The London garden museum opened two years ago this November 2010.
From October 6th 2010 their Autumn and Winter exhibition will focus upon the Dutch who are not only 'the world's best gardeners', but 'have transformed the British approach to gardens and plants in the last fifteen years', according to Christopher Woodward the museum director.
The Dutch Wave was a movement of the 90's that strongly influenced British garden design. It was based on ecology, habitat planting and perennials.
Begun by Piet Oudolf, the garden museum are making him and another strong influence Henk Gerritsens the focus of the exhibition, running until Feb 20 2011.
However, although Oudolf saw the possibilities of grasses and triggered the wave, it was a German plant breeder Ernst Pagel who first developed the plants, according to the Telegraph.
Pagel developed varieties of Miscanthus sinensis, and other german breeders like Karl Foerster developed taller bone-hardy plants and grasses, perennials like Mother Nature's hair and Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster’ (a form of feather-reed grass), pictured right.
Piet Oudolf and Pago were friends, and while Pagel developed the plants, Oudolf instigated the Dutch wave.
The Museum Director Christopher Woodward said: "It's easiest to think of the Dutch impact when you see grasses mixed with perennials, or the longer season – such as leaving dead seed heads in September.
"But it was a bigger change than that. The Dutch Wave challenged the English pictorial approach that a garden should be a pretty watercolour painting,” he said.
Of related interest, Piet Oudolf's website.
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