A Visit to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden

On Wednesday, October 27th Oehme, van Sweden Principal Eric Groft and long standing client Barbara Slifka were hosted to a lunch and tour of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden by President Scot Medbury and Dr. Gerry Moore, Director of Science. From its humble beginnings as an ash dump in the late 1800s, Brooklyn Botanic Garden has come to represent today the very best in urban gardening and horticultural display, attracting more than 700,000 visitors and serves over 150,000 school children each year.

Scot has been with with the Garden five years and has initiated some ambitious projects including a new herb garden, visitor center and expansion of the local plant collection.

A highlight of our visit to the Garden was the beautiful fall color in the Native Flora Garden, and the emerging colors in the maples located in the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden. To view photos of the beautiful fall foliage, check out the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Flickr photosharing page.

What a delight to revisit this gem of a garden located right in the heart of Brooklyn!

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The Garden as Art

On Saturday, August 28, Oehme van Sweden Principal Eric Groft participated in the “Garden as Art: Designers Choice” talk and tour in East Hampton, New York. The event, sponsored by Guild Hall in East Hampton, featured gardens selected by prominent East End garden designers. The Rifkind garden in Amagansett, designed by Mr. Groft for Oehme van Sweden, was one of six residential gardens showcased on the tour.

Guild Hall, East Hampton New York

The Garden as Art tour is an annual event that has become a weekend-long celebration of gardening in the Hamptons. This year, the festivities included a pre-tour cocktail party on Friday night at a the home of MaryJane Brocks in East Hampton; a continental breakfast at Guild Hall on Saturday morning featuring two illustrated lectures—“Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” by Mr. Groft and “A Botanic Garden by Design” by Brooklyn Botanic Garden President Scott Medbury; as well as a luncheon at the waterfront home and garden of Dorian and Gary Fuhrman on Hook Pond, in East Hamtpon on Saturday afternoon.

Barbara Slifka Introducing Eric Groft's Lecture

Oehme, van Sweden has undertaken a number of landscape architecture projects in the Hamptons spanning the past several decades. The Rifkind garden was designed by Eric Groft in 1992 and the objective was to capture the feeling of farmland turned to meadow. The naturalistic style of design used in the project has stood the test of time well, and 20 years later, the homeowners continue to enjoy the beauty of their garden.

Eric Groft giving his "Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" Lecture

* All photographs courtesy of the East Hampton Star

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