Topiary is the

horticultural Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

practice of training

perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

s by clipping the

foliage A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

and

twig A twig is a thin, often short, branch of a tree or bush. The buds on the twig are an important diagnostic characteristic, as are the abscission scars where the leaves have fallen away. The color, texture, and patterning of the twig bark are ...

s of

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s and

subshrub A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or dwarf shrub is a short shrub, and is a woody plant. Prostrate shrub is a related term. "Subshrub" is often used interchangeably with "bush".Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Der ...

s to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants which have been shaped in this way. As an art form it is a type of

living sculpture Living sculpture is any type of sculpture that is created with living, growing grasses, vines, plants or trees. It can be functional and/or ornamental. There are several different types of living sculpture techniques, including topiary (prune plant ...

. The word derives from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word for an ornamental

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

gardener A gardener is someone who practices gardening, either professionally or as a hobby. Description A gardener is any person involved in gardening, arguably the oldest occupation, from the hobbyist in a residential garden, the home-owner suppleme ...

, ''topiarius'', a creator of ''topia'' or "places", a Greek word that Romans also applied to fictive indoor landscapes executed in

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

. The plants used in topiary are

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

, mostly woody, have small

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

or needles, produce dense foliage, and have compact and/or columnar (e.g., fastigiate) growth habits. Common species chosen for topiary include cultivars of European box ('' Buxus sempervirens''), arborvitae (''

Thuja ''Thuja'' ( ) is a genus of coniferous tree or shrub in the Cupressaceae (cypress family). There are five species in the genus, two native to North America and three native to eastern Asia. The genus is monophyletic and sister to ''Thujopsis''. M ...

'' species), bay laurel (''Laurus nobilis''), holly (''Ilex'' species), myrtle ('' Eugenia'' or ''

Myrtus ''Myrtus'' (commonly called myrtle) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. It was first described by Swedish botanist Linnaeus in 1753. Over 600 names have been proposed in the genus, but nearly all have either been moved ...

'' species), yew (''

Taxus ''Taxus'' is a genus of coniferous trees or shrubs known as yews in the family Taxaceae. They are relatively slow-growing and can be very long-lived, and reach heights of , with trunk girth averaging . They have reddish bark, lanceolate, flat, ...

'' species), and privet (''

Ligustrum A privet is a flowering plant in the genus ''Ligustrum''. The genus contains about 50 species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs, sometimes forming small or medium-sized trees, native to Europe, north Africa, Asia, many introduced and nat ...

'' species). Shaped wire cages are sometimes employed in modern topiary to guide untutored shears, but traditional topiary depends on patience and a steady hand; small-leaved ivy can be used to cover a cage and give the look of topiary in a few months. The

hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoini ...

is a simple form of topiary used to create boundaries, walls or screens.

History

Origin

European topiary dates from

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

times. Pliny's '' Natural History'' and the epigram writer

Martial Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and ...

both credit Gaius Matius Calvinus, in the circle of

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...

, with introducing the first topiary to Roman gardens, and

Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo (61 – c. 113), better known as Pliny the Younger (), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate ...

describes in a letter the elaborate figures of animals, inscriptions, cyphers and

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...

s in clipped greens at his Tuscan villa (Epistle v.6, to Apollinaris). Within the atrium of a Roman house or

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became s ...

, a place that had formerly been quite plain, the art of the ''topiarius'' produced a miniature landscape (''topos'') which might employ the art of stunting trees, also mentioned, disapprovingly, by Pliny (''Historia Naturalis'' xii.6).

Far Eastern topiary

The clipping and shaping of shrubs and trees in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

have been practised with equal rigor, but for different reasons. The goal is to achieve an artful expression of the "natural" form of venerably aged pines, given character by the forces of wind and weather. Their most concentrated expressions are in the related arts of Chinese penjing and Japanese

bonsai Bonsai ( ja, 盆栽, , tray planting, ) is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of ''penjing''. Unlike ''penjing'', which utilizes traditional techniques to produce ...

