OvS Receives 2011 LongHouse Landscape Award

The LongHouse Reserve Garden Committee awarded Oehme, van Sweden & Associates the 2011 LongHouse Landscape Award on Saturday, September 17th at LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton, NY. The award, given for the first time ever to a firm or group, celebrates the “powerful changes that OvS has consistently and continuously brought to the American landscape for the past five decades.” Prior recipients of the award include landscape architect Dan Kiley, American gardener and horticulturist Frank Cabot, and the founder of the Central Park Conservancy, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers.

L-R: Eric Groft, Wolfgang Oehme, Sheila Brady, Jack Lenor Larsen & Lisa Delplace

Following tours of private gardens in East Hampton, a dinner at the home of Alex and Carole Rosenberg in Water Mill and a luncheon at LongHouse, OvS Principals Sheila Brady, Lisa Delplace, Eric Groft and Founding Partner Wolfgang Oehme accepted the award on behalf of the entire OvS team.

OvS Principal Eric Groft

As part of the afternoon’s events, guests enjoyed a panel discussion between Oehme, van Sweden clients Kris Jarantoski, Executive Vice President and Director of the Chicago Botanic Garden and Todd Forrest, Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections at the New York Botanical Garden. The panel was moderated by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, President of the Foundation for Landscape Studies, and previous winner of the LongHouse Landscape Award.

L-R: Kris Jarantoski, Elizabeth Barlow Rogers, and Todd Forrest

LongHouse Reserve exemplifies living with art in all forms. It’s collections, gardens, sculpture and programs reflect world cultures and inspire a creative life.

LongHouse brings together art and nature, and aesthetics and spirit, with a strong conviction that the arts are central to living wholly and creatively. Dedicated to quality and integrity, LongHouse programs encourage a broad concept of learning.

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Galanthus Elwesii

Galanthus Elwesii - the "Elwesii" Snowdrop

Is there a better announcement of spring then the first glimpse of a Snow Drop? There is none more elegant and regal than this Galanthus elwesii seen at Jack Lenor Larsen’s Longhouse Reserve in East Hampton, NY on Thursday March 10th. While the rest of the east coast was drenched with grueling rain the east end of Long Island was chilly and partly cloudy with brief rays of sunlight peaking through the clouds.

The Elwesi Snowdrop boasts giant white flowers with predominantly green inner segments and broad, often glaucous foliage. It grows to between 4 and 5 inches high (7+cm). As seen here, the Galathnus Elwesii has lovely, nodding, 3 lobed, bell-shaped, clear white, fragrant flowers; and inner segments, resembling a corona (often green-tipped). It blooms here in the late fall, throughout the winter and into spring. This is a great flowering plant for rock gardens, woodlands and the fronts of borders. It performs best in shade in rich, well-drained soil.

Happy Spring!

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The Grass Garden at LongHouse Reserve

The Grass Garden at LongHouse Reserve

Eric Groft of Oehme, van Sweden met recently with Jack Lenor Larsen and Abby Jane Brody at LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton to discuss revisions to the Grass Garden.

LongHouse, located on 16 acres in East Hampton, NY, is the home of internationally known textile designer, author, and collector Jack Lenor Larsen. LongHouse was built as a case study to exemplify a creative approach to contemporary life-style and to provide visitors the ability to experience art in living spaces.

Inspired by the famous Japanese shrine at Ise, LongHouse contains 13,000 square feet, 18 spaces on four levels. The gardens present the designed landscape as an art form in its own right. The grounds also offer a diversity of sites for the preservation of multifarious species where they can flourish for generations to come.



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