Dream Plants for the Natural Garden
Henk Gerritsen and Piet Oudolf (Frances Lincoln 2000)
This is a wonderful book- crammed with information on desirable plants and with glorious photographs to support the text.
Piet Oudolf is one of the gardening gurus of the moment and Henk Gerritsen is equally well respected.
They have an enormous amount of experience in growing and using plants in the garden. Oudolf, in particular, is known for his planting in a natural style that emphasises assessing site and climate and then selecting suitable plants.
Together they have complied a list of plants that they consider worth growing. That they enjoyed writing this book is clear on every page.
A very personal view and evaluation of plants, and the introductory section outlines the authors' garden philosophy and gardening style.
In the following chapters there is an assessment of garden worthiness and many favourites were discarded as being too invasive, too disease-prone, too ugly when finished flowering, or too much work to look after. For Piet Oudolf is the man who is reputed to have said that a plant is not worth growing unless it dies well. That being said there is a chapter on labour-intensive plants such as delphiniums and another on invaders. But if you plant them, well, you were warned.
Many of the plants covered are not obtainable here, and we have many estimable natives that the authors have not had the privilege of growing. But this is a worthwhile (if expensive in New Zealand terms) book that repays revisiting over and over again.
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