designer garden

The mother of
modernism
Mien Ruys spent 70 years creating her extraordinary gardens in the
Netherlands – and influenced several generations of designers along
the way. Words Isabelle Van Groeningen, photographs Claire Takacs.

IN BRIEF
• WHAT: show gardens created
between 1924 and 1999 by
influential designer Mien Ruys.
• WHERE: Dedemsvaart,
the Netherlands.
• SIZE: 2.5 hectares (6.2 acres).
• SOIL: acidic, free-draining loam.
• CLIMATE: mild and often wet.
Mature trees shelter the site.
Mien Ruys described her garden as
• POINTS OF INTEREST: ‘wild planting in a strong design’, a style
innovative materials, naturalistic perfectly exemplified in the bulrushes
planting, water features. and bold decking of the Marsh Garden.

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designer garden

Shade-loving plants such as Rodgersia

podophylla (in the foreground) thrive
beneath a bird cherry, Prunus padus
‘Colorata’, in the Wild Garden.

T
he gardens of Mien Ruys are Mien was brought up watching
an extraordinary legacy from herbaceous perennials being grown in
one of Europe’s greatest land- the field, lifted and sold on before
scape designers. Even now, when reaching maturity. As a young adult, A a young adult, the desire grew
As
many of her ideas have become main- the desire grew to watch plants to watch plants develop in a proper
stream, the 28 show gardens she made develop in a garden habitat. She
at her home in the Netherlands are begged her parents for a patch of land garden habitat. She begged her parents
full of inspiration. on which to create her first garden.
Mien’s show gardens were created So in 1923, 19-year-old Mien
for a small patch of the garden
over 70 years, and reflect the changing cleared the old orchard and laid a
attitudes and tastes in the world of straight path from the house to the
RIGHT: ABOVE: The Old Experimental Border at the
garden design. But if the gardens boundary fence. Off the main path, Kirengeshoma garden’s entrance is a classic English-style
often changed, this also reflected Mien laid a path to a seat, using a palmata flowers in planting scheme that includes blue Salvia
Mien’s restless creativity. ‘Looking at small square water feature as a pivotal the Wild Garden nemorosa, tall yellow Helianthus ‘Lemon
from early to Queen’ and magenta Fuchsia magellanica.
my gardens,’ she once wrote, ‘I often point (pictured above). This area, now
mid-autumn. LEFT: The Yellow Garden is planted with
think, can they be done differently? known as the Wild Garden, has BELOW: interesting perennials including Phlomis
How can they be improved?’ become a cool woodland space, where A simple planting russeliana, whose attractive, spent flower
Many of Mien’s innovations are shade-loving structural plants such as of daisies (Erigeron heads are pictured in the foreground.
now part of garden orthodoxy. For hostas, Kirengeshoma palmata and karvinskianus) and
Miscanthus sinensis
example, she lead the way with the use American spikenard (Maianthemum ‘Morning Light’ lines
of materials such as decking, concrete racemosum) look perfectly at home the pool in the
and railway sleepers. Her planting was among native ground-cover such as Clipped Garden.
loose and naturalistic. Above all, woodruff (Asperula).
though, she bequeathed a modernist Next she made a sunny
emphasis on simple, bold forms. herbaceous border and, facing it,
a large shrub border. In order to
A family business allow for over-spilling perennials, she
Mien’s father was Bonne Ruys, who edged the herbaceous border with a
set up the Royal Moerheim Nurseries double row of concrete paving slabs.
in the village of Dedemsvaart in A few grasses, such as Miscanthus, are
1888. The nursery earned a sound growing in clumps on the lawn, along
international reputation, and Bonne with perennials such as Bergenia and
became a friend of influential sedums. This breaks up the formality
German nurseryman Karl Foerster. and linearity of border and paving.

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 designer garden

ABOVE: Sedum spectabile ‘Brilliant’ is typical of

the tough and easygoing autumn-flowering
plants that Mien grew in her gardens.
RIGHT: A weathered steel sculpture by
Henk Rusman, surrounded by the tussock
grass Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Goldtau’, is the
centrepiece of the New Perennial Collection.
BELOW RIGHT: Pots of sempervivums line
the ramp leading to the Roof Garden.

What’s now called the Old introduced gardeners to the value of

Experimental Border reflects two ornamental grasses, was a close friend
key influences in Mien’s work. Her of her father and a regular visitor.
original colour scheme was typical After the Second World War,
of the great plantswoman Gertrude elaborate herbaceous borders became
Jekyll (1843-1932), starting off with less popular as people looked for
soft, pastel colours, gradually moving alternatives that were easier to
along the border through pale pinks, maintain. Mien was still keen to
lilacs and soft yellows to hot yellow, experiment, though; at around this
orange and red, interspersed with time she created her Water Garden Mien Ruys (1904-1999)
blues and purples. From here the beyond the shady natural garden and Mien Ruys made her first
colours cool down again. This did not boundary ditch. This is a formal space, gardens in the grounds of
please Mien, though, who preferred dominated by a rectilinear pond and the family business, the Royal
not to see the hot colours through the low retaining walls to hold back the Moerheim Nursery, in the
soft pinks and lilacs. Her solution was soil. It provides habitats for water- Netherlands, at the age of 19.
to remove the hot section of the loving plants such as Lysichiton After spells working for an
borders and the soft, cool section at americanum, Petasites and reeds as English nursery (1928) and
the far end. Instead shades of yellow well as drought-tolerant ones used studying landscape architecture in Berlin (1929),
zigzag through the border and are to break up the formality with she was appointed head of the landscape office at Inventive paving, concrete planters,
interspersed with orange, such as soapwort, sedums and thyme. low plantings of herbaceous plants
the Royal Moerheim. Her education continued, and clumps of clipped box define
Alstroemeria, red-brown Helenium An arch in a large cypress hedge though, with studies in architecture at Delft in the this garden next to the barn.
‘Moerheim Beauty’, one of her father’s leads into the herb garden, a sunny, 1930s. Before the Second World War most of her
most notable introductions, and geometric space with large clipped designs were for private gardens, typically with large FAR LEFT: The
shades of blue and purple from Salvia box shapes and a reflective ‘crystal’ herbaceous borders. She often worked with notable tall, straight stems
nemorosa, monkshood, delphiniums ball as the focal point. architects such as Gerrit Rietveld. After 1945 she of Calamagrostis
and veronicas (see picture on previous designed many large public spaces, including housing
x acutiflora ‘Karl
page). She would have been familiar Restless creativity developments. She continued making private
Foerster’ adorn
the Grass Garden
with this use of colours from the time As part of the postwar movement to gardens, though, such as that of architect Abe until early spring.
she spent working for a landscape manufacture easy-to-assemble items, Bonnema in 1961. Mien had a reputation as a LEFT: Much of the
contractors’ firm based in Tunbridge Mien Ruys developed a series of plant workaholic. ‘I can only make two things,’ she once
paving and furniture
Wells, Kent, during the 1920s. mixtures for specific positions and in Mien’s gardens
said, ‘gardens and tea.’ She was married to editor was made of
Her experience in Germany requirements, using easy-to maintain, Theo Moussault, with whom she published Onze concrete, including
taught her about grasses. Karl Foerster, healthy plants, calling them her Eigen Tuin, a quarterly gardening magazine. these stools in the
the German nurseryman who Confection Borders (and now Marsh Garden.

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designer garden

gardenguide Your guide to the 28 show gardens at the

Mien Ruys Gardens in Dedemsvaart

THE GARDENS
1 Millstone Garden 1984/1994
2 Old Experimental Garden 1927
3 Herb Garden 1957/1996
4 Wild Garden 1924/2001
5 Water Garden 1954/2002
6 Bench and Waterball 1970
7 Gardener’s Garden 1981/1998
ABOVE: Mien pioneered the use of railway 8 Woodland Garden 1987
sleepers in the 1960s. Here, in the Sunken 9 Shady Borders 1960
17
Garden, they form a retaining wall topped 10 Autumn Garden 2002
16
with a shallow concrete bowl and sheltered 11 Parterre Garden 1974/1997 YELLOW GARDEN
12 Flower Terrace 1982 19
by a hedge of the hinoki cypress cultivar, 18
Bold posts screen a circular lawn
13 Grass Garden 1993 15 edged with flowers in all colours
Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Nana Gracilis’. OFFICE
RIGHT: Dark blocks of clipped yew lead 14 New Border 2000 from cream to orange.
15 Clipped Garden 1999 14 20
from the sunlit lawn to the more intimate
space of the Clipped Garden beyond. 16 Corner Garden 1999 13 21
17 Mixed Border 1974
18 Yellow Garden 1982 12 22
19 Marsh Garden 1990 28
23
11
20 Roof Garden 1999
21 Picture Garden 2006 27
26
22 Weekend Garden 1950 10
24 BARN
23 New Perennial Collection 1999 25
known as the Standard Perennial materials such as bricks, or plants. 24 Standard Perennial Borders 1960 9
Borders – see plan, opposite). These The presence of concrete tends to 25 Sunken Garden 1960/1995
lead on to another series of garden date some of these gardens. A small 26 City Garden 1960
27 Sun Borders 1960
rooms, designed during the past five concrete slab terrace, lined with 28 Reed Pond 1960 CLIPPED GARDEN
decades. These gardens reflect her square planters in concrete and 8
A minimalist space in which neat
desire to try out different hard backed by a concrete bench, is a very blocks of berberis and yew are laid
out around a rectangular pool.
landscape materials, as well as plants. well designed space, but the choice
of materials firmly places it in the
Innovative materials third quarter of the 20th century.
Few building materials occur Since Mien died in 1999, her ENTRANCE/
naturally in the Netherlands, so Mien design office has maintained aesthetic TEAHOUSE
was forever trying to find sensible supervision of the garden. In the spirit 1 3
solutions, experimenting with of its founder’s experimental 5 GARDENER’S
alternative ways of enclosing garden approach, the garden continues to 2
HOUSE
spaces. Stone walls were expensive. evolve and develop, with earlier 6

Instead she would often use reed gardens being occasionally redesigned
7
screens, replacing them when possible and replanted to reflect new trends in 4
FAN PAVING
with longer-lasting alternatives. The design, plant and material use.
Mien was always looking for
herbaceous border was thus backed Partly thanks to this refreshing creative effects with paving.This
with creosote-dipped poles, approach, Mien’s design philosophy path gradually blends in to the lawn.
hammered into the ground in a row. remains absolutely valid, as does the
Although long-lasting, plants dislike planting throughout the show gardens.
creosote, so she went on to use Brimming with ideas, this garden
ABOVE: Neat
alternative wood preservatives, remains one of the most inspirational purple Berberis
because she generally favoured timber and influential the Netherlands has to thunbergii
used vertically for her fences. offer, and is well worth a visit. ■ f. atropurpurea
ILLUSTRATED BY SCOTT WOTHERSPOON
Mien was one of the first to make contrasts with
the loose green
extensive use of timber railway clumps of Geranium
sleepers to create small differences in Further information macrorrhizum in the
level, something she felt most Mien Ruys Gardens, Moerheimstraat 84, Clipped Garden.
important in the otherwise flat Dedemsvaart, the Netherlands.Tel LEFT: Miscanthus OLD EXPERIMENTAL GARDEN HERB GARDEN BENCH AND ‘WATERBALL’ WOODLAND GARDEN
sinensis ‘Ferner This 30m-long bed of brightly Beds of culinary and medicinal This spherical sculpture, by local This circular space was created in
landscape. She also used concrete +31 (0)523 614774, www.mienruys.nl
Osten’ bears deep coloured flowers is one of the first herbs are edged in box, with artist Auk Fock van Coppenaal, is 1987 and planted with wood
regularly, for walls and paving, • Open 1 April to 31 October, Tuesday red flower heads in things visitors see when they arrive. topiary and ‘crystal ball’ sculpture. surrounded by shade-loving plants. sorrel (Oxalis acetosella).
sometimes mixing it with other to Saturday 10-5, Sunday 12-5. mid to late summer.

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