The not-so-new 'New' Perennial Movement.
The Not so New, ‘New’ Perennial Movement. Piet Oudolf at the start of his fame The last ten years has seen an explosion of naturalistic plantings in our gardens. It feels like a decade of this style of gardening has gone by pretty quickly, and therefore it still seems (to some at least) quite a new and fashionable way to design gardens. Of course, ‘there’s nothing new under an old sun’ as they say, and even though Piet Oudolf may be the person famed for much of what we see in gardens today, it’s worth remembering that even he had his influences: e,g. Karl Foerster - the German plantsman, nurseryman and writer, who (as far back as 1903) was combining a love of sturdy perennials with grasses to create a remarkably similar effect to what we see today. Piet cites Foerster as his main influence, as well as his personal idol. Now, one could argue, that pushing aside the now somewhat-ageing perennial wave, there is in fact very little movement in mo...