In the gardens of wealthy Americans, there is a new status symbol. It is a $115,000 (£85,000) Victorian-style greenhouse, designed and made by Alitex, a family business based in Petersfield, Hampshire, run and owned by Tom and Hilly Hall.
Such is the popularity of its bespoke glasshouses that Alitex is considering setting up a base in the US to expand sales despite uncertainty over tariffs.
Its greenhouses are made of powder-coated aluminium with a painted wood effect. The UK-US trade deal reduced the aluminium tariff from 25 per cent to zero. British fans include garden guru Alan Titchmarsh who told celebrity chef Mary Berry: ‘Mary, if you’re going to buy a greenhouse it has to be an Alitex.’
David Beckham has installed an Allitex greenhouse in the grounds of his family’s Cotswold mansion and shows off his horticultural successes on Instagram.
Famous fans: Alan Titchmarsh and Mary Berry with an Alitex greenhouse
Now there is a growing US clientele, drawn by Alitex’s elegant 19th-Century aesthetic. Tom Hall says hotspots are Connecticut and New Hampshire, where the Wall Street wealthy reside or have second homes, along with oil-rich Texas.
Bespoke greenhouses in the UK are individually priced but the firm has come up with eight freestanding designs with the National Trust starting at £18,750.
There is no greenhouse tradition in the US, Hall explains, adding: ‘Here,if people don’t have one themselves their parents or their grandparents did. But that’s not the case in America, where they are seen as something novel.’
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