Dream Plants for the Natural Garden [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Henk Gerritsen (Author), Piet Oudolf (Author)

Book Description

Series: Gardener's Guide Series | Publication Date: November 17, 2000

Timber Press has previously published two critically acclaimed and bestselling books by Piet Oudolf, the influential Dutch landscape designer: Gardening with Grasses (with Michael King) and Designing with Plants (with Noël Kingsbury). This new collaboration with fellow Dutch plantsman Henk Gerritsen deals with a selection of some 1200 plants most suitable for Oudolf's New Wave naturalism, which emphasizes the importance of plant structures in providing all-season interest. The gardener can prune back plants after flowering to create a perpetual spring — at least until the onset of winter — but the authors prefer to follow nature's example and let plants finish flowering, not only to please the birds and butterflies, but for the beauty that well-chosen plant groupings offer as they reach the end of their life cycle. Many illustrations in this book demonstrate the striking effects of Oudolf's favorite plants in fall and winter.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Gerritsen and Oudolf loosely define a "natural garden" as one that contains plants that need minimal maintenance, attract wildlife, and have a "natural appearance." More than 1000 such plants are covered in this encyclopedic guide. Because the authors are garden designers practicing in Northern Europe, the plants featured are mostly suitable to cold-winter, temperate climates with summer rainfall. For other regions, many of the plants covered are unsuitable horticulturally (requiring lots of care) and environmentally (extremely invasive and ecologically destructive). Moreover, the authors support the cautious use of invasive plants, so long as gardeners are vigilantly prepared to control their growth. This advice is clearly unsound, especially considering that plants with invasive characteristics can be serious threats to local habitats. For readers interested in natural gardening, a much more regionally and environmentally appropriate resource is Natural Gardening, edited by John Kadel Boring (Time-Life, 1999). This book is not recommended. Brian Lym, City Coll. of San Francisco Lib.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Inquisitive gardeners will savor the engagingly wry tone and provocative opinions contained in this fine compendium. Based upon the long-bandied-about idea of low-maintenance gardening, Gerritsen and Oudolf bring their own distinctive, aesthetic approach to the concept of choosing undemanding plants that also stand as beautiful garden specimens. Inspiring plantsmen, they remind gardeners that perfection is unattainable, so rather than "tarmac your garden," the wise soul learns to work with nature. Tough, playful, and troublesome are attributes that define this richly illustrated book's broad categories of hardy perennials, exuberant self-seeding species, and capricious types that might still be worthy of one's efforts. Taken together, a range of recommended plants holds the promise of bringing an exhilarating naturalism to a garden scheme. Alice Joyce
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press (November 17, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0881924938
• ISBN-13: 978-0881924930
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 9.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,469,223 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Education & Reference > Foreign Language Nonfiction > Dutch

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dream Book for Earthbound Gardeners, November 12, 2000

By 

Julie Siegel (Evanston, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dream Plants for the Natural Garden (Hardcover)

In concert with Piet Oudolf's previous two books on ornamental grasses and on design, Dream Plants for the Natural Garden expands the vision of an already exceptional garden personality. As a dutch designer and nurseryman, Oudolf offers us his emperical advice about hardy plant selection from an earthbound perspective. Paired here with his fellow garden designer, Henk Gerritsen, Oudolf makes a bold case for the natural style advocated by an international group of landscapers. Instead of conventional groupings by color, Oudolf and Gerritsen communicate both their aesthetic and practical choices here under the headings of "Tough," "Playful," and "Troublesome." They espouse plants that grow easily without pesticides & fertilizers while providing year-round beauty. Oudolf has been renowned for his masterful use of perennials as players in gardens of four-season interest. This volume describes 1200 plants he and Gerritsen have chosen on the basis of behavior, strengths and usage. The combined results of their long experience, provide us with details hard to find in one place before now. Many of these plants are cutting edge (especially in the US) and thus, not widely written about in popular horticultural literature. As everywhere, the Netherlands have their own climatic conditions; thus, gardeners from other countries will need to extrapolate a bit. Luckily, the authors provide enough information on zone, soil and sun conditions to make this possible. The photographs maintain the high-quality of previous Oudolf books. However, since plant descriptions outnumber pictures, it helps to have some familiarity with the specific genera and species mentioned. The clean presentation of format, text and illustration make this eminently readable. As a landscape professional, I cannot more enthusiastically recommend such a distinct and useful publication.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful book, a guide worthy of owning and studying..., October 20, 2001

By 

GP Fan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dream Plants for the Natural Garden (Hardcover)

This volume, taken together with Oudolf's "Designing With Plants" -- an invaluable companion -- gives the gardener an inspiring and comprehensive approach to stylish landscape design and plant selection. Taken by itself, "Dream Plants" is a not necessarily helpful guide. It's hard to make sense of it as different from any other plant selection book, as it has no context. But in consort with "Designing With Plants," the design context comes clear: one has both the key and the lock in one place -- the design guide, and the plant selection menu. With both in hand -- and the photographs are lush and suggestive, and the plans bold and clearly illuminated -- there remains plenty of obscurity throughout. But there are not many mistakes here of continuity, and so one has confidence that it is as full and reliable a depiction of natural, early 21st century garden and landscape design principles and practice one can get between two covers.

Contrast this with the dreary corporate planting schemes of van Sweeden and Oehme -- not an inspiration anywhere in their so-called "Bold Romantic Gardens". With Oudolf, the reader discovers as much about the the secrets of his design pallet as can be revealed without actually having him standing over your shoulder. This book is full of mystery, which is as it should be, with detailed clues and hints in the variety of plants discussed in detail, the photographs of combinations that demonstrate his views on plant structure, appearance and sequencing, and the useful back-and-forth between the principles of garden design he favors, and the selection of plants he uses to bring it to life.

I would not purchase "Dream Plants" without also purchasing "Designing With Plants." Together, they are a fabulous combination.

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars You need to know plants to benefit from this book, February 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Dream Plants for the Natural Garden (Hardcover)

Dutchmen Gerritsen and Oudolf label Boltonia a "troublesome, demanding plant." The same with our common wildflower Monkshood. They say that Knipofia won't survive winter. Lobelia hybrids are "only for people with green fingers." "Tierella wherryi is quite reliable when you look after it properly..." All of these plants are favorites in US gardens.

And the crowning insult to American readers -- Echniacea (Purple Coneflower) is labeled "troublesome." This is one of the most popular perennials in the US!

While I appreciate the design ideas of Oudolf's earlier books, this one is a bust as far as plant advice for US readers goes -- and the plant descriptions take up most of the book.