At this time of year, topiary comes into its own, writes Elly West, bringing structure and form to the winter garden when many other plants have died back and lie dormant.
I’ve always been intrigued by the art of topiary, whether formal geometric shapes or more imaginative creations. There’s a hedge in my village that’s shaped like a blobby caterpillar (or possibly some kind of sea dragon?), and the whimsical fun of it has an undeniable appeal that brightens my day when passing. The word topiary comes from the Latin topiarius, meaning ‘ornamental gardener’, and refers to the training of plants by clipping them into defined shapes. Plants used for topiary are generally evergreen, such as yew, box, holly or privet, and are commonly seen for sale as balls, cones, lollipop trees or spirals.
The earliest record of topiary is found in the letters of Pliny the Younger of ancient Rome, who described his lavish Tuscan villa gardens with clipped shrubs and hedges in the forms of animals, figures, ships and obelisks. But it wasn’t until the Renaissance that topiary re-emerged as a major fashion in Europe, in keeping with the time period’s ideal of imposing order on nature. The grand gardens of Italy and France were typically controlled and symmetrical, with parterres, knot gardens and other sculptural topiary forms.
By the 17th Century, topiary was a major status symbol in England as well, seen in the gardens of many country estates. The world’s oldest topiary garden at Levens Hall in Cumbria was designed in 1694. Existing ancient yew trees in churchyards were also made the subjects for topiary, and two enormous peacocks dating back to 1704 can still be seen at St Mary’s Church in Bedfont, near Heathrow.
During the 18th Century, however, gardens became much more naturalistic, with landscape gardeners such as Capability Brown favouring sweeping lawns, flowing lakes and a much less rigid style. Topiary became unfashionable and satirists of the time mocked those upper-class gardens with clipped peacocks, calling them out as artificial, fussy and overly ornate.
Topiary made a comeback in Victorian times, when structured gardens regained favour, and remains popular today in its many forms. Two lollipop bay trees flanking a doorway has timeless, classic appeal, while clipped balls within a border create punctuation and repetition, but could be part of a looser and more natural planting scheme, contrasting with grasses and flowering perennials. Neat, low-growing evergreen hedges bring order to a garden, separating areas and containing them, for example around a herb or vegetable garden. Classic English gardens are often divided into ‘rooms’ by taller evergreen hedging.
Cloud-pruned trees and shrubs make fantastic ‘statement’ plants, otherwise known as Niwaki and originating in Japan. The idea is to create shapes resembling clouds on multiple branches. Topiary specimen plants can create a focal point at the end of a vista, or lead the eye along an axis, for example with a row of pyramidal shrubs, perhaps in pots, along a path.
If you want to have a go at creating your own topiary, choose an evergreen plant with small, neatly packed leaves. Although box (Buxus sempervirens) has always been a good choice, this topiary stalwart has been ravaged by blight and caterpillars in the last few years, so is no longer to be recommended unless you’re willing to keep on top of regular spraying and monitoring. Yew is a great alternative, as is Ilex crenata, Ligustrum japonicum, Euonymus japonicus or Lonicera nitida. Sometimes a plant almost chooses its own shape, and just needs some nurturing and encouragement. Balls, cubes and cones are relatively easy to create by shaping the plants as they grow.
Early summer is the best time for pruning, after the risk of late frosts has passed. Use sharp shears and keep standing back to assess the shape, viewing from different angles and removing a bit at a time. A second trim at the end of summer can be carried out for fast-growing plants. Avoid cutting when it’s very hot or during frosts as the leaves may turn brown.
To create a lollipop or standard tree, select a plant with one strong central leader and remove side shoots along the lower stem. Keep the stem straight with a cane until it reaches the desired height, then allow a bushy tuft of foliage to develop at the top. For more complicated shapes, such as animals, you can buy (or make) topiary wire frames. Place the frame over the plant while it is small, then start to prune it once it fills the space. The leaves will eventually hide the frame.
To see topiary on a large scale, local gardens open to visitors include The Newt in Somerset (pictured, left), where the clipped yew trees and neat beech hedging in the Four Seasons gardens are particularly impressive, as well as the carefully trained apples in the Parabola – not strictly topiary as such, but trained into a multitude of sculptural shapes. The National Trust’s Tyntesfield estate has plenty of topiary evergreens, including some beautiful hollies, while Lytes Cary Manor near Somerton (open from mid-Feb) has an Arts and Crafts-inspired garden with clipped hedges, including a peacock, globular domes, angular pillars and softer cloud shapes.
Elly West is a professional garden designer, working in and around the Bath and Bristol areas; find her at ellyswellies.co.uk