Immersive Oudolf landscape planned for RHS Wisley’s Glasshouse Borders

Wisley to transform its iconic Glasshouse Borders into one of the most significant examples of Piet Oudolf’s work ever created in the UK

Creating a perennial paradise

RHS Garden Wisley’s iconic Glasshouse Borders are set to be transformed into an immersive perennial paradise by visionary landscape designer Piet Oudolf, who created the original borders more than 20 years ago.

An area totalling just under two acres will be redeveloped in Piet’s signature ‘New Perennial’ style. Meandering hillside paths will lead visitors through the new landscape and among bold drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses, while retaining much-loved views of Wisley’s Glasshouse.

“While the Glasshouse Borders have rightly earned much admiration over the years, we saw an opportunity to create a noteworthy new landscape that allows visitors to be immersed into Piet’s planting.”

Matthew Pottage, Curator
The existing Wisley Glasshouse Borders designed by Piet Oudolf

Perennial planting in the current Glasshouse Borders

Immerse yourself in Piet’s signature style

Renamed the Oudolf Landscape, this will be one of the largest and most significant examples of the designer’s work ever created in the UK. The new design will celebrate Piet’s renowned planting style and allow visitors to experience his work in a more immersive way, as serpentine paths weave through the landscape and completely surround you in planting.

Around one third of the 36,000 perennial plants needed to fill the new landscape are being propagated and grown at Wisley. Another 117 species and cultivars will be new to the garden and have been chosen for their ornamental appeal, climate resilience and wildlife benefit.

“We’re delighted that Piet shares our vision and has created a plan that’s not only beautiful, but also works in harmony with natural ecosystems and reflects our changing climate.”

Matthew Pottage, Curator
An example of Piet Oudolf’s signature planting style from RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival 2018

Piet Oudolf poses in his Iconic Horticultural Hero Garden at RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival 2018

Designing a garden for the future

Designed to be a self-sustaining landscape, drifts of plants will naturally support each other without the need for stalking, and plants have been carefully selected to survive in Wisley’s sandy soil and dry summers. Piet’s plant choices are attractive to pollinators too, and by not cutting back plants in autumn and winter, seedheads provide food and shelter for wildlife.

Before work transforming the Glasshouse Borders begins, the team must ensure the conservation of a colony of protected Roman snails, which are suspected to reside on the site. If found, the snails will be relocated under licence by Natural England to a nearby area of the garden, where they can live safely while the new landscape takes shape.

Work is set to start in autumn/winter 2023 with the new landscape planned to open in summer 2024.

Signature plants:

Lovely small grass will feature heavily in the new scheme, in the meadow matrix. It is a slow growing, refined prairie grass topped with graceful dark pink flowerheads, which fade to silver during high summer and takes on gold and orange hues in the autumn.

Sporobolus heterolepis

Lovely small grass will feature heavily in the new scheme, in the meadow matrix. It is a slow growing, refined prairie grass topped with graceful dark pink flowerheads, which fade to silver during high summer and takes on gold and orange hues in the autumn.

New to Wisley, this plant has a compact, upright form with broad oval-shaped, grey-green leaves and clusters of pale yellow flowers from mid-summer into autumn.

Hylotelephium telephium ‘Sunkissed’

New to Wisley, this plant has a compact, upright form with broad oval-shaped, grey-green leaves and clusters of pale yellow flowers from mid-summer into autumn.

Produces stunning flowers, from June to September, which emerge from inside its dark orange cone centre. A firm favourite of pollinators with its striking flowers attracting butterflies and bees; this plant promises to be a strong variety. 

Echinacea purpurea ‘Fatal Attraction’

Produces stunning flowers, from June to September, which emerge from inside its dark orange cone centre. A firm favourite of pollinators with its striking flowers attracting butterflies and bees; this plant promises to be a strong variety. 

Perennial sage with spiky flowers in early summer. Originating from the Netherlands, it is medium in height, with flowers of deep violet purple. Drought tolerant once established – and attractive to both butterflies and other pollinating insects.

Salvia × sylvestris ‘Rhapsody in Blue’

Perennial sage with spiky flowers in early summer. Originating from the Netherlands, it is medium in height, with flowers of deep violet purple. Drought tolerant once established – and attractive to both butterflies and other pollinating insects.

Lovely small grass will feature heavily in the new scheme, in the meadow matrix. It is a slow growing, refined prairie grass topped with graceful dark pink flowerheads, which fade to silver during high summer and takes on gold and orange hues in the autumn.

Sporobolus heterolepis

Lovely small grass will feature heavily in the new scheme, in the meadow matrix. It is a slow growing, refined prairie grass topped with graceful dark pink flowerheads, which fade to silver during high summer and takes on gold and orange hues in the autumn.

New to Wisley, this plant has a compact, upright form with broad oval-shaped, grey-green leaves and clusters of pale yellow flowers from mid-summer into autumn.

Hylotelephium telephium ‘Sunkissed’

New to Wisley, this plant has a compact, upright form with broad oval-shaped, grey-green leaves and clusters of pale yellow flowers from mid-summer into autumn.

Produces stunning flowers, from June to September, which emerge from inside its dark orange cone centre. A firm favourite of pollinators with its striking flowers attracting butterflies and bees; this plant promises to be a strong variety. 

Echinacea purpurea ‘Fatal Attraction’

Produces stunning flowers, from June to September, which emerge from inside its dark orange cone centre. A firm favourite of pollinators with its striking flowers attracting butterflies and bees; this plant promises to be a strong variety. 

Perennial sage with spiky flowers in early summer. Originating from the Netherlands, it is medium in height, with flowers of deep violet purple. Drought tolerant once established – and attractive to both butterflies and other pollinating insects.

Salvia × sylvestris ‘Rhapsody in Blue’

Perennial sage with spiky flowers in early summer. Originating from the Netherlands, it is medium in height, with flowers of deep violet purple. Drought tolerant once established – and attractive to both butterflies and other pollinating insects.

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