Lowarth & Co, near Truro, is where you can See London Stone products on display in Cornwall. We take a closer look.

Lowarth & Co.’s from the exterior, where you can see London Stone’s products on display.

London Stone may invoke the UK’s capital in its name, but we now have our full range of products on display in the West Country.

Lowarth & Co, Goonhavern, near Truro and Newquay, now have a showroom dedicated to our paving. As with Urban Landscapes in the North-West, we’ve found a collaborator after our own heart in the South-West.

Urban Landscapes introduce London Stone products to the North West, and we look at what that means for garden design and hard landscaping in the area.

Urban Landscape Design’s London Stone Concession – display area

It doesn’t all happen in London. Though you might not think so, given TV coverage of Flower Shows at Chelsea and Hampton Court, as well as media coverage of UK events generally. It’s a balance we wanted to play our part in redressing as, with our showrooms positioned in-or-around the M25, we’ve been pretty London-centred ourselves. Of course, we deliver stone around the country (free delivery on sawn stone and porcelain orders over £500), but if you wanted to see any of our hard landscaping incorporated into a design, it was a bit of a trek!

Following-on from Part 1 of this two-part blog series from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018, we’re going to take a look at the Trade Stands and RHS Features for which London Stone provided hard landscaping materials for.

An Iris provides a splash of colour in the RHS Feel Good Garden 

Oak Leaf Gates Trade Stand (5*) – Gea Porcelain

Sitting prominently on Main Avenue at the Oak Leaf Gates Trade Stand, Porcelain had been chosen for the first time over the usual natural stone, with the sandblasted texture and beige tones of Gea creating a backdrop for the planting.

For London Stone, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2018 was the busiest year yet, with thirteen projects in all: eight gardens, spread across all three categories, plus three trade stands and two RHS show features, including the RHS Feel Good Garden.

Part of the RHS Feel Good Garden; more on that tomorrow!

The David Harber and Savills Garden

First up, in the Show Garden category, was The David Harber and Savills Garden, designed by Nic Howard and built by Langdale Landscapes. The garden told a narrative to make the visitor reflect on our evolving relationship with the environment.

So, now that the dust has settled, has Robert Barker, designer of the Skin Deep Garden, at RHS Chelsea 2018, managed to get any sleep? (See last week’s post.) “Not really!” he said at the show’s Press Day on Monday.

Dappled shade softens the angular concrete blocks on Robert’s boundary-pushing garden. Image courtesy of Robert Barker.

Now fully realised and visible “in the flesh”, the garden’s combined monumentality and intimacy is clear. This is a clever complement to the garden’s theme, as skin conditions are both an intimate and a monumental issue for many sufferers.