizzly you just see color you see you see shape and occasionally you see the pathways but they are hidden slightly because of the way that the planting and the plants are growing to cover this ground a lot of these beds are Island beds so you’ve got a really beautiful shape going through and then the other ones look a little bit Islands but they come off the planting there here we change the feel again we’ve got beautiful mastasia sympo trichan little Carlo there are Huka in here this wonderful velosa with this white flower stems with the ACT here in the middle and then another fabulous grass and then the fluffy white you can see is the B stter and it all just fills up and gives you a different feel every single bed has a slightly different feel to it which works really brilliantly in this planting planting that we’re seeing at the moment is obviously giving us a late Autumn into the winter interest the head seed heads are going to be left because it’s good for the Wildlife the late flowers are wonderful as well but then there are areas where there is greenery and those are going to be the spring interest there are other areas where the plants have already um flowered they’ve been cut back it’s now going to be mulched over and these will be fabulous beds they’re new planting but it’s certainly taking off and looking really good the pathways come around and envelop the planting the old cotus that were all going down these borders have been integrally put in and utilized as lovely height this is a great way oh it’s not straight lines you know you got beautiful rounds you’ve got the fabulous planting and everything here is just going into winter You’ve Got Fabulous Autumn coloring and it just looks great another border another palet of plant material you have monardas you have got lovely grasses again you have got hiler Tums Rod beckus we have got symo trium horizontalis over there and you know it just waffs its way through it’s not high nothing’s going to be high in here you’ve got the height with the cinus you don’t need it and it just is enveloped with this lovely pathway and and then another one over there the views from the sides the views from the top all change as you walk through it it’s a very quiet spot comparing this to the Sussex prairies that we saw earlier you can see how much softer the planting is in here you are able to have a view you are able to look through and see everything in one go even when this is going to be more mature in 2 three years it is not going to block off you are going to different colors and you’ll suddenly see something in the distance and you go oh I want to go and see that that is how this has been designed so we’ve come to the end of looking at this wisley Garden the new PTO planting here and in comparison to the older style I have to say that I actually prefer this it’s got more interest in it your eyes are drawn to different planting species different ways of planting and this fact that it is really pollinator driven is such a key thing not saying that the older style didn’t have a lot of pollinators in it but this has got so much more depth so many more different varieties of plant material and that is the key thing when you’re wanting to attract pollinators into the garden you’ve got to have different shapes and sizes of flowers you’ve got to have flowers for as longer period as you possibly can through the year and also there are bits where there is bare Earth you need that as well because it’s not just when the pollinators are out and flying that you want to have them there you also need some of the plant material for their young to eat for their eggs to be able to be laid on so remember in a pollinator friendly Garden you are going to have holes in the leaves that is a good sign that you’re actually doing the job correctly thank you very much for watching and please do subscribe to the channel if you want to watch another video of Mine YouTube thinks this one is perfect for you
34 Comments
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I'm a relatively new subscriber to your channel and have been really enjoying your videos. Especially this one. I live near Sussex Prairie Garden and go every year. I've not been to Wisley since this new planting. But am very much looking forward to a visit soon. I loved his garden at the Hauser & Wirth art gallery in Somerset which looks to be closer in style to the one at Wisley.
I lo f 3d this tour. 5hank you
The new style is much more suited to most people's gardens too. Thank you for showing us- really interesting 😊
That schzachyrium is amazing! Reminds me of huge cat whiskers 😁 I also loved the broken up hedging, very innovative and architectural feeling, reminded me of an ancient ruins. Thanks for this wonderful tour 👏👏👏
14:27 What is the tree in background with red leaves?
Hi Rosy, any chance you to make a video on how to shrink down those fantastic borders at Wisley into a suburban garden?
This Wisley garden looks magical in the mist…a perfect day to film. Thanks for sharing with us.
What a great video. I saw the Wisley planting in September and loved it! What is the persicaria at 2.30-3.00? Huge leaves….
Beautiful and magical! Thank you.
Lovely! Nicely done! 😊
Thank you for taking us on a tour of these gardens. Piet Oudolf is my favourite garden designer.
💚💚💚
I have been to a few of his "installations" but I just don't get it. To my mind it's totally impractical to adopt his ideas in a normal sized suburban garden. I like diversity and find his approach rather bland. Ah well, to each his own. Thanks for showing – even if it only reinforces my view.
This is an interesting video about two beautiful gardens. However, I do think it is important to note that Sussex Prairie Garden was not designed by Piet Oudolf. It was designed and created by the owners Paul and Pauline McBride.
