Charlotte Ward
In 1990, while visiting gardens and scouting for garden ornaments in England, Charlotte and Daniel were asked by their host, a serious English Gardener, why the Americans could not make their own garden ornaments. Without speaking, Charlotte and Daniel shared a glance, wiggled their eyebrows at each other and knew that they would. After much experimentation and a necessary relocation from a tiny elegant lot in Evanston, Illinois, to an affordably priced run down hilly farm, Classic Garden Ornaments, Ltd.,® emerged in 1994.
Since then, Classic Garden Ornaments, Ltd., has been committed to elegance and lasting, American-made value. Beautiful LONGSHADOW® dry cast limestone planters and garden ornaments are designed and hand crafted in our rural Southern Illinois factory, in the midst of Longshadow Gardens. Our motto is Fabricia in Horto Nostro, Latin for “Factory in a Garden” where we strive to attain fleeting moments of memorable beauty.
The name LONGSHADOW® derives from the long evening shadows cast by tall Hickory, Ash, Oak and Sassafras trees across our hill top meadows. The first LONGSHADOW Planter is named after Lake Bluff, a suburb of Chicago, where an old planter in front of an Arts & Crafts home became the inspiration. The Lake Bluff Planter, with its Classic form and flat Arts and Crafts fluting, is now available in six sizes. The second LONGSHADOW design was the Prairie 24, with sleek lines inspired by Marion Mahoney Griffin and Walter Burley Griffin. The Prairie Design is now available in dozens of variations.
If their English host were to visit Longshadow Gardens today, Charlotte and Daniel would proudly introduce him to our skilled Longshadow team of artists and artisans creating fine Longshadow American Garden Ornaments.
Charlotte can be reached at charlotte@longshadow.com