Dream Plants for the Natural Garden

a book by Henk Gerritsen and Piet Oudolf

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 structure in providing all-season interest. Their selection of plants includes the “reliable”, the “playful”, and, for fanatics, the “troublesome.”

Received the New York Times Editor’s Choice Award - Best Books for Gardening

Media reviews of this book:

“Browsing through Dream Plants for the Natural Garden is like revisiting some old favorites that are missing from daily urban life.”

—Peter Hepburn, E-Streams.com, Vol. 6, No. 1

“For those gardeners looking to move towards a more natural style, the suggestions of plant choices provided here makes an excellent starting point.”

—Terry Peters, North Shore News, October 9, 2002

“Completely unpretentious, the authors’ style is clean and clear with just the right amount of humor to sustain interest. Garden design books are rarely this enjoyable.”

—Nancy Bauer, Pacific Sun, January 2002

“I loved this book. It’s smart, incredibly informative, well and engagingly written, and the photos are excellent.”

—Vincent Lawrence, Fine Gardening, January/February 2002

“If you are looking for a guide to beautiful but low maintenance plants, here is the book for you.”

—Bobbie Schwartz, The Holiday Bookshelf 2001

Publishing details:

Hardcover, 144 pages, 9" x 10.6", 262 color photos

An excerpt from this book:

Winter is perhaps the best time of year for the gardener: the peace! You don’t have to do anything, you don’t have to think about anything and you don’t have to worry about anything. You can just sit next to the fire reading gardening books and dreaming about how wonderful the garden will be next summer. Naturally, you will have to ensure that the garden has been prepared for winter: that is to say readied for winter without having cut back one plant or raked one leaf. Silhouettes of Eupatorium, Aster umbellatus, Veronicastrum virginicum and the beautiful black spherical seed heads left by the monardas which even in the depths of winter smell like Earl Grey tea. Grasses, of course, especially Miscanthus with its amazing silver plumes, and a lot of Calamagrostis x acutiflora ’Karl Foerster’ against the backdrop of a neatly clipped hedge or just against the chill winter wind: it is always sad when you have to cut it back again in spring. And in front, close to the house so you can see them from your armchair, the strong, fleshy shoots of hellebores, working their way through the fallen leaves and remains of last summer’s border intones of apple green, darkest purple, white and pale pink, exactly as you would see them in nature, in the Balkans. And, naturally, a specimen of Viburnum x bodnantense ’Dawn’ next to the door so you can experience the delicious scent of its flowers every time you go in and out. A garden lovely enough to lift the spirits even on the most sombre and overcast days of winter. And when it has frozen and frost lies everywhere, or when it has snowed, it is so beautiful that you can sit, next to your cat, and stare outside for hours with your nose pressed against the window pane admiring the ghostly forms.

About Henk Gerritsen

Henk Gerritsen was born in Utrecht in the Netherlands. He studied politics and history at the University of Amsterdam then trained at the Rietveld Art Academy in Amsterdam. He made his living as a painter for many years — until 1977 when he met the grand old lady of Dutch garden architecture, Mien Ruys ...

About Piet Oudolf

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 ...