Category Archives: Partners
OvS Honors All Veterans This Veteran’s Day 2012
Leave a comment
Today is Veterans Day and Oehme, van Sweden would like to honor all veterans and their families and remember their sacrifice for their country. Our thoughts also turn today to those closer to home who have touched our own lives with their service and sacrifice.
This article in the latest issue of America in World War II Magazine entitled “ The Bloodying of Bloody Ridge” highlights the events on Guadalcanal and the venerable Edson’s Raiders’ taking of this strategic landform during the early warfare of the Pacific Theater in 1942. The article is based on the oral and written history of Marlin Franklin Groft, father of Eric D. Groft, Principal at OvS. In 2002, Eric accompanied his father to Guadalcanal to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Marines landing in August 1942. The success of taking Bloody Ridge, securing Henderson Field and Guadalcanal and the rest of the Marshall Islands turned the tide in favor of the United States and the eventual defeat of the Japanese in the Pacific. Today, Marlin is amongst the last surviving members of Edson’s Raiders and Eric was fortunate to attend the dedication of the World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC with his father by his side back in May 2004. The occasion was especially poignant because OvS was the landscape architect of record for this important memorial between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument (click here to learn more about the project).
As our nation takes the time to honor our veterans, we salute both those whose service is completed and those who are currently deployed.
Click here to view the article referenced above.
OvS at MANTS 2013
The Baltimore Convention Center hosted the 43rd Annual Mid Atlantic Nursery Trade Show or MANTS on January 9th, 10th and 11th. Long considered the ‘Masterpiece of Trade Shows,’ the event is much anticipated and enjoyed by everyone involved in the nursery trade – nurserymen, landscape contractors, landscape architects and plant brokers. It provides a benchmark for all plant and horticultural enthusiasts and helps us get through the cold, dark winter.
OvS’ Eric Groft, John Knowlton and Lili Herrera attended this year. Our team benefited from conversations with Pierre Bennerup, Marc Laviana and Peter Culp at Sunny Border Nurseries, Katy Bolt and Alex Bluemel Betz of Kurt Bluemel, Inc, Ed Tankard and Mary Beth McManus at Tankard Nurseries, Claudia West of North Creek Nurseries, Paul Babikow of Babikow Nursery, Nancy Young of Manor View Farm, George Bridge of Acorn Farm and many others.
MANTS is known for attracting a colorful cast of characters and this year was no exception. However, one character missing was Wolfgang Oehme, founding partner of OvS. Wolfgang passed away in December 2011 but had made his attendance at MANTS an annual event for decades. He and his entourage were known as the “Wolf Gang” and always were a highly anticipated part of the show. He was missed but remembered by many this year.
Some of the new plants that caught our attention this year include the following:
Sporobolus Wrightii ‘Windbreaker’ (North Creek Nurseries)
Schizachyrium scoparium ‘Standing Ovation’ (North Creek Nurseries)
Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii (Sunny Border Nurseries)
Lonicera Edmee Gold (Star Nursery)