The Wonderful World of Topiaries
Tuesday April 29, 2008
Topiaries are very fun to create. You can form so many different designs by pruning and training trees and shrubs. They can be formal; the first topiary I ever created was a simple spiraled dwarf Alberta spruce. You may choose to have privacy hedges and intricate knot gardens.
They can also be more casual and fun,with shapes like animals, people and whatever else the imagination can conjure up. For example, there's a Beatles Topiary.
If you would like to see a demonstration of topiary pruning, watch the shaping of a topiary pig.
Photo © Flickr user jmaximo
Comments
I’ve always been impressed with topiaries and have wanted to try my hand at them. What are some tips to getting them trained to some of the more unusual shapes, like animals, etc?
Hi. For a lot of unusual shapes, they use formers (wire or wood frames) as a guide to shaping the trees and bushes.
Also, sometimes topiaries you see are really wire frames stuffed with peat moss, with a plant like ivy growing on it, thus a bit easier to form the shape.