HOME-GROWN TALENT
If you have ever admired a plant display in a hotel, restaurant, airport or any commercial space in the UK or Europe, and wondered where they got those beautiful pots, then you are in for a surprise.
Despite some very striking modern styles and innovative surface finishes, these probably do not hail from an Italian design house or some far east factory. More likely they were hand-made right here in Scotland, in a workshop in one of Edinburgh’s largest industrial estates.
Livingreen Design has been designing and manufacturing plant containers for professional landscape use for over 30 years. The material of choice is not wood, metal, or plastic, but fibreglass, a modern composite material with huge advantages over these more traditional products. Fibreglass is lighter, at least as strong, and longer lasting, while its environmental credentials are such that Livingreen were the only company approved to manufacture planters for COP26 in Glasgow.
Fibreglass’s secret weapon in the sustainability stakes is its whole of life performance: planters made out of fibreglass not only look fantastic on day one but continue to look fantastic year after year. In fact, you should never throw one away but instead send it back to Livinggreen for refinishing to an ‘as new condition’, even completely changing the colour or finish into the bargain.
This is something not lost on multi award-winning garden designer and broadcaster Ann-Marie Powell who recently posted pictures of planters that she loves and will be using forevermore in her own garden. Those planters came from an RHS Chelsea show garden 7 years ago, the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th Birthday when the RHS donated 5 Livingreen planters for her birthday gift, one for each of her houses.
Surprisingly, the Directors of Livingreen Design do not come from an engineering background, but from horticulture and design, giving them a more complete understanding about what the market is looking for, combined with what plants need to survive and thrive.
MD Tony Sawyer, has a degree in Horticulture and over 35 years’ experience in the trade, working first as a journalist for Horticulture Week magazine and then going on to run a division of the prestigious old firm, Waterers Landscape near Ascot. Looking for a new challenge he started a plant supply business that grew to become multinational and spawned Livingreen Design as a separate business in the noughties.
His Co-Director and partner, Karen Sawyer, is also from a horticultural background, having previously been one of the leading design consultants at Rentokil Tropical Plants, the world’s largest professional plant rental company, specialising in indoor landscaping.
Finally, Design and Technical Director, Dorian Hope, is a product designer, whose family is steeped in Scottish horticulture thanks to his dad, James Hope, one of Scotland’s original Landscape Architects. James was a true pioneer of horticultural planning and practice and introduced the concept of vertical gardening in Scotland 30 years before it become recognised as a fantastic way to green our cities in the future. You can read more about James here.
Together, the team at Livingreen strive to stay at the forefront of functional, cutting edge design to help bring unique products to the market, introducing designs such as ‘Curvy’ and ‘Blob’ (the ones made for The Queen) which became European-wide best sellers and grace the buildings of many blue chip companies and hotels, not to mention parliament buildings and even Royal Palaces.
Helping to distinguish Livingreen Design from other producers, the company has invested many hours of development time into creating new finishes for fibreglass so that it can create the illusion that it is an altogether different material. This includes the best selling Corten Steel finish which is genuinely indistinguishable from real Corten steel but with none of its problematic issues, particularly in weight, which precludes it from rooftop gardening in particular.
Using the firm’s Corten Steel finish fibreglass planters, all things are possible, not only going where real Corten cannot, but also being moulded in an incredible range of shapes that would be impossible in the real material. The story goes that one panicked landscape architect visiting his client’s new roof garden for the first time, turned white as a sheet and said, ‘What have you done! I told you not to put Corten planters up here, the whole roof could collapse at any minute!’ Fortunately, the customer took pity on him and picked up an empty planter with one finger demonstrating both how light it was, and that even landscape architects cannot tell the difference.
In additional to Corten, there is also a Verdigris option and a whole range of other metals offered in ‘vintage’ finish, as well as various realistic stone, ceramic, and concrete effects.
That is not to take away from the company’s ability to professionally spray paint the planters in an incredible array of colours including all the Ral and Pantone colours, as well as matching to the ranges offered for example, by Farrow and Ball, for complete continuity to a garden setting.
Adding to its planter ranges, Livingreen also manufactures a range of furniture which like its planters, can be made in bespoke sizes for a perfect fit into any landscape or garden. For larger gardens and commercial spaces, the company has cooperated with Scottish Designer Derek Hodgson, who has created its ‘Terraces’ collection - systems of complimentary planters, seating and tables proving very popular with recent examples installed at The Crescent, the new development at the previous Donaldson’s school in Edinburgh.
More recently, due to demand from garden designers, the company has branched into manufacturing a huge range of raised or patio ponds and water features. Again these are all professional quality and are available in all the company’s special finishes. The Divona range was designed for, and was a main feature of last year’s Chelsea Show Gardens.
These stunning water features, and Livingreen’s cooperation with one of Crete’s leading potters, bringing genuine Cretan Terracotta pots to Scotland, will be the subjects of future articles so watch this space.
Now, for the first time, Livingreen Design is selling its product direct to the public via its web shop www.livingreendesign.com giving everyone the option of buying professional grade products that can potentially last a lifetime and that are not available in garden centres. Order online here or give them a call on 0131 440 9804. They have a small showroom and are delighted to see customers in person by appointment, which is particularly helpful for a large purchase where bespoke items are required.
Livingreen Design are proud supporters and members of the Made in Britain campaign.