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HOME >> TOPIARY & BOX HEDGING
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A brief history
Topiary is the art of creating shapes from living plants. It has been practiced for over 2000 years. It reputedly began in Ancient Rome, around 38BC and 14AD with the use of box and fruit trees. The patterns were fairly plain using obelisks, occasionally flourished with the letters of a masters name. With the fall of the Roman Empire gardening fell fallow until the time of the Italian Renaissance. Gardens, were once more developed for pleasure and to show a new mastery over the landscape. The topiary created ranged from bears, birds, giants and oxes to arches, urns and porticoes.
The Italian influence then spread throughout Europe as the 16th century drew to a close. The French created low complex patterns in the form of parterres alongside tall hedges creating long enclosed vistas. |
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England was experiencing a similar fascination with topiary but the real 'golden age' came when William of Orange, a true topiary fanatic, succeeded to the throne in 1688. It remained popular until around the early 17th century, when great philosophical and political debates raged about the nature of beauty and there was a turn towards a more natural style of gardening. Much of the topiary was left to go unchecked and there are still examples of topiary gone mad from this period. Powis Castle and Hampton Court both have good examples.
Topiary regained some of its fashionable status in Victorian times when they began mixing it with newly imported exotics, such the Monkey Puzzle tree. It then fell from grace once more as gardeners were tempted by the more colourful range of plants from brilliant bedding to eye-catching flowering trees, shrubs and climbers. Today, topiary is again making a comeback, valued for its easy-care nature and timeless elegance.
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Using topiary around the garden
Topiary is the art of creating shapes from living plants and has been practiced since the time of the Romans. Although topiary has a rather stuffy image, it is one of the simplest ways of creating a strong, bold statement in a garden and will as easily suit a small as well as a large area.
Adding contrast
The sharp, dense lines of topiary contrast brilliantly with natural planting. An excellent example of this was Tom Stuart-Smith's Gold Medal winning garden - 'Homage to Le Notre' - at this year's Chelsea. This is a perfect example of how topiary can form a back-drop against which to use delicate, brightly coloured flowers. |
This kind of planting plays to the strengths of the differing nature of plants - the rigid, unbending topiary with the fragility of the flowers in its midst. In a more modern setting, topiary can be successfully mixed with softer swaying grasses. This kind of planting has a pleasant monochromatic feel, using only different shades of green, and relying on contrasting textures and hues to add definition.
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Creating focal points
Grown in a pot or planted in the garden, a piece of topiary will give immediate architectural interest. The style of topiary you choose will affect the feeling created, from the humorous and bizarre teddy bears, dolphins, elephants and cars, to the elegant, geometric shapes and the plain, beautifully cut, hedging.
Using the classic shapes, tall standards are useful for drawing the eye upwards, creating the feeling of space by losing the immediate foreground. Lower shapes, such as balls and pyramids, form dramatic full stops at the end of beds and pathways. Pyramids also add angles and height while remaining within the proportions of the surroundings. Placed alongside other structural features, such a statues and fountains, the living shapes complement the hard lines and bright colours of stone and marble.
Growing in containers
Topiary is easy to grow and look after in containers. They are an ideal way of adding emphasis to a feature such as a feature doorway, for guiding the eye along pathways and to break up plain spaces without adding any sense of clutter. Because they are a controlled size and shape the roots never become unruly which means they can be kept in the constrained environment of a pot. |
Watering and feeding
Topiary in a pot has to be kept well watered while in leaf. If evergreen, this may mean watering sparingly throughout the winter too, so they can replace any water they loose through their leaves during this period. Also, like other container plants they will need to be fed while in active growth. Liquid food, such as Miracle Grow is ideal, and should be given every four weeks from beginning of the beginning of May until the end of June.
Trimming
Trim to shape in the summer months - from the middle of May through to the end of June. Use very sharp secateurs because, if blunt, the blades will crush the plant tissue causing the cut edges to brown. Regular trimming will help create a dense, neat shape, cutting out any fuzzy new growth that appears. As you trim you will stimulate sideshoots to sprout all down the stems, keeping the plant dense and bushy.
Snow If you live in an area that gets heavy falls of snow, prevent it damaging the framework of the topiary by knocking off the snow before it has a chance to accumulate.
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