Help Alleviate Allergens Through Your Designs

Spring’s budding trees, blooming flowers and fresh grasses can be as irritating as they are beautiful for customers with allergies. Considering that pollen-producing plants are a part of many residential and commercial landscapes, recognizing and avoiding certain species is the key to preventing allergens and improving the well-being of your customers, says Tom Ogren, nursery owner and author of Allergy-Free Gardening.

“Landscapers can profit from new information,” Ogren says. “As customers become more informed, they will expect their landscapers and gardeners to know about allergy-free landscaping.” Customers continue to hire professionals who can create allergy-free or low-allergy plans, or remove high-allergy plant materials and replace them with pollen-free choices. “Presently, allergy-free landscaping has the greatest appeal for customers who are well-educated and financially well-off,” Ogren adds.

Allergies are nothing to sneeze at. According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI), allergies such as hay fever, or seasonal allergic rhinitis, affect an estimated 40 million Americans. While they are a fact of nature, many seasonal allergies can be reduced significantly, or even prevented altogether, with your expertise.

Battle of the Sexes
Seasonal allergies are byproducts of airborne pollens and mold spores—the allergens that commonly trigger symptoms during the spring and fall.

Pollens: Pollens are miniscule, egg-shaped male cells of flowering plants. These microscopic, powdery granules are necessary for plant fertilization. The average pollen particle is less than the width of an average human hair.

Molds: Molds are microscopic fungi without stems, roots or leaves. Found on leaves, dead wood and moist surfaces, these spores float in the air like pollen.

Accentuating the problem for allergy sufferers are male plants, pollen producers that are used more often in landscaping. More male plants are stocked locally, which is contributing to a build up of allergenic pollen. “In the United States today, four out of the five top-selling cultivars are male clones,” Ogren says.

Female varieties, however, don’t shed pollen and trap and remove incoming pollen. Despite this, female plants are not used as often because they typically produce seeds and fruits, which can make a mess of roofs and sidewalks. Plant breeders and propagators discovered methods to “sex-out” many female trees and shrubs, and male cultivars were borne to solve the litter problem.

Your Goals
To help combat this, you should aim to achieve biodiversity with your designs because, if overplanted, any species can cause allergies.

Also, be aware—and notify your customers—that it’s impossible to be 100 percent pollen-free. Because some pollen inevitably will stray from other yards or regions, your realistic goal should be allergen reduction. It’s your job to realize that allergies and asthma may be attributed to overexposure to heavy amounts of pollen and exposure, which is greatest close to the source. “Research shows that with most trees, the largest amount of pollen lands within 30 feet of the drip line of pollen-producing trees,” Ogren says.

So, to help your customers survive their seasonal allergic rhinitis in the early spring, avoid trees such as oak, western red cedar, elm, birch, ash, hickory, poplar, sycamore, maple, cypress and walnut, all of which produce pollen most actively during this time of year, AAAAI states.