Piet Oudolf Plants a Seasonal Border at New York Botanical Garden

A favorite feature at New York City’s biggest public garden gets a fresh look

Piet Oudolf planted a new border at the New York Botanical Garden conservatoire , and we experience the chance to ask him a few inquiry about his process .

FG : Why retool the original border that you had already designed here ?

Piet Oudolf : We progress a border for only one season . This mete ended up staying for four years because [ the NYBG ] liked it so much , but the plants start out running out of steam and out of proportionality . Something had to be done , so they asked me to design another moulding with a dissimilar scheme .

We ’re now form a border that find more versed with a different range of plants — grandiloquent flora , tall Gunter Wilhelm Grass , and plants that you might not have get word before . We produce groups of safe combinations and then repeat them throughout . At the same prison term , we want to expose or show the plants more as an individual . This is more clear yet still reads as realistic .

FG : Can you give us some example of raw plant in this design ?

PO : We have a new Actaea , Actaea ‘ Queen of Sheba ’ . It ’s a cross between a Chinese mintage and a black Atropurpurea and has arc , white flush in autumn . We have tulips , a Lilium mintage , Eremurus , and Allium nigrum . All of the bulbs are more related to the mintage or are the species instead of being cultivars , which makes the figure lighter . The cultivars can be very prevalent .

FG : Would you say that this mete is a picayune more floriferous than your usual designs ?

Po River : It probably is . This design is about perennials , it ’s about plants that flower for seasonal interest . Many of these plants blossom but are also interesting for other characteristic . For deterrent example , the Amsonia or the leaves of the Actaea , the Filipendula , the grass — they all have a unique feature that do them beautiful whether they are flowering or not .

We also extend the time of year by using former - flowering perennials like Molinia ‘ Transparent ’ and Rudbeckia subtomentosa . It ’s a mix of plants that set off early and grow through the season .

FG : This border has been designed so it ’s interesting for a very long time period , but do you think there ’s any one peak time , a metre in the year when this border will expect its full ?

P.O. : No , not just one time . outflow is a peak when you see the bulbs bloomed , summer is a peak with all of the flowers , and wintertime is a elevation when you may see all of the skeletons . There are peaks , but by all odds more than one visor during the class .

To check out this border for yourself , inspect theNew York Botanical Garden .

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