ABSTRACT
Experienced landscape architects are adept at combining plants to achieve a desired artistic effect or visually experienced mood. Composing plant combinations take into effect these basic plant physical attributes: color, texture, form, structure, and growth habit over time. Plants are living organisms that change physically over time. They are not static elements like buildings. Landscape architects consider when choosing plants, the seasonal changes plants undergo during the year as well as they grow and mature during their lifetime. The 3.5-acre Native Plant Garden of City of New York Botanical Garden designed by the landscape architects Oehme, Van Sweden | Ovs, is a fine example of a created landscape by a firm well known for their aecium designing with plants. They have consistently crafted memorable gardens over the years that not only brought delight and satisfaction to their clients but have been greatly admired by their peers. Their work is not only visually compelling but also achieves goals of sustainability, creation of habitat diversity, grounded in the idea of responding to sense of place, and other positive attributes including functionality. The design ambition of the 3.5-acre site was to celebrate the Northeast US native flora the purposes of public education on biodiversity and inspire gardeners with the beauty that can be achieved using native plant species.