. Japanese cloud-pruning is closest to the European art: the cloud-like forms of clipped growth are designed to be best appreciated after a fall of snow. Japanese Zen gardens (''karesansui'', dry rock gardens) make extensive use of ''Karikomi'' (a topiary technique of clipping shrubs and trees into large curved shapes or sculptures) and ''Hako-zukuri'' (shrubs clipped into boxes and straight lines). Hortus Palatinus und Heidelberger Schloss von Jacques Fouquiere

Hortus Palatinus und Heidelberger Schloss von Jacques Fouquiere

Renaissance topiary

Since its European revival in the 16th century, topiary has been seen on the

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...

s and terraces of gardens of the European elite, as well as in simple cottage gardens; Barnabe Googe, about 1578, found that "women" (a signifier of a less than gentle class) were clipping

rosemary ''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native plant, native to the Mediterranean Region, Mediterranean region. Until 2017, it was kn ...

"as in the fashion of a cart, a peacock, or such things as they fancy." In 1618 William Lawson suggested :Your gardener can frame your lesser wood to the shape of men armed in the field, ready to give battell: or swift-running Grey Houndes to chase the Deere, or hunt the Hare. This kind of hunting shall not wate your corne, nor much your coyne. Traditional topiary forms use foliage pruned and/or trained into geometric shapes such as balls or cubes,

s, pyramids, cones, or tiered plates and tapering spirals. Representational forms depicting people, animals, and man-made objects have also been popular. The royal botanist John Parkinson found privet "so apt that no other can be like unto it, to be cut, lead, and drawn into what forme one will, either of beasts, birds, or men armed or otherwise." Evergreens have usually been the first choice for Early Modern topiary, however, with

yew Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Taxus'': * European yew or common yew (''Taxus baccata'') * Pacific yew or western yew (''Taxus br ...

and boxwood leading other plants. Topiary at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

and its imitators was never complicated: low hedges punctuated by potted trees trimmed as balls on standards, interrupted by obelisks at corners, provided the vertical features of flat-patterned parterre gardens. Sculptural forms were provided by stone and lead sculptures. In Holland, however, the fashion was established for more complicated topiary designs; this Franco-Dutch garden style spread to England after 1660, but by 1708-09 one searches in vain for fanciful topiary among the clipped hedges and edgings, and the standing cones and obelisks of the aristocratic and gentry English parterre gardens in Kip and Knyff's ''

Britannia Illustrata ''Britannia Illustrata'', also known as ''Views of Several of the Queens Palaces and also of the Principal Seats of the Nobility & Gentry of Great Britain'' is a 170709 map plate folio of parts of Great Britain, arguably the most important work ...

''.

Decline in the 18th century

In England topiary was all but killed as a fashion by the famous satiric essay on "Verdant Sculpture" that

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 O.S. – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, ...

published in the short-lived newspaper ''The Guardian'', 29 September 1713, with its mock catalogue descriptions of :*Adam and Eve in yew; Adam a little shattered by the fall of the tree of knowledge in the great storm; Eve and the serpent very flourishing. :*The

tower of Babel The Tower of Babel ( he, , ''Mīgdal Bāḇel'') narrative in Genesis 11:1–9 is an origin myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language and mi ...

, not yet finished. :*St George in

box A box (plural: boxes) is a container used for the storage or transportation of its contents. Most boxes have flat, parallel, rectangular sides. Boxes can be very small (like a matchbox) or very large (like a shipping box for furniture), and can ...

; his arm scarce long enough, but will be in condition to stick the

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

by next April. :*A quickset hog, shot up into a

porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two families of animals: the Old World porcupines of family Hystricidae, and the New World porcupines of family, Erethizont ...

