Moment of Silence
Wolfgang Walter Oehme, FASLA

 
May 18, 1930 - Dec. 15, 2011

The plant palette of Wolfgang Oehme, FASLA was inspired by American prairie grasses and perennials. He and James van Sweden called their style ''the New American Garden.'' (C) Photo by Roland Oehme, RLA.

Wolfgang Oehme (pronounced UR-ma), a German-born landscape architect who helped changed the face of the American garden, passed away Dec. 15, 2011 in Towson, Md. He was 81.

Wolfgang Oehme was born in Chemnitz, Germany on May 18, 1930, where he began growing plants at age 5. He moved north with his family to Bitterfeld, German in 1943, a city that fell under Soviet control and became part of East Germany after the war.

At 17, Mr. Oehme apprenticed at Bitterfeld nursery where he learned about plants and their propagation, then worked for the city parks department where he met Karl Foerster, who encouraged Oehme to become a landscape designer.

Mr. Oehme graduated with a degree in landscape architecture from the University of Berlin in 1954. In 1957 he fled East Germany to settle in Baltimore, Md. and work for landscape architect Bruce Baetjer. He then went to work for the Baltimore County Recreation and Parks Department, but was soon designing private gardens with nontraditional grasses and long flowering perennials.

Mr. Oehme's garden work came to the attention of James van Sweden in 1964. ''I had never seen such a beautiful garden in my life,'' van Sweden wrote in describing the Oehme design for a private garden in Murray Hill, Md. In 1971, the duo designed and installed the garden in van Sweden's Georgetown row house, which became a showroom for attracting clients.

Wolfgang Oehme and James van Sweden co-founded Oehme, van Sweden & Associates (OVS) www.ovsla.com in 1975 in Washington, D.C., at first installing their own planting designs. OVS began designing private and public gardens, including major federal government projects. The Virginia Avenue NW gardens were among their first federal projects. Their landscape of fountain grass, 'Autumn Joy' sedum and feather reed grass contrasted shapely with the then city park model of evergreens and ivy ground cover. Many public and private commissions ensued. In addition to popularizing various grasses, the team also made black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, Joe-pye weed, salvias and Russian sage de rigueur in the landscape. The inspiration for their plant palette was the American prairie. They called their style ''the New American Garden.''

A major influence for Mr. Oehme was plant breeder and writer Karl Foerster, who liked to say grasses ''were the hair of the Earth.'' Mr. Oehme had a passion for improved varieties of grasses and perennials planted as if by nature en masse and attracting birds, bees and butterflies.

In addition to designing gardens, the firm did prominent public spaces, including Reagan National Airport, the National World War II Memorial and Freedom Plaza.

Mr. Oehme left OVC in 2008, and the same year established a small firm with landscape designer and horticulturist Carol Oppenheimer called Woco Organic Gardens.

Mr. Oehme is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He is a recipient of the Robert White Medal of Honor (2002), the Landscape Design Award (American Horticultural Society, 1992), the Distinguished Service Award (Perennial Plant Association, 1987) and numerous other awards.

He coauthored Bold Romantic Gardens with van Sweden, and is the subject of Ornamental Grasses, Wolfgang Oehme and the New American Garden, by Stefan Leppert. He is also the subject of two German documentary films.

In October 2011, Oehme made a final trip to Germany, visiting his regenerative brownfield site project at Goitzsche Park in Bitterfeld, landscaped with sweeps of rudbeckias, euphorbias and switch grasses.

Mr. Oehme's marriage to the former Shirley Zinkhan ended in divorce. His son, Roland, a landscape architect in Towson, Md., and a grandson survive him. See Roland's memorial to his father at wolfgangoehme.com/index.htm#RolandOehme