Piet Oudolf, the influential Dutch garden designer, nurseryman and author has put gardens into some spectacular places: the High Line and Battery Park in New York City, and in Chicago he was responsible, along with Kathryn Gustafson, for the massive green roof over the car park of Millennium Park. 

More recently, Oudolf has been collaborating with architect Peter Zumthor on an enclosed garden within the walls of this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, which is nestled in the arboreal surrounds of Hyde Park. Entitled Hortus conclusus, we are happpy to bring you a diagram of Oudolf’s planting diagram and a few photos of the resulting work (see image 2, above). 

In a recent interview with the Telegraph, Oudolf says that he prefers plants close to their wild originals, classic performers such as Eupatorium, Cimicifuga, Monarda and Molinia grasses, and that he looks for “silhouettes and textures, plants that look interesting before they are in flower.” Molinia, he said, keeps the aesthetic “soft and hazy, conducive to the state of elevated daydreaming.”

An overarching concept for the garden, he mentions in the same story, is to show that archiecture is simple and that planting is complex. ”That’s what a hortus conclusus is for. It’s simple, in a complex way.”