Employment History:
His work included park systems for the new town of Columbia, Maryland and many private residences in the Baltimore area. In 1977, he founded Oehme, van Sweden & Associates with James van Sweden. His credits include redesign of all planting along Pennsylvania Avenue from the United States Department of the Treasury to the National Gallery in Washington, DC for Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation, Virginia Avenue Gardens of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC, Morrill Hall gardens at the University of Minnesota, National Education and Training Center campus for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Shepherdstown in West Virginia and MacArthur Center retail complex at downtown Norfolk in Virginia. His teaching experience includes the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Georgia.

Published Works:
He and van Sweden co-authored ‘Bold Romantic Gardens’, which received two Award of Excellence from the Garden Writers Association of America.

Public Speaking Experience:

Why He is an Expert:

Best Advice:
"Be different. Think outside the box. Use common sense, but also use your imagination. Work with nature. Also, the garden is not a bathroom – you don’t have to clean every little leaf, stick or whatever falls down. You need all this to sustain the creatures such as caterpillars and their cocoons. You can’t separate one thing from the ecosystem. Leave it be. People think it looks better to clean it all up. Save the worms as well. They are important to loosen the soil and for other purposes."

Passionate about:
"Nature and plants."

Biography Excerpt:
Pioneering landscape architect Wolfgang Oehme began his career in Germany before moving to the United States in 1957. He not only transplanted himself, but also some of the first switch grass swatches used for planting in sustainable gardens in the United States. “When I first came here, nobody had used ornamental grasses in gardens or planting,” he explains. Mr. Oehme is a licensed landscape architect and a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Over the years, he has been the recipient of several distinctions, which include: the George Robert White Medal of Honor in 2002 and the Distinguished Service Award for 30 Years of Active Participation in 1987 from the Perennial Plant Association.

     

Cambridge Who's Who: What would you like to promote most about yourself or your business?  
WOLFGANG OEHME :  I’m consulting in my business right now. I’m also giving lectures everywhere. I talk about switch grass, which is big news today because you can make gasoline out of it - the scientific name is panicum virgatum. It’s very sustainable – all you have to do is plant it and it will grow back the next year; you don’t have to replant, like you have to do with corn. We can do ornamental grasses with it as well.

What is the most significant issue facing your profession today?
Nature should be able to benefit from landscaping, not damaged by chemical fertilizers and pesticides. You need pollinators such as bees, for instance. We don’t have enough bees to pollinate in California, so they’re importing beehives. I think the home garden can be helpful to various creatures. It’s very important for the ecosphere and for the bottom line: our food supply. Then, there is lawn care, where one hour of mowing is equivalent to the pollution from driving your car for 20 miles. It’s pitiful that we’ve become a lawn superpower; we cut it so short. A lawn has just as much runoff as a parking lot, which means pesticides and fertilizer goes downhill. Here in Baltimore, we have the Chesapeake Bay, which is a total disaster now. The lack of oxygen in the water is killing the algae. We used to harvest a lot of crabs from this area – Maryland is famous for it. But now, they have to import it. Between lawns and streets, there’s a lot of pollution. That’s where I come in, to change your garden. I started this movement in the 1960s. Now people are beginning to pick up on it. There should be a t-shirt, which says “Lawn is out.”

How do you remain current in your profession?
I read magazines and books. I go to conferences. In July, I’m going to the Perennial Plant Association conference in Philadelphia. I give a lot of talks and lectures. I also go to Germany to do lectures. I have my own book in Germany right now, which I’m hoping to have translated.