Love the peaceful and luscious therapy garden at the clinic?
Here is a plant-by-numbers to make your own!
The style of the planting is called the New Perennial Movement – where colourful drifts are interspersed with flowy grasses and sharply contrasted with formal elements like mowed paths and modern architecture.
Considered to be the father of the movement, Piet Oudolf emphasizes structure and plants that look good in all seasons in his designs – especially important for the six snowy months in Georgina!
Most plants are linked for your convenience to my favourite plant database – the Missouri Botanical. Please consider the sun and water requirements, and possible toxicity when selecting plants in your designs. For plants listed as “spp.”, any species of this genus are good.
Plants marked with a “♥” are Piet’s favourites, as seen in most of his installations. The recommended number of plants per meter for full coverage is indicated in the brackets next to each plant, when available.
Our local native plant supplier is Native Plant Nurseries in Pefferlaw.
Other suppliers we love are ONplants.ca, Zehrs and other Loblaws garden centres, Wild about Flowers (Alberta), and Prairie Moon Nurseries (seeds). Between these, you should find all the plants on this list.
Visit the other Georgina Butterflyway gardens that are accessible to the public.
Contents
Palettes:
Aggressive Native Plants (for isolated locations only)
“It may look wild, but it shouldn’t be wild. This is what you’d like to see in nature.”
Piet Oudolf
Flower Palette
Grass Palette
Ephemeral Palette
Bulb Palette
Fern Palette
Tree Palette
Shrub Palette
Vine Palette
Aggressive Native Plants (for isolated locations only)
- Horsetail
- Plantain
- Mint
- Tall goldenrod varieties
Book References
Dream Plants for the Natural Garden by Henk Gerritsen & Piet Oudolf
Gardens of the High Line by Piet Oudolf & Rick Darke
Planting: A New Perspective by Piet Oudolf & Noel Kingsbury
About the Author
Dr. Yulia Lasenko, ND is a Georgina-based naturopathic doctor who helps people get to the root causes of their complex health concerns through comprehensive laboratory testing and detailed history-taking. She is a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner with a background in food research and laboratory medicine. Yulia empowers patients and helps them navigate the healthcare system. By using botanical medicine, Yulia hopes to foster a love for the land in each person she meets, so that we can all heal the land of our community as we begin to feel better. Growing native plants is one of the best ways to start.