, by its being forgot a week in rainy weather. In the 1720s and 1730s, the generation of Charles Bridgeman and

William Kent William Kent (c. 1685 – 12 April 1748) was an English architect, landscape architect, painter and furniture designer of the early 18th century. He began his career as a painter, and became Principal Painter in Ordinary or court painter, but ...

swept the English garden clean of its hedges, mazes, and topiary. Although topiary fell from grace in aristocratic gardens, it continued to be featured in

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a Cotter (farmer), cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager ...

rs' gardens, where a single example of traditional forms, a ball, a tree trimmed to a cone in several cleanly separated tiers, meticulously clipped and perhaps topped with a topiary peacock, might be passed on as an heirloom. Such an heirloom, but on heroic scale, was the ancient churchward yew of Harlington, west of London, immortalized in an engraved broadsheet of 1729 bearing an illustration with an enthusiastic verse encomium by its dedicated parish clerk and topiarist. formerly shaped as an obelisk on square plinth topped with a ten-foot ball surmounted by a cockerel, the Harlington Yew survives today, untonsured for the last two centuries.

Revival

The revival of topiary in English gardening parallels the revived "

Jacobethan The Jacobethan or Jacobean Revival architectural style is the mixed national Renaissance revival style that was made popular in England from the late 1820s, which derived most of its inspiration and its repertory from the English Renaissance (15 ...

" taste in architecture; John Loudon in the 1840s was the first garden writer to express a sense of loss due to the topiary that had been removed from English gardens. The art of topiary, with enclosed garden "rooms", burst upon the English gardening public with the mature examples at

Elvaston Castle Elvaston Castle is a stately home in Elvaston, Derbyshire, England. The Gothic Revival castle and surrounding parkland is run and owned by Derbyshire County Council as a country park known as Elvaston Castle Country Park. The country park has ...

, Derbyshire, which opened to public viewing in the 1850s and created a sensation: "within a few years architectural topiary was springing up all over the country (it took another 25 years before sculptural topiary began to become popular as well)". The following generation, represented by

James Shirley Hibberd James Shirley Hibberd (1825 – 16 November 1890) was one of the most popular and successful gardening writers of the Victorian era. He was a best-selling editor of three gardening magazines, including ''Amateur Gardening'', the only 19th-centu ...

, rediscovered the charm of topiary specimens as part of the mystique of the "English cottage garden", which was as much invented as revived from the 1870s: The classic statement of the British

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

revival of topiary among roses and mixed herbaceous borders, characterised generally as "the old-fashioned garden" or the "Dutch garden"Elliott 2000:19. was to be found in ''Topiary: Garden Craftsmanship in Yew and Box'' by Nathaniel Lloyd (1867–1933), who had retired in middle age and taken up architectural design with the encouragement of Sir

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memori ...

. Lloyd's own timber-framed manor house,

Great Dixter Great Dixter is a house in Northiam, East Sussex, England. It was built in 1910–12 by architect Edwin Lutyens, who combined an existing mid-15th century house on the site with a similar structure brought from Benenden, Kent, together with his o ...

, Sussex, remains an epitome of this stylised mix of topiary with "cottagey" plantings that was practised by

Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote ...

and Edwin Lutyens in a fruitful partnership. The new gardening vocabulary incorporating topiary required little expensive restructuring: "At Lyme Park, Cheshire, the garden went from being an Italian garden to being a Dutch garden without any change actually taking place on the ground," Brent Elliot noted in 2000. Americans in England were sensitive to the renewed charms of topiary. When

William Waldorf Astor William Waldorf "Willy" Astor, 1st Viscount Astor (31 March 1848 – 18 October 1919) was an American-British attorney, politician, businessman (hotels and newspapers), and philanthropist. Astor was a scion of the very wealthy Astor family of ...

bought

Hever Castle Hever Castle ( ) is located in the village of Hever, Kent, near Edenbridge, south-east of London, England. It began as a country house, built in the 13th century. From 1462 to 1539, it was the seat of the Boleyn (originally 'Bullen') family. ...

