Dream Plants for the Natural Garden (Gardener's Guide Series) [Hardcover]

Gardeners are moving away from tidy borders and neat velvet lawns to more expressive areas of plants grown within a natural movement of design. Who better to explain how to do this than the Dutch international garden designers, Henk Gerritsen and Piet Oudolf. Dream Plants for the Natural Garden suggests 1,200 plant species which they consider practical for the average garden. Each is give its Latin and common name with a brief description and notes of favourable conditions and flowering period.

The book covers perennials, bulbs, grasses, ferns and small shrubs, all of which the authors believe will continue growing, flowering and seeding for many years There are three main sections covering tough (perennials, grasses, ferns, bulbs and shrubs), playful (self-seeding perennials, biennials and annuals) and troublesome plants (invasive, capricious and demanding), explaining how to deal with them. Piet Oudolf has nurseries near Arnheim where he is practised in choosing plants that are easy to maintain and mainly disease resistant. Both he and Henk Gerritsen took many of the photographs that illustrate the text.

Dream Plants for the Natural Garden is an ideal reference book. Use some of the ideas to enliven your own garden or create an imaginative new one. --Judy Wyles --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

... a thorough knowledge of the ways of plants, an upbeat but realistic tone, and a lively and forthright writing style should commend this book to anyone with a thoughtful gardener to please (Independent )

... the plants themselves are excellent and well known to the authors who pass on their thorough and amusing cultivation notes alongside glamorous colour photographs (Times )

... an invaluable directory of hardy plants for anyone considering new-style naturalistic planting (Country Living ) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

'This book does exactly what is says on the cover' --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

In this book, pioneering garden designers Henk Gerritsen and Piet Oudolf describe their special choice of ideal plants – perennials, bulbs, grasses, ferns and small shrubs. An ideal plant is one that is both beautiful and robust, performing reliably with very little input from the gardener. Complete growing information is provided for each plant along with advice on how to use it to best effect.

Gerritsen and Oudolf have a genuinely innovative approach to gardening. Rather than striving for big, bold masses of colourful blooms that are vigorously pruned back as soon as they have finished flowering, the authors choose plants chiefly for their form - leaves, flower heads and stems included - which means they retain their natural beauty through all the seasons. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Piet Oudolf is a native of Holland and originally studied to be an architect. Instead of designing buildings he became the founder of New Wave planting, a movement which takes inspiration from nature but employs artistic skill in creating planting schemes. As a plantsman, his aim is to emphasize the form, texture, and natural harmony of plants, and as a skilled plant breeder, he creates new varieties for these and other design purposes. He has designed gardens in Holland and Germany, and a public park in Sweden. The garden he designed with Arne Maynard for the Chelsea 2000 Flower Show won the Best Garden Award. His own garden and nursery near Arnhem, Holland, has become world-famous.

Distinguished garden designer Henk Gerritsen was born in Utrecht in the Netherlands. He trained as an artist and made his living as a painter before turning to garden design. He now writes regularly for gardening magazines in Holland, Germany and the US, and has had several books published. His best-known garden design project in the UK is the reconstruction of the Waltham Place gardens in Berkshire. He also started the Priona Gardens in Schuinesloot in the Netherlands with his friend Anton Schlepers. Henk's gardening philosophy is to respect the full cycle of life in a garden, allowing wild and cultivated plants to grow side by side in natural-looking environments; rather than battling disease and decay, 'troublesome' weeds and 'pests', he prefers to compromise, considering them an essential part of the beauty of the garden. He never uses chemical fertilizers or pesticides. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.