Planting the Oudolf Gardens at Hauser & Wirth Somerset by Rory Dusoir

When I received a copy of Planting the Oudolf Gardens at Hauser & Wirth Somerset I could not help but wonder if there is anything new to learn about Piet Oudolf’s landscapes.  His work is widely published and I have reviewed several books about his projects and planting philosophy. I have visited many of his gardens. The movie Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf, provides an opportunity to experience his creative oeuvre on the big screen. Could I be Oudolfed-out?

So it was with trepidation that I read  Planting the Oudolf Gardens at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Rory Dusoir’s paen to Oudolf, the grand master of the new perennial movement. The book is described as an intimate portrait of the gardens throughout the seasons and chronicles their creation, evolution and ongoing maintenance. Dusoir visited the gardens at Hauser & Wirth Somerset frequently, fully experiencing the passage of time upon the landscape.

A pioneering world-class gallery and multi-purpose art center, Hauser & Wirth Somerset is a destination for experiencing art, architecture and the Somerset landscape. It offers innovative exhibitions of contemporary art, educational programs for local schools, young people and families, and immersive artists in residence programs.  All are centered around a core belief in conservation, education and sustainability. The site is open to the public, free of charge, six days a week.

In many ways Oudolf’s unique design sensibilities were a perfect match for the artistic spirit embraced by the mission of the client.  At Hauser & Wirth Somerset he worked without constraint or compromise. The synergy between landscape elements, gallery, and educational spaces, aligned perfectly with his original use of plant materials, where rhythm, balance and meaning coalesce in a painterly fashion to become a landscape that defies seasonality.

Set within a restored farmstead, the property consists of three distinct garden spaces – a farmyard, the Cloister Garden, and the 1.5 acre Oudolf Field, a perennial meadow of 26,000 herbaceous plants that sits behind the gallery buildings. Used for a changing program of outdoor sculptures, the Oudolf Field contains no woody plants and hard landscaping. It is described by Dusoir as being most complete in autumn when, enhanced by the dramatic effects of light its shifting colors offer a dynamic contribution to the landscape.

The completed plan for the Oudolf Field

A foreword, by Oudolf reinforces the value of the book’s focus on a singular landscape providing an opportunity for an in-depth look at its key elements – design, plant selection and maintenance. These are shared seasonally by garden. Each element is woven into the book’s narrative serving as pragmatic examples that instruct and descriptive passages that inspire. This is a landscape of seemingly effortless beauty that was complicated to create and requires continual care.

Dusoir takes great pains to acknowledge the limitations of his methodology. He has a profound affinity for his subject that evidences itself in his elegant prose. The book’s photography, by Jason Ingram, illuminates each page with a mystical beauty.  Promoted as the first book on Oudolf plantings for home gardeners, Planting the Oudolf Gardens at Hauser & Worth Somerset, is as meticulously crafted as an Oudolf landscape.  An almost sixty-page plant directory, that includes a photograph and description of each, is included. This provides useful source material for translating Oudolf’s vision to the home gardener.

While an intimate and personal portrait of one project, Planting the Oudolf Gardens at Hauser Wirth Somerset acknowledges the important contribution that Oudolf has made to the iconography of landscape design.  Dusoir places his work within the context of the naturalistic movement, including the work of William Robinson, and the landmark public projects, including the High Line in New York and the Lurie Garden in Chicago that have imagined a new paradigm for public landscapes.

Dusoir studied for a degree in classics at Balliol College Oxford before deciding to pursue a career in horticulture. His extensive experience includes training at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, serving as assistant head gardener at Great Dixter and head gardener at Howe Mill in Withshire and Stud House, a private estate within the grounds of Hampton Court Palace.  He currently practices at ‘Kennedy Song Dusoir’ a design, maintenance and installation practice in London and  is widely published on a diverse field of topics relating to horticulture and design.

Oudolf designs gardens in four dimensions using plants as his palette.  At Hauser & Wirth Somerset his landscape plan integrates discrete gardens holistically, underscoring his mastery of spatial relationships as well as his widely lauded skill as a plantsman. In Planting the Oudolf Gardens at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Dusoir succeeds, aided by the beautiful photographs of Jason Ingram, to enhance our appreciation for Oudolf’s genius.

Additional information about the Oudolf Gardens at Hauser & Wirth Somerset can be found on their website.

Planting the Oudolf Gardens at Hauser & Wirth Somerset by Rory Dusoir | Forward by Piet Oudolf | Photographs by Jason Ingram. Filbert Press in association with Hauser & Wirth Publishers, 2019.