, Kent, around 1906, the moat surrounding the house precluded the addition of wings for servants, guests and the servants of guests that the Astor manner required. He accordingly built an authentically styled Tudor village to accommodate the overflow, with an "Old English Garden" including

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral (s ...

ed hedges and free-standing topiary. In the preceding decade, expatriate Americans led by

Edwin Austin Abbey Edwin Austin Abbey (April 1, 1852August 1, 1911) was an American muralist, illustrator, and painter. He flourished at the beginning of what is now referred to as the "golden age" of illustration, and is best known for his drawings and paintings ...

created an Anglo-American society at Broadway, Worcestershire, where topiary was one of the elements of a "Cotswold" house-and-garden style soon naturalised among upper-class Americans at home. Topiary, which had featured in very few 18th-century American gardens, came into favour with the

Colonial Revival garden A Colonial Revival garden is a garden design intended to evoke the garden design typical of the Colonial period of the United States. The Colonial Revival garden is typified by simple rectilinear beds, straight (rather than winding) pathways throu ...

s and the grand manner of the American Renaissance, 1880–1920. Interest in the revival and maintenance of historic gardens in the 20th century led to the replanting of the topiary

maze A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lea ...

at the Governor's Palace,

Colonial Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg is a living-history museum and private foundation presenting a part of the historic district in the city of Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation has 7300 employees at this location and ...

, in the 1930s.

20th century

American portable style topiary was introduced to

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...

around 1962.

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

helped bring this new medium into being - wishing to recreate his cartoon characters throughout his theme park in the form of landscape shrubbery. This style of topiary is based on a suitably shaped steel wire frame through which the plants eventually extend as they grow. The frame, which remains as a permanent trimming guide, may be either stuffed with sphagnum moss and then planted, or placed around shrubbery. The sculpture slowly transforms into a permanent topiary as the plants fill in the frame. This style has led to imaginative displays and festivals throughout the Disney resorts and parks, and

mosaiculture Mosaiculture is the horticultural art of creating giant topiary-like sculptures using thousands of annual bedding plants to carpet steel armature forms. It is different from classical topiary. Mosaïcultures Internationales® is the name of an int ...

(multiple types and styles of plants creating a mosaic,

) worldwide includes the impressive display at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

in China. Living corporate logos along roadsides,

green roof A green roof or living roof is a roof of a building that is partially or completely covered with vegetation and a growing medium, planted over a waterproofing membrane. It may also include additional layers such as a root barrier and drainage ...

softscapes and living walls that biofilter air are offshoots of this technology. Artificial topiary is another offshoot similar to the concept of

artificial Christmas tree An artificial Christmas tree is an artificial pine or fir tree manufactured for the specific purpose of use as a Christmas tree. The earliest artificial Christmas trees were wooden, tree-shaped pyramids or feather trees, both developed by Germans. ...

s. This topiary mimics the style of living versions and is often used to supply indoor greenery for home or office decoration. Patents are issued for the style, design, and construction methodology of different types of topiary trees.Decorative display - US Patent 6237882 Full Text
, ''US Patent 6237882 - Decorative display''. US Patent Issued on May 29, 2001.

Notable topiary displays

File:Topiary in Railton.jpg, Topiary at Railton, Town of Topiary, Tasmania, Australia File:Topiaryelephant.jpg, Topiary elephants at

Bang Pa-In Royal Palace ) , former_names = , alternate_names = , image = Bang Pa-In Royal Palace - Bang Pa-In.jpg , image_alt = , caption = Aisawan Dhiphya-Asana Pavilion , map_type = Thailand , map_alt ...

File:Gurning... (8456271082).jpg, Topiary at

Kingston Lacy Kingston Lacy is a country house and estate near Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England. It was for many years the family seat of the Bankes family who lived nearby at Corfe Castle until its destruction in the English Civil War after its incumbent ow ...

, UK File:Hidcote Manor.jpg, Topiary birds at

Hidcote Manor Garden Hidcote Manor Garden is a garden in the United Kingdom, located at the village of Hidcote Bartrim, near Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire. It is one of the best-known and most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in Britain, with its linked "g ...

