Taking a Perennial Pause before Planting

by Margaret Klein Wilson, Fairfax Master Gardener
For perennial gardeners who have exhausted spring clean-up chores and are feeling fidgety waiting for the ground to warm up, reading Planting the Natural Garden by Henk Gerritsen and Piet Oudolf is a tonic. Park your trowel, settle into your favorite reading spot and prepare to be educated and enthralled. Part plant directory and part design tutorial, this updated classic is a paean to incorporating perennials, wild and cultivated, into your landscape. Page after page, Anton Schleper’s swoon worthy photo portraits realize the artistry of suggested combination plantings through all seasons.

Editor Noel Kingsbury’s introduction tracks the evolution of perennial plant gardening through the 19th and 20th centuries, from being spring and summer short-lived islands of color to being all season “homes and food resources for biodiversity.” That transition, the “new wave” of perennial gardening, owes much to the collaboration that Gerritsen and Oudolf had begun some 40 years ago.

After perusing Piet’s 1982 nursery catalogue, Gerritsen, an established garden designer, artist and ecological activist, recalls he “read the catalogue with mounting amazement for I knew hardly any of the plants . . . the descriptions seemed to be about all kinds of interesting plants for wild garden enthusiasts. I strongly doubted the plants’ winter hardiness and use in the garden . . . ” The plants proved to be hardy.

Eight years later, Piet’s plants and Henk’s prose resulted in Dream Gardens published in Dutch in 1990. This first edition was lauded for launching a new era in landscape design, aka the New Perennial Movement. Updated editions followed, first in Swedish, and in 2000 Dream Plants for the Natural Garden was published in English. In between editions, Piet says, “I learnt that planting is to do more with plants: ambience, seasonality, emotion, these are important; with Henk we discovered plants that were good out of flowering . . . at times other than their prime time.”

Part I: Plant Descriptions
It is one thing to buy a plant in spring; it is another to fully anticipate how it will mature in your garden through the seasons. Droll, specific and practical, Henk’s plant descriptions read like personal introductions, and honestly predict the quality of your relationship to the plant once the bloom is gone.

Here, meet this Verbena cultivar, Verbena hasata: “Although few flowers are open at any time, the plant is still an extraordinarily spectacular one that attracts everyone’s attention. Perhaps it is the combination of stiffness and laxity that makes the plant so special. Although it is fully hardy, the plants are not very reliable: they sometimes just disappear.”

Every entry bears Henk’s knowing, reassuring tone. Here is another example: Euphorbia cuparissias ‘Fern Ruby’: “A strongly rampant species with needlelike leaves and small yellow umbels. Useful because the plant emerges in spring in a pretty shade of purple and also because will thrive in the driest spots. Lovely autumn color. This is one of those perennials that frighten the nervous gardener, owing to its tendency to pop its babies up some way from the parent, A better way of looking at this is to see it as a useful gap-filler. However, like many ‘runners’ it is essentially a fugitive plant, always on the move; it often dies out after a few years of occupation.”

Part II: Uses
How does the gardener work with the elements of ecology, architecture and plant structure in varied environments to choose combinations that create ambiance and emotion? Each themed chapter is akin to taking a private walk with the authors as they consider plant choices, potential pitfalls, and reflect on the suggested plant combinations. The tone is encouraging, and often baldly humorous. Blazing discusses arid gardens in drought prone climates. Lush considers soil types common to Western Europe and North America. Tranquility reminds the reader that “boring is totally different from tranquil.” Exuberant remarks that “we know from our own experience that among the most sublime combinations, many have only been hit upon by mere coincidence. Do not despair but plunge into the unknown. Try an exuberant garden.” Grassy and Gloomy? follow in like spirit. Autumn gets right to the value of point researching a plant before choosing: “ . . . in spring, you over enthusiastically run outside and fill up all the space with spring-flowering plants, so that there is no space left for the autumn flowers. ‘Big Mistake!’ we add, most sternly.”

Rounding out the tutorial are chapters on Structure and Scatter plants, complete with lists. If, dear reader, your current stack of nursery catalogues and favorite references are well-thumbed and you remain cross-eyed by all the choices, the section Exceptional Properties of Plants features lists that cut to the chase: Short-lived plants; plants for lazy gardeners; the saggers and the stakers; plants in no need of support; imperialist plants; weavers and climbers; rabbit resistant; coastal plants, and, finally, a list of butterfly and bee plants which specifies good “wild” bee plants.

Part III: Planting Plans and Combinations

Combination planting

Gerritsen and Oudolf challenged conventional approaches to gardening that rely on short-lived bursts of color and constant maintenance. Plans for the several of Oudolf’s garden installations include: Belle Isle, Detroit, Michigan; Vallas Perenn Park, Sweden; and Museum Singer, The Netherlands. Plans by Henk Gerritsen for a Blazing and Gloomy garden are also included.

Every sentence and photograph in this volume springs from years of close observation, experimentation, and patiently, passionately, working with land and plants to create landscapes that are satisfying to behold and inhabit. Gardening with versatile and expressive perennial plants and grasses to shape evocative, ecologically sound vistas large and small is its own reward through the seasons. To anyone considering expanding an existing border or transitioning lawn into garden, this book will be an invaluable source of information and inspiration.

Resources
The Oudolf Garden Detroit Represents Resilience and Connection to Detroit’s Natural Future,, Kim Kisner, Detroit Is It
Plants of Lurie Garden, Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois