Garden architect Piet Oudolf receives an award from King Charles

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NOS News•today, 5:35 pm•Amended today, 17:42

Garden architect Piet Oudolf from Hummelo has been awarded by King Charles. During the Chelsea Flower Show in London, the Achterhoeker received the prestigious Elizabeth Medal of Honour.

“I am the first foreigner to receive this award,” Oudolf told Omroep Gelderland. “It’s a great honor in the gardening world.” Oudolf is considered one of the founders of the ‘Dutch Wave’, a style within garden architecture. He is also responsible for the design of several city parks in New York and has done many different garden projects at home and abroad.

The Hummeloer is not very impressed by the award. “Stiff”, he calls the moment of handing over, for example. “They said: ‘How nice that you have done this, how good and we already know you’. It feels like an honor, but I see it more as a kind of protocol. Charles shakes more hands than mine alone.” Oudolf says matter-of-factly.

In the coming period, seventy of these medals will be awarded in honor of the coronation of the king and the memory of the deceased queen. Equal to the number of regnal years of the queen.

The award does not end up on the mantelpiece in the Achterhoek. “It will end up in a drawer somewhere,” the landscape architect concludes.