Piet Oudolf
Dutch landscape architect (born 1944)
Piet Oudolf (Dutch pronunciation: [pit ˈʌudɔl(ə)f]; born 27 October 1944) is a Dutch garden designer, nurseryman and author. He is a leading figure of the "New Perennial" movement – his designs and plant compositions using bold drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses which are chosen at least as much for their structure as for their flower color.
Design philosophy
Working primarily with perennials, Oudolf practices a naturalistic approach to gardening. Taking a cue from architectural design, Oudolf prioritizes the seasonal life cycle of the plants over decorative considerations like flowers or colours. He focuses primarily on structural characteristics, such as leaf or seed pod shape, present before and after a plant has flowered. He explains: "A garden is exciting for me when it looks good through out the year, not just at one particular time. I want to go outside and for it to be interesting in seasons, in early spring and late autumn."
The stability of perennials after planting are key to Oudolf's designs, especially the use of long-lived clump-forming species. The result are gardens that persist in their planned state years after being planted, with little deviation from Oudolf's hand drawn maps.
Oudolf's overall approach to planting has evolved since the 1980s when he and his wife Anja opened their nursery, at Hummelo, in Gelderland. His early work with perennials consisted of block-type groupings based on structure and texture.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1407899. VIAF identifies the subject as 5107553. The Library of Congress control number is n97062061. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944.
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This entry incorporates text from “Piet Oudolf” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.