Stretching the Seasons

Designer Piet Oudolf recommends using perennials with appealing seed heads and distinctive structural outlines to add interest to the fall and winter garden

by Virginia Small

Piet Oudolf has gained international renown for his imaginative plantings. One of his design strategies is to include many plants that bloom late and look good as they go to seed. The result is a garden that looks just as appealing in fall and winter as it does in spring and summer. He also advocates celebrating the rhythms and cycles of nature in the spaces we cultivate as gardens.

He has written several books about what he calls naturalistic planting design and the plants he has found to be the most dependable, disease resistant, and easy to maintain.

In Autumn, late-flowering perennials and seed heads add drama.

In early winter, plants with distinct shapes create interest.

FG: What’s the secret to designing gardens that look interesting in fall and winter?

PO: I like to use lots of late-flowering perennials, as well as perennials with beautiful autumn color and ones that stay beautiful after flowering. These plants give a design a sense of continuity or a backbone. For instance, most grasses last long into fall and have a distinct structural outline. As plants go to seed, their shapes often become more abstract, especially when they are covered with dew or snow and the light hits them in certain ways. These effects later in the season are just a continuation of what starts early on. To me, a garden should be an experience—one that changes through the seasons. The secret to keeping interest in a garden is using plants that look good in more than one season.

Seasonal effects heighten the interest

In summer, morning mist accentuates the wispy spires of greater burnet against the frothy pink plumes of ‘Venusta’ queen of the prairie.

Slanting autumnal light casts a golden glow on the seed heads of bee balm and Miscanthus sinensis ‘Flamingo’.

Weighted down by hoarfrost, the seed heads of Miscanthus sinensis ‘Silberturm’ form an icy fountain in winter.

FG: Do you have favorite plants that you find fade well?

PO: I choose from a palette of hundreds and hundreds of plants, and I use all kinds of variations. For example, there are many snakeroots (Actaea spp. and cvs. [formerly Cimicifuga spp. and cvs.], Zones 4–8) that still look good after flowering. So if I don’t want to use a brown-leaved one, like ‘Brunette’, I choose another form that is lower or taller or more muscular.

I generally look for plants that have an extra aspect of interest, such as attractive seed heads or berries. Hostas, for instance, are static. The only thing you see is leaves, and most of them are not interesting for their flowers. So is a hosta a good plant? It’s a terrific garden plant. But next to hostas, you need plants that offer interest that evolves with the seasons. One example is culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum, Zones 3–8). It produces its vertical stems and flowers by midsummer and then continues to keep its good looks well into winter. I like to think of a garden as an orchestra:Everything should work together through the seasons.

As flowers fade, plants with structure carry the garden through the fall and winter seasons.

FG: Do you ever plant specific areas for winter interest?

PO: Not particularly. I tend to think about how the whole garden will look in winter. Of course, the bigger a garden is, the more you can divide it into areas where you have, say, more of a spring show and just a little bit of autumn interest. Or you can design borders that will be at their best in August. I think a smaller garden should be interesting all year long.

FG: Is there anything else you would suggest to a gardener who is trying to develop this sort of design?

PO: I always suggest broadening your palette of plants so that you are aware of more options. When you see something that appeals to you, stop and look at it closely. If you see a garden that looks interesting even in winter, you may want to try to find out what plants are growing there. m
Virginia Small is senior editor.