In this book, pioneering garden designers Henk Gerritsen and Piet Oudolf describe their ideal perennials, bulbs, grasses, ferns and small shrubs. An ideal plant is one that is both beautiful and robust, performing reliably with very little input from the gardener.

Gerritsen and Oudolf have a genuinely innovative approach to gardening. Rather than striving for big, bold masses of colourful blooms that are vigorously pruned back as soon as they have finished flowering, the authors choose plants chiefly for their form – leaves, flower heads and stems included – which means they retain their natural beauty through all the seasons.