Piet Oudolf Borders at RHS Wisley

Echinacea purpurea Rubinglow and Echinacea purpurea Green Edge

Here, at the top of the border near The Mount, it is a battle between the Echinacea Rubinglow and Green Edge, though the balance is far in the favour of plummy purple cultivar. Allium seed heads provide some contrast too. The ground here, as well as being on a slope, is very free draining and the site is in full sun, just as these plants like.

I’ve written about the Piet Oudolf borders at Wisley before and posted pictures of these borders bouncing with allium flower heads – christophii, schubertii, Purple Sensation – and they continue to provide interest all these months on.

The Eryngium giganteum ‘Silver Ghost’ is very effective in these big blocks – probably not something to be recreated in the average garden but striking it is, even with rain on the way ..

Eryngium giganteum Silver Ghost – a larger Miss Willmott’s Ghost

There is another Eryngium in the mix, the yucca leaved form, much taller but lost here. Little evidence of large blocks of  Heleniums, touched upon in Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury’s Book   – pockets of The Bishop and small stands of Rubinswerg – I would have thought they would be in flower as they are in the borders elsewhere. Maybe some work has been done to change the composition of these beds – they may simply have been cut back earlier in the season to give a later show?

Helenium The Bishop

Helenium Rubinswerg

Work on the borders