File:Eyrignac Manor - Gardens-02.JPG, Topiary garden at

Manor d'Eyrignac The Manoir d'Eyrignac is a 17th-century manor house in Salignac-Eyvigues, in the Dordogne department of France, surrounded by a recreated 18th-century Italian Renaissance garden and an elaborate topiary garden. The house is sited on top of a hill, ...

, France File:Henfield-St Peter's Church-path to Church - geograph.org.uk - 132343.jpg, The path to St Peter's Church in

Henfield Henfield is a large village and civil parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, northwest of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester at the road junction of the A281 and A2037. Th ...

is flanked by topiary File:Stonehouse, Bush house, Glasshouse - geograph.org.uk - 60354.jpg, Topiary house File:" Green Pig" - geograph.org.uk - 245244.jpg, A topiary

pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

in Halton, Northumberland File:Topiary vijayanrajapuram.jpg, Topiary in the Botanical garden

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populati ...

File:Dragon hedge.jpg, Dragon shaped hedge,

East Rudham East Rudham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village is located north-east of King's Lynn and north-west of Norwich. History East Rudham's name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and derives from the Old English for 'R ...

Australia

Railton, Tasmania Railton is a town situated 20 km inland from Devonport on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia's island state. In the , Railton had a population of 997. The locality is in the Kentish Council area, but with about 1% in the Latrob ...

known as Railton Town of Topiary

Asia

* Mosaiculture 2006 ( Shanghai, China) * The

Samban-Lei Sekpil Sambal-Lei Sekpil is the world's tallest topiary. Created by Moirangthem Okendra Kumbi, it is modelled in the shape of a series of open umbrellas and spheres. Okendra started mending the Sambal-Lei in 1983, originally planted by his sister in a s ...

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of Myanm ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, begun in 1983 and recently measuring in height, is the world's tallest topiary, according to ''

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

''. It is clipped of ''

Duranta erecta ''Duranta erecta'' is a species of flowering shrub in the verbena family Verbenaceae, native from Mexico to South America and the Caribbean. It is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant in tropical and subtropical gardens throughout the world, ...

'', a shrub widely used in Manipuri gardens, into a tiered shape called a ''sekpil'' or ''satra'' that honours the forest god Umang Lai. *

Royal Palace This is a list of royal palaces, sorted by continent. Africa * Abdin Palace, Cairo * Al-Gawhara Palace, Cairo * Koubbeh Palace, Cairo * Tahra Palace, Cairo * Menelik Palace * Jubilee Palace * Guenete Leul Palace * Imperial Palace- Massa ...

at Bang Pa-In in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

* The Terrace Garden in

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...

, India, has topiaries in the form of animals by Narinder Kumar Sharma as an attraction for children.

Central America

* Parque Francisco Alvarado,

Zarcero Zarcero is a district of the Zarcero canton, in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. History Zarcero was granted the title of "ciudad" (city) by a law on 24 July 1918. Geography Zarcero has an area of km² and an elevation of metres. It ...

, Costa Rica

South America

* Tulcan Topiary Garden Cemetery, Tulcan, Ecuador

Europe

* Cliveden (Buckinghamshire, England) *

Levens Hall Levens Hall is a manor house in the Kent valley, near the village of Levens and south of Kendal in Cumbria, Northern England. History The first house on the site was a pele tower built by the Redman family in around 1350. Much of the presen ...

(Cumbria, England) : A premier topiary garden started in the late 17th century by M. Beaumont, a French gardener who laid out the gardens of

Hampton Court Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chief ...

(which were recreated in the 1980s). Levens Hall is recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as having the oldest Topiary garden in the world. *

Topsham railway station Topsham railway station is the railway station serving the town of Topsham in the English county of Devon. It is the passing place for the otherwise single-track branch line from Exmouth Junction to Exmouth. Both the loop and adjacent level c ...

