Quercus macrocarpa - Burdock Oak
Hubert Wendler: Landscape architect with a passion
Landscaping and planning of open spaces, as well as the management and care of the forest, are a life's work for Hubert Wendler, to which he dedicates himself with enthusiasm and devotion. After an apprenticeship in Landscape Architecture, he studied Landscape Architecture in Weihenstephan and later managed a respected planning office in Munich for many decades. Today, he is an expert witness for the industry's expert issues.
As a garden and planning expert, Hubert Wendler works for almost all Bavarian courts with his expert office on Lake Ammersee. As a hunter, he privately roams the surrounding forests. "The forest is home and retreat for our game. It needs it," says the 66-year-old. He explains that because trees are essential in our lives and for the future, trees and people also belong together. Wendler has chosen a Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa) in the arboretum because of its independent, gnarled and often mighty growth. "Thanks to its taproot, it can keep good contact with the water table and hopefully prevent it from sinking," explains the landscape architect.
At least once a year, Hubert Wendler visits the HSWT's viewing garden, which he values as a source of inspiration and where he likes to commemorate past plant pictures from his student days. It is interesting to note that Prof. Richard Hansen, the then director of the sighting garden, had advised him to study at the FH in a personal conversation in 1975. "I am proud to have become a landscape architect through Weihenstephan," he says, raving about the excellence of his training by the good lecturers "at Lehrberg". His interest in the subject as a graduate would have been so great that in 1981, following his studies, he would have listened to further lectures by Prof. Christoph Valentien at the neighbouring TU Munich and participated in competitions with him. In 1991, as the owner of a Munich planning office with ten staff then, Hubert Wendler was a part-time lecturer at the Weihenstephan University of Applied Sciences for a year.
Accordingly, the garden expert is taking on a tree sponsorship out of a deep attachment to the HSWT. "I hope that in another 50 years, there will perhaps already be experience with the Bur oak that can be a decision-making aid for future large-scale plantings," says Hubert Wendler. That he himself would like to be in the arboretum in the future to observe, compare and learn would be self-evident. "You can only protect what you know," he says. Thus, he proposes that the University of Applied Sciences regularly offer expert-guided tours to share possible findings with the interested public. For the professional audience, he would like to see research and teaching exchange experiences with planners, tree nurseries and landscaping companies - a wish that naturally coincides with a significant sub-goal of the arboretum.
"We must recognise the value of trees for people and nature," is the expert's concluding appeal, "and we must also treat this nature with respect!"
Distribution: Eastern/Central USA, Eastern and Central Canada.
Size: 25 to 30 metres high
Leaves: leathery, dark green, 5 to 9 rounded lobes
Flower: greenish, drooping catkins
Fruits: very large acorns, up to 5 cm, 2 to 4 cm wide, surrounded by fringed cups
