Whilst visiting gardens in the Netherlands in the late 1990s, I decided I must make a pilgrimage to see his Piet Oudolf’s garden at Hummelo. He was a rising star in the garden world. It was early May, and in England the gardens were bursting into life with spring bulbs, and blossom, but at Hummelo the herbaceous planting had been cut back in February and apart from the iconic wavy yew hedges and a few sad aquilegias there was nothing to see. It was mid-May and I was expecting a riot of tulips from a Dutchman, but this sadly was lacking. Fortunately, his style has since evolved and some later Oudolf gardens, such as Hauser & Wirth at Bruton in Somerset have mass planting of spring bulbs.
If Gertrude Jekyll was the inspirational plantswoman for the early 20th century, then Piet Oudolf fits that role for the early 21st, and has spawned countless mini-Oudolf gardens and landscapes across Britain. Whereas Jekyll used a painterly approach in her planting schemes, Oudolf’s inspiration is ecological; his style owes much to American prairie planting. His interest is as much in leaf shape and in seedheads, as in flowers, and in showing the life cycle of perennial plants. Insects can make use of the dead stems, and the seedheads provide a food source for birds and rodents through the winter months.
I have written about his first British garden at Bury Court, built in 1997 for John Coke and Marina Christopher, Scampston (built 2002), The High Line in New York (2006) and Hauser & Wirth (2013).
RHS Wisley commissioned Oudolf to design a planting scheme in 2001 to each side of a broad grass vista from the Viewing Mount down the hill to the Glasshouse and lake. The planting was ravishing, but the overall layout, (not Oudolf’s fault), was very uptight and the visitors were expected to view things from a respectful distance.
The RHS had the sense to loosen up, redesign it to better reflect his style, and commissioned him to produce a new planting scheme. The subsequent lovely ‘Oudolf Landscape’ was completed in 2023. A path meanders up the hillside between large blocks of different perennials, and paths set with benches lead off into the planting in a much more relaxed way. The effect has been transformative and the new garden sits comfortably on its site and its size means it can justifiably be called a landscape. Another joy of Wisley, but of course only in the summer months…………
Late August, 2025
Garden Details:
Website: https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley
Address: Woking, Surrey GU23 6QB
Café: Several, scattered through the gardens
Dogs: No
Disabled Access: Although the site is hilly, there is excellent provision
Opening Times: 9.00 – 600pm – last entry 5.00pm, closed Christmas Day.