I visited the new Oudolf borders at Wisley twice this year, in mid summer and early October. I love the ever changing effects he creates through the year and I am a big fan of this planting style. There is scope to take a small section of these new borders and replicate at home, or even just copy one or two planting combinations such as the Stachys byzantina ‘Big Ears’ interplanted with the crimson of Echinacea purpurea ‘Fatal Attraction’. I much prefer this matrix style to the large blocks used in prairie planting schemes.
Rosie – that vernonia doesn't appear to be available for sale in UK. Are you planning to get it to sell at your nursery?
Prefer the prairie style, seems much more natural and immersive. The newer style is too manicured.
Rosy, what is the nice pink flowering plant in one of the terracotta planters behind you in the introductory part of the video? Many thanks from Belgium
The main change he's done is going from block planting to matrix planting. With both methods he's done tall plantings or shorter ones, it just depends on the site or the client. But he used to do a lot of block planting, trying to connect the shapes of the plants. Over time, he's done a matrix planting with a base of a couple or a single plant, with islands of plants in the middle. Then he's complexified the matrix, so much so that sometimes you can't even tell what's the logic. It's always been insanely hard to do an Oudolf planting, because the full combinations of plants are only known to Piet, he doesn't share every single one of them. For us mortals, it would be insanely useful to have a list of plants, and for each of those plants, a list of other plants that can be used alongside them, that work well. But no, he only gives us examples, not the full list, coz he wants people to come up with their own combinations. I understand it, but most of us don't have the money or the time to try so many combinations, or don't want to try and fail. There are examples that make sense. Like achilleas go well with echinaceas, artemisia or veronicas. But some of them don't make sense at all, usually because they're combinations of plants that don't belong in the same type of soil… In one of his books, he says that astrantias go well with campanulas, achilleas, digitalis, eryngium. origanum or sesleria, amongst others. Fine for campanulas and digitalis, they like damp soils like astrantia. But eryngium, origianum and sesleria are plants for drier conditions… And vice versa, the astrantias would not work on a dry site.
Hi Rosy and thank you! I was amazed at this ……. I have studied the dear Man's work for quite a while and study landscaping at home now. Thank you for sharing ~ I love you channel it is amazing !
Thank you. He has liberated my sense of how to create gardening beds a la Edna Walling. Combining natives and exotics in Australia in a bush setting is challenging. And your voice is most listenable.
Excellent comparison so thank you for your clear thoughts on each. Turning to the Wisley section the first time I saw the new layout I was blown away by it. Having seen the previous layout many many times it always left me feeling " what am I missing?". I never felt that it worked in the either the setting nor on the soil . I also am on Bagshot sand so should have felt that these were plants that I should be using. Personally I never felt that he had adapted his style of planting by taking into account the planting conditions so I stopped walking through that area. This is my personal reaction after many many visits over the years I was a member. Thank goodness it was time to revitalise the area as this is a winner . Those winding varying paths give so much extra interest and make it a pleasure to see even in the winter months. There is much more for the average gardener to look at and think I could take just a small section and copy it into my own garden.
Super to walk around with you – i do like his style for these large scale public gardens – wonderful to see.
My only problem with Oufolf's "new" style is that the plants all seem to be thr same height.
Great tour, thank you. Do these types of gardens increase the biodiversity outside their boundaries? It seems that birds, bees, pollen, and seeds would propagate in some fashion.
His early style was anything but naturalistic and i never understood why it was expressed in that way – huge piaches of monocultures – each to their own – I found them interesting but not emotionally engaging. His new re-planting in Wisley is very different, much more diverse and more engaging
Piet Oudolf's design is breathtakingly brilliant. A prairie of plants in groups looks natural and relaxing and yet is controlled. The best setting for a "little house on the prairie."
This is an ideal garden when you have acreage. Totally mesmerizing.
I am so thankful you started making YT videos. Your breadth and depth of knowledge about plants and your insight is a true treasure. I’m in the US and heard you interviewed on a podcast about how you got started selling plant divisions at boot sales. It spurred a deep dive into listening to every podcast you’ve ever been on and is inspiring me to have a go of it where I live. Thank you for your generosity! If I ever make it over to England, I would love to visit your nursery.
Terrific video. Thank you.
Thank you for this. Always been a fan of Piets work.Been meaning to get to Sussex Prairie and now both of these are a must, I also prefer the new lower planting. Reminds me of Gertrude Jekyll planting in a way, especially with the island beds and use of clump perennial planting
Wonderful
I always so enjoy watching your videos. It’s just a touch difficult to watch you because you remind me so much of my sister in law 😂
I adore her so that’s not a bad thing.