从找不到满意花架开始
古典花园构件公司 Classic Garden Elements 是德国的金属园艺结构件制造商，总部在陶努斯山下的霍夫海姆，靠近法兰克福，创办于 1998 年。创始人是一对住在法兰克福附近的夫妇：记者 Otto Duris 和律师 Johannes Dietrich，两人都是爱花之人。
起因很朴素。1998 年他们在自家坡地上的花园里想找一座金属凉亭和花架，市面上只有两种选择：需要费心打理的木结构，和容易生锈的远东金属进口货，都不合适。他们认定想要好看又结实耐用的东西只能自己做，拿几款基础设计找到 Otto 的亲戚 Jozef Duris——他在斯洛伐克经营一家金属加工厂——东西很快做出来了，反响好得超出预期，于是有了这家公司。
做什么东西
产品围绕花园里的金属构件展开：玫瑰拱门与花门廊、藤架与廊架、玫瑰方尖碑与花格架、金属栏杆与围栏片、壁挂式攀爬架、长槽花箱与藤架花箱，以及仿凡尔赛宫廷花箱。再往上是大件——钢制温室、橘园、泳池屋和凉亭，还有一批博物馆级的古典题材真人大小雕像。所有东西都可用自选颜色定制。
怎么造出来的
所有结构件都在厂内制作，用焊接的实心钢带和钢管成型，再经热浸镀锌和粉末涂层两道防锈处理，因此附带十年不锈保证。工厂在斯洛伐克西部、维也纳附近的普列维扎，约三十名工人，由 Otto 的兄弟 Jozef Duris 负责，车间里至今几乎不用机器，主要工序靠手工：下料、折弯、焊接、打磨刷洗，然后送热浸镀锌，回来再做粉末喷涂和车床收尾，最后打包入库。
公司的标志是一枚伊特鲁里亚式的松果，除了伊特鲁里亚博物馆的梵蒂冈收藏里也有一枚同款，用在产品顶端的尖饰上，意思是不只讲 elegance 与和谐，也讲简洁与实用。
切尔西花展与走向世界
2001 年在比利时的六瓣玫瑰节上，Peter Beales Roses 的 Richard Beales 和 Ian Limmer 被他们的玫瑰方尖碑和维多利亚式廊架打动，邀请他们去参加切尔西花展。第二年他们成了那届切尔西花展上第一位参展的德国厂商。2005 年，公司拿到皇家园艺学会颁发给园艺结构件参展者的最高荣誉——优异奖证书（Certificate of Merit）。该展的参展名录也写明他们自 2002 年起持续参展。
很快订单就来自美国、日本等地，如今产品行销全球，并在海外与合作方设有分支。客户既有私人家庭，也有博物馆、公园、高尔夫球场和酒店，以及房地产开发与园林工程的公司。
服务与交付
产品按自装配设计，工厂同时也提供组装与安装服务，大型定制项目还会派工程团队到现场。产品面向花园、公园、露台和屋顶露台，也接受地产开发商、园艺与景观承包商以及酒店和水疗设施的项目。2001 年起全部产品都可以在线直接下单。
设计灵感主要来自英国历史园林，同时也在美国东海岸和欧洲大陆旅行时搜集设计思路，再结合英国育种家和欧洲玫瑰育种家的需求与客户反馈打磨出来。对想在自己园子里做一座被蔷薇爬满的凉亭、或者一条意式葡萄园式的花架廊道的人，这家公司提供的是从结构件到色彩再到安装的一条龙。
It began with a pergola they could not find
Classic Garden Elements is a German maker of metal garden structures, based in Hofheim am Taunus near Frankfurt and founded in 1998. The founders are Otto Duris, a journalist, and Johannes Dietrich, a lawyer, both rose lovers living near Frankfurt.
The story starts in 1998, when they were looking for metal gazebos and pergolas for their own hillside garden. There were only two things on offer: traditional wooden structures that needed a lot of looking after, and metal imports from the Far East that rusted. Neither fitted, so they decided that if they wanted something attractive and also stable and durable, they would have to make it themselves. With a few basic designs in hand they approached Jozef Duris, a relative of Otto’s who ran a metal works in Slovakia. The pergolas they wanted arrived quickly, they were pleased enough to suspect other gardeners would be too, and that is how the company began.
What they make
The range is built around the metal structures that hold a garden together: rose arches and archways, arbours and pergolas, rose obelisks and trellis obelisks, railings and fence panels, wall-mounted trellises, trough and trellis planters, and Versailles planters. Above that sit the large pieces: steel conservatories, orangeries, pool houses and pavilions, along with a range of museum-quality life-sized statues drawn from classical antiquity. Any of it can be made in a colour of your choosing.
How it is made
Every structure is made in house from welded heavy steel band and tubing, then hot-dip galvanised and powder-coated to protect it against rust, which is why the pieces carry a ten-year rust-free guarantee. The workshop is at Prievidza in western Slovakia, not far from Vienna, with a staff of about thirty, run by Otto’s brother Jozef Duris. Even now almost no machines are used in the process: cutting, bending, welding, grinding and brushing, then out to hot-dip galvanising, back for powder coating and the lathe work, and finally packing and storing.
The company mark is an Etruscan pinecone, a version of which is held by the Vatican Museum in Rome; it sits as a finial on top of the products and stands for elegance and harmony but also for simplicity and practicality.
Chelsea and going international
At the Hex Rose Festival in Belgium in 2001, Richard Beales and Ian Limmer of Peter Beales Roses were impressed by the rose obelisks and Victorian arbours at their stand and invited them to exhibit at Chelsea. A year later they were there as the first German exhibitor at the show. In 2005 the company received the Certificate of Merit, the Royal Horticultural Society’s highest award for exhibitors of garden structures. The show’s own site records them as exhibitors since 2002.
Orders soon began coming from the United States, Japan and elsewhere, and the company now exports worldwide with branches abroad run in cooperation with partners. Clients range from private households to museums, parks, golf courses and hotels, as well as companies in a range of other sectors.
Service and delivery
The products are designed for easy self-assembly, and the factory also offers assembly and installation, sending an engineering team out for larger bespoke projects. Everything is aimed at gardens, parks, patios and roof terraces, and the company takes on work for property developers, gardening and landscaping contractors, hotels and spa facilities. Everything has been available to order online since 2001.
The inspiration is mostly British historical gardens, combined with design gathered on travels along the American east coast and in continental Europe, then refined with leading British and European rose breeders and with customer feedback. For anyone who wants a gazebo smothered in English roses, or a pergola recalling the vineyards of Italy, this is a company that supplies the structures, the colour and the installation.
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