Allergy-free Landscapes

Landscape elements and seasonal allergies – not such a healthy combination, right?

Well, an innovative book is hitting shelves throughout the country with a possible remedy: Contractors who use the “right” plants can save their clients from the literal headaches and nagging pains that often accompany allergic reactions to seasonal foliage.

Horticulturist Tom Ogren, author of the book titled Safe Sex in the Garden, insists industry professionals have an opportunity to do more than design, install and maintain yards. “The professional landscape contractors are in a terrific position to endorse this low-allergy type of landscaping and to, in the process, do wonderful things for the health of their clients.”

As Ogren explains in his 213-page book, contractors have been fairly exclusive in their planting of single-sex male trees and shrubbery. The reason? Male species don’t spill seeds, pods or fruit – but they do emit high levels of pollen into the environment. The result is a population of coughing, sneezing and wheezing property owners.

According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, more than 35 million Americans suffer from seasonal allergies. In the past 40 years, allergy rates have risen from five percent to 38 percent of the national population. And a significant chunk of those allergies are caused by a collection of male plants typically used in landscaping.

But a simple switch to female plants may be the healthy solution. As Ogren suggests in his text, female species are a better choice when it comes to allergies. They actually absorb pollen from the air, reducing exposure and suffering of clients.

Ogren explains in his book: “Female trees produce no pollen, zero; they are pollen-free trees, but they are scarce in our city landscapes. The pollen from the males floats about, seeking a moist, sticky, electrically charged target. We humans emit an electrical charge, and our mucous membranes, our eyes, skin and especially the linings of our nose and throat, now trap this wayward pollen. We have become the targets.”

But by choosing female foliage, contractors can keep their clients from becoming the aim of allergy-inducing pollen, Ogren shared. His book offers detailed direction for contractors, with information about specific plants that can remedy allergy symptoms.

The author actually just finished a project with the Tulare County Asthma Coalition, designing a landscape for a new elementary school in Visalia, Calif.

“In this area [of northern California] asthma is very common now with elementary school kids,” Ogren described. “But at this school, there will be next to no airborne pollen produced by the school’s landscape plants, from lawns to trees.”

He said he is encouraged by the County’s proactive approach to health-conscious landscaping – and suggested landscape professionals also discontinue the use of high-pollen plants to avoid contributing to “a serious and growing problem.”

The author is Assistant Editor-Internet of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at aanderson@lawnandlandscape.com.