Gross Max collaborates with Oudolf because he is able to “design a scheme with a genuinely distinctive look … a new, romantic look,” and it is certainly true that his gardens are both immersive and idiosyncratic. I have visited several of Oudolf’s gardens from the “permanent” UK landscapes to the RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey and Potters Field Park in London (by landscape architects Gross Max) the temporary installations of Il Giardino Delle Vergini, 2010 Venice Biennale, Italy, by architect Kazuyo Sejima and the 2011 Serpentine pavilion by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. While the geometry of Oudolf’s designs varies, as Kingsbury states there are three distinct visual layers through which he creates a rhythm the technique used to achieve this includes “matrix, island and scatter. The photographs are lustrous and draw out Oudolf’s signature style. Installation shots combine with details of perennial beds and dramatic, misty views of completed gardens.

Hand-drawn and computer-aided plans, sketches, abstract colour diagrams and species lists contrast with highly evocative full-bleed colour photographs and fold out into double page spreads.

The format and content of the book, designed by Irma Boom, greatly aids the communication of these ideas. Working with blooms, grasses and foliage that change every few weeks, Oudolf’s landscapes give the visitor “reasons to come back again and again.” Like many before him it is argued that he works like a painter, but his work is inherently temporal and spatial he “breaks the seasons into seasons.” As is eloquently discussed, plants are valued for their flowers, whether they are ascendant or in decline, for their height or their “gradual pace to achieve their eventual height,” and for their fruit, seed heads, stem colour, foliage texture and colour in spring and summer.

A private garden in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, by Piet Oudolf.

Landscape piet oudolf