Famed Landscape Architect To Kick Off Flower Show

Famed landscape architect to kick off flower show

■ James van Sweden will discuss ‘The New American Garden’ at Lydia Mendelssohn March 9.

By JAN CALLE FEB 27 1991

Favoring a more natural, prairie look and low maintenance, James van Sweden and his partner, Wolfgang Oehme, are revolutionizing American garden design.

The University of Michigan’s Matthaei Botanical Gardens has rented the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre for the afternoon of Sunday, March 9, to present Van Sweden, a world renowned landscape architect, and two other garden experts as a way to launch activities for the 1997 Ann Arbor Flower and Garden Show.

Those who attend the kick-off will receive a ticket to the flower show with the price of admission.

This year’s flower show will be held April 3-6 at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds.

The 2,600-square-foot feature

garden at the show, entitled “The New AmericanGarden,” is inspired by the work of Van Sweden and Oehme and also by the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Jens Jensen, the latter considered the dean of American landscape architecture. The schedule for that March 9 afternoon at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre:

■ 12:30 p.m. - David Mich-ener, assistant curator of the Botanical Gardens,

we will talk on “European traditions of Garden Style.” With slides, he’ll discuss garden development in france, England and Scotland since the industrial revolution and explain how American gardens reflect our own culture.

■ 2 p.m. - Van Sweden will talk on “Gardening with Water in the New American Garden.” He will use slides to show his own small garden in Georgetown, public garden projects, private gardens and a combination of paintings and sections of gardens to illustrate his Matthaei Botanical Garden points. He will also discuss his and partner Oehme’s garden-design: repertoire.

■ 3:30 p.m. - Scott G. Kunst, a landscape historian and antique bulb specialist, will talk on “Yesterday’s Flowers Today: American Ornamentals, 1800-1940.” Kunst’s lively lecture will explore the kinds of flowers used in Midwestern home landscapes from the scanty pioneer gardens of the early 1800s through Victorian carpet-bedding and the “old-fashioned” perennial borders of the early 1900s.

Born in Grand Rapids, James van Sweden obtained a bachelor of architecture degree from the U-M in 1960 and subsequently trained as a landscape architect and urban designer at the University of Delft in The Netherlands.

His designs, which integrate architecture, landscape architecture and urban design, demonstrate his multi-disciplinary background.

Van Sweden gardens are characterized by prairie and meadow, perennial beds and ornamental grasses featuring low maintenance, limited watering and fertilizing. Chemicals are used only as a last

JAMES VAN SWEDEN

... Changing nation's gardens resort.

Plants chosen for the New American Garden reflect seasonal changes - for example, arrangements that yield of gold, brown and russet colors in winter rather than a barren landscape.

In describing Oehme-van Sweden designs, Corbin Gwaltney - client, writer and publisher - says:

“After the first year, the presence of the professional - the human hand - disappears, and people no longer say ‘What a great design this is.’ Design becomes something that is forgotten, and nature takes over. Just as a writer shouldn’t be an obstacle between the reader and a text, the landscape architect shouldn’t be an obstacle between the garden and the beholder.”

Van Sweden attributes his love of flat landscapes with water features to his Dutch ancestry and his Midwest upbringing.

He jokes that Aquarius is his birth sign.

Motivated by the idea that a garden is a place of learning, Oehme and Van Sweden tutor their clients, label plants in their gardens, and write non-intimidating books.

“Gardening With Water” by van Sweden (Random House Inc., 1995) is the first in a series of books for serious gardeners.

Written in the first person, it is to be followed by “Gardening With Nature” (due out this September) and

MICHENER

KUNST

“Gardening With Style” (due jn 2000).

“Bold Romantic Gardens” (Acropolis Books Lt., 1990), co-authored with Oehme, got two 1991 Awards of Excellence from the Garden Writers Association of America. Another book, “Process Architecture,” about the work of Oehme,and van Sweden, is available in many languages.

by van Sweden, Michener and Scott is $25. The fee includes a ticket to this year's April 3-6 flower show. r” Jan Calle, a free-lance writer, is a retired AT&T manager.