![]() ![]() 'Perennials weren't fashionable at the time,' says Piet. Seeking out the best garden plants to offer to his clientele, Piet came to specialise in large, robust perennials that would offer the same sort of bulky profile as a shrub. The garden at the front soon became more ornamental, with a strong structural design defined by beech hedges. The idea was that the garden in front of the house would be their trial garden, and the stock area for the nursery would be at the back. ![]() With limited plants available in Holland's nurseries at the time, he decided to start one himself, and with his wife Anja and their two children, moved to an old farmhouse with a plot of land that was big enough for that purpose. Having studied landscape design in his twenties, he began to design gardens for clients throughout Amsterdam, soon realising that plants were his main passion. Since 1982, the hub of his experimentation with plants has been his own garden in Hummelo, 75 miles east of Amsterdam. MAY WE SUGGEST: The best garden furniture to buy now You see how competitive it is, you watch how it flowers, how it seeds, how it dies.' 'In the beginning, we propagated 95 per cent of all our plants for the nursery and garden. 'You have to grow plants to understand them,' he says. One of the world's pioneers in planting design, he creates complex, highly successful naturalistic schemes that are constantly changing and evolving - due in part to his never-ending curiosity. Piet Oudolf is 72 this year, but insists that he is still learning. ![]()
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