World-renowned Naturalistic Garden Designers

Piet Oudolf and Bart Hoes to Visit Ulsan

Visiting the Naturalistic Garden and discussing the role of the 2028 Ulsan International Garden Expo

Piet Oudolf and Bart Hoes, the designers of the Naturalistic Garden at the Taehwagang National Garden, visits Ulsan on May 4, spending three days.

The purpose of the visit is to inspect the plant growth status of the Naturalistic Garden at the Taehwagang National Garden. The experts are slated to convey garden maintenance and management techniques, and discuss the role of Ulsan in the 2028 Ulsan International Garden Expo.

On the first day of the visit, a welcome dinner is scheduled. Meetings with local gardeners, interviews, and on-site inspections of a naturalistic garden will be held on the following day.

On the last day, the garden architects will travel to Jeju-do to explore and discover native plant resources in the southern part of Korea to consider ways to utilize them for the Naturalistic Garden.

The Naturalistic Garden is located on an 18,000 m2 site that used to be a chrysanths garden. The foundation work began in May 2022, followed by the first planting by 360 professionals and citizens from home and abroad from Oct. 1 to 7, and ended up with additional plantings in April this year.

A total of 71,289 perennial herbaceous flowering plants of 157 different species, including purple reedgrass (Korean native plant) are planted here.

Among the total project cost of KRW 1.9 billion, BNK Kyongnam Bank provided KRW 1.1 billion for the design and planting of the garden as a social contribution project, while Ulsan spent KRW 800 million to create infrastructure such as walking paths, drainage facilities, and electricity facilities.

An official of Ulsan said, "Although the Naturalistic Garden has not yet become a rich garden, it is currently growing into a very healthy garden, as we have shared the status of the site such as the growth of plants with Piet Oudolf on a regular basis. We expect it to become a high-quality garden by next year."

Piet Oudolf and Bart Hoes added, "As honorary citizens of Ulsan, we will utilize our world-wide network to work together to bring garden enthusiasts across the globe to Ulsan for the 2028 Ulsan International Garden Expo."

Meanwhile, this year's Taehwagang National Garden Spring Flower Festival, along with the Naturalistic Garden, will be held from May 19 to 21 with various garden programs under the theme of "Spring Garden, Drenched in Fragrance."