An essential part of the bone structure of many notable gardens, topiary provides year-round interest. With summers running hot, autumn is the best time to plant trees or shrubs for topiary as it gives them autumn, winter and spring to establish their roots. End of summer is also a good time for pruning topiary.
Hampton Court Palace’s avenue of topiary yews, planted during the reign of William III, draw the line of sight to the baroque palace. Hidcote garden’s series of rooms are created by tightly clipped hedges augmented with birds shaped out of yew. Topiary seems quintessentially British, but it came to us from the Romans.
Pliny the Elder wrote about ‘barbered groves’, meaning topiary, in the first century AD. Indeed, topiary is like shrubs or trees treated like a beard or hairstyle; regularly cut to create a controlled shape. His nephew, Pliny the Younger, described box hedges around his villa walks enclosed with shaped evergreens. Roman villas were places to display wealth and sophistication, and provide a setting in which to walk and converse. Garden, landscape and villa were connected – one of the roles of the garden was to frame the landscape beyond the garden. Topiary was an art within itself, as pleasing forms, it was also a tool that created structure directing the gaze. During the Renaissance topiary was revived and became part of the landscapes explored by British people during the era of The Grand Tour of Europe. In the 17th century topiary was popular in England, but it fell out of favour during the late-18th century during the English Landscape Movement which created landscapes that looked naturalistic. Gradually topiary has been embraced again in British gardens, with a broader repertoire of plants used to make it.
Topiary is the art of living sculptures. Geometric or freeform shapes are made out of trees or shrubs that are living. Different plants can be used, so long as they are woody plants able to hold shape. Evergreens are popular, but deciduous plants can be used. Larger-leaved plants are suited to larger topiary. Plants with smaller leaves allow for finer shapes. Slow-growing plants will take longer to reach the desired shape, but will only need trimming once a year. Fast-growing plants will form shapes quicker, but need trimming a couple of times of year for their shape to be maintained.
Buying topiary is expensive, the price reflects years of clipping not just the cost of the plant. Pre-shaped topiary is worthwhile for instant impact, but not the only way to bring topiary to your garden. Your garden might have candidates already in position. Young trees or shrubs are better for having a geometric shape imposed on them. Older trees or shrubs can be clipped into defined forms, but their shape will be dictated by the trunk, branches, and gaps. Branches or sections of trunk that don’t have young growth on them are unlikely to spring into growth and fill out in those areas. Allow plants to reach the desired height before pruning the leading shoot. Trimming to shape can be done by eye. For uniformity use a wire frame as a guide, trim growth back to the edge of the frame. Initially the shape will be loosely filled with twigs. Annual trimming encourages bushy growth so that leaves and twigs grow close enough to make the shape look solid. If topiary in pots is in a top-heavy shape, such as a lollipop, the pot should be weighted at the bottom to prevent it from falling over. Topiary maintenance includes mulching in spring, to encourage growth, and trimming annually in late summer. Fast-growing plants may need to be cut twice a year, in spring and late-summer, to maintain the desired shape.
Powis Castle’s 14-metre high cloud-shaped yews take 10 weeks to be trimmed by a gardener held aloft in a hydraulic cherry picker. They look magnificent, though their scale is beyond the capacity of an average gardener. But the beauty of topiary is that it doesn’t need to be a grand undertaking to have impact. A low edging around a flowerbed, a pair of topiary trees on a doorstep, or an obelisk in a flowerbed can be small, easy to maintain and still serve to punctuate a garden..
PLANTS TO TRY
Bay (Laurus nobilis)
Bay is often used to frame doorways with a pair of trees with a ball of foilage around head height on top of a bare stem. Trees shaped in standard shape are vulnerable to being snapped in strong winds, so the slightly sheltered setting on a doorstep next to a house wall is ideal.
Beech (Fagus sylvatica)
Having larger leaves, beech is better suited to larger scale forms – hedging and trees shaped into spirals and layers, rather than low divisions in a parterre. Being a deciduous plant its appearance changes through the seasons from winter’s ghostly twigs to bright spring green as leaves emerge, darker summer green, and golden orange in autumn.
Box (Buxus sempervirens)
The classic choice for topiary, but it is under onslaught from box blight and box tree caterpillar. Box blight, a fungal infection, causes leaves to brown and drop and stems to die back. It is exacerbated in damp humid conditions. Trimming the base of topiary to encourage airflow underneath the plant and create a water-shedding convex top rather than a flat top can help to reduce lingering humidity around the plants. Box tree caterpillar is now established in the south-east and can entirely defoliate box. There are biological and chemical methods of control, but they require ongoing input. Alternative plants can be lower maintenance.
Box honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida)
Growing up to 60cm per year, box honeysuckle is the plant to make topiary with when fast progress is desired.
Burkwood osmanthus (Osmanthus x burkwoodii)
Producing small white scented flowers, this osmanthus has the merits of small evergreen leaves with the addition of floral appeal.
Camellias
Common camellias (Camellia japonica) are robust and exuberant, and can tolerate hard pruning. This makes them obliging plants for creating topiary shapes. Sasanqua camellias (Camellia sasanqua) have slightly smaller leaves, which allow topiary to have a lighter feel. Prune and shape after flowering.
Japanese holly (Ilex crenata)
Also called box-leaved holly because its appearance is so similar. It thrives in slightly acidic damp soil, and can be used to replace box in these conditions.
Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus)
Deciduous, but hornbeams hold onto their leaves so topiary made using it retains tawny autumnal colour through winter.
Yew (Taxus baccata)
The oldest tree in the UK is the Fortingall yew, estimated to be 2,000 to 5,000 years old. Topiary yews at Powis Castle and Hampton Court Palace are hundreds of years old.
In addition to the common form there are two varieties that are also popular for use in topiary. Fastigiate
yew (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’), is also known as Irish yew because all cultivated stock is traced back to the discovery of a yew tree in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland that holds its leaves all around the twig, rather than in rows. Golden yew (Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata Aurea’) has yellow tinted leaves, particularly when grown in full sun.
WHERE TO SEE TOPIARY
22 Avon Avenue
Open under the National Garden Scheme, this garden in Ringwood has cloud-pruned topiary.
22 Avon Avenue, Avon Castle, Ringwood, BH24 2BH
ngs.org.uk/gardens/22-avon-avenue-bh2
Hinton Ampner
One of Hampshire’s National Trust gardens has classic geometric- shaped topiary.
Hinton Ampner, Alresford, SO24 0LA
nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/hampshire/hinton-ampner
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