THOMAS LEO OGREN

Mr.Thomas Leo Ogren has a multifaceted personality with diverse background. He is the master of many things. He has held many different jobs, including horticulture teacher in Watts, community gardening organizer for Cooperative Extension, brakeman on the Santa Fe Railroad, dairy farmer, landscaper, nursery owner, and free lance writer.

Thomas Leo Ogren has an MS in Agriculture/Horticulture, and an AA degree from Compton College, a BA degree in Sociology from Chico State, and an MS degree in Agriculture/ Horticulture from Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo.

Thomas Leo Ogren is a consultant on plant flowering systems, allergy and landscape plants, for the...

• Association of Professional Landscape Designers
• The USDA Department of Forestry
• The California State Department of Forestry
• For www.Allegra.com, for county asthma coalitions
• For the American Lung Association.

Thomas Leo Ogren delivered lectures on urban allergies and landscaping at many places including Cal Poly University and at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Contributions of Thomas Leo Oregon in the field of Horticulture

He wrote number of books which are popular in the field of Horticulture, and used as a reference books.

• Safe Sex in the Garden: This book explains in detail how our gardens, landscapes, parks, and environment are causing a near epidemic rise in allergies and asthma. He advices people and gives tips that the average person can do to reverse the trend and make a difference in the community. He is also well versed in molds, animal allergies, stress and allergies.
• Allergy-Free Gardening: The Revolutionary Guide to Healthy Landscaping:The main part of the book consists of plants listed in alphabetical order by their scientific names, with numerous cross references to their common names. Brief annotations provide descriptions and notes regarding allergies. The most important feature, however, is the rating of plants on a scale from one to ten (with ten causing the worst allergic reactions). As David Stadtner, a practicing allergist, writes in his foreword, “the book should be in the library of every nursery and municipal park department”.

Thomas Leo Ogren wrote the currently used curriculum for the California Youth Authority statewide. At the California Youth Authority he used gardening to teach many boys to read, to write, to speak correct English, to do math, and especially to love to garden. Thomas writes for many magazines, websites, and newspapers, and has been published in, among others, Garden Design, American Rose, Alternative Medicine, New Scientist, Der Spiegel, Utne Reader, Earth Island Journal, Landscape Architecture, the London Times, the Seattle Times, the Boston Globe, and the Chicago Tribune.

Different flower species produce varying amounts of pollen, according to Thomas Leo Ogren. Ogren has created a trademarked plant allergy scale, which rates plants on a scale from 1 to 10. For Example, Roses and orchids contain minute amounts of pollen, but he says, to be cautious of lilies and goldenrod flowers - as they are filled with the allergy-causing agent.

You can visit his Web site for questions and answers.