(Devon, England) An example of topiary lettering. *

Canons Ashby Canons Ashby is a small village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in West Northamptonshire, England. The population of the village is included in the civil parish of Preston Capes. Its most notable building is Canons Ashby House, a N ...

(Northamptonshire, England) A 16th-century garden revised in 1708 *

Stiffkey Stiffkey () is a village and civil parish on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. It is situated on the A149 coast road, some east of Wells-next-the-Sea, west of Blakeney, and north-west of the city of Norwich.Ordnance Survey ( ...

, (Norfolk, England) : Several informal designs including a line of elephants at Nellie's cottage and a guitar. *

(Gloucestershire, England)
Knightshayes Court
(Devon, England) *

Owlpen Manor Owlpen Manor is a Tudor Grade I listed manor house of the Mander family, situated in the village of Owlpen in the Stroud district in Gloucestershire, England. There is an associated estate set in a valley within the Cotswold Area of Outstandi ...

(Gloucestershire, England) A late 16th-early 17th century terraced garden on a hillside, reordered in the 1720s, with "dark, secret rooms of yew" (Vita Sackville-West).
Great Dixter Gardens
(East Sussex, England): Laid out by Nathaniel Lloyd, the author of a book on topiary, and preserved and extended by his son, the garden-writer

Christopher Lloyd Christopher Allen Lloyd (born October 22, 1938) is an American actor. He has appeared in many theater productions, films, and on television since the 1960s. He is known for portraying Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown in the ''Back to the Future'' tril ...

. *

Much Wenlock Priory Wenlock Priory, or St Milburga's Priory, is a ruined 12th-century monastery, located in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, at . Roger de Montgomery re-founded the Priory as a Cluniac house between 1079 and 1082, on the site of an earlier 7th-century mon ...

, Shropshire
Drummond Castle Gardens
(Perthshire, Scotland) * Portmeirion (Snowdonia, Wales)
Parc des Topiares
( Durbuy, Belgium) :A large topiary garden (10 000 m²) with over 250 figures. *

Château de Villandry The Château de Villandry is a grand country house located in Villandry, in the ''département'' of Indre-et-Loire, France. It is especially known for its beautiful gardens. History The lands where an ancient fortress once stood were known as '' ...

, France *

Villa Lante Villa Lante is a Mannerism, Mannerist garden of surprise in Bagnaia, Viterbo, Bagnaia, Viterbo, central Italy, attributed to Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola. Villa Lante did not become so known until it passed to Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rovere ...

(Bagnaia, Italy) *

Giardino Giusti The Giusti Palace and Garden ( it, Palazzo e giardino Giusti) are located in the east of Verona, Italy, a short distance from Piazza Isolo and near the city centre. The palace was built in the sixteenth century. The garden is considered one o ...

Francesco Pona Francesco Pona (1595–1655) was an Italian medical doctor, philosopher, Marinist poet and writer from Verona, whose works ranged from scientific treatises and history to poetry and plays. Biography A Veronese medical doctor and member of man ...

: Sileno overo Delle Bellezze del Luogo dell'Ill.mo Sig. Co. Gio. Giacomo Giusti, 1620 Angelo Tamo, Verona *

: Il Paradiso de' Fiori overo Lo archetipo de' Giardini, 1622 Angelo Tamo, Verona * Paolo Villa:

1993-94, pdf with maps and 200 photos (Verona, Italy) * Castello Balduino (Montalto Pavese, Italy) * Guggenheim Museum, (

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

): A huge sculpture of a West Highland White Terrier designed by the artist Jeff Koons, which is thought by experts and scientists to be the world's biggest topiary dog. * Th
''Tsubo-en''
Zen garden in

Lelystad Lelystad () is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, and it is the capital of the province of Flevoland. The city, built on reclaimed land, was founded in 1967 and was named after Cornelis Lely, who engineered the Afsluitdi ...

, Netherlands is a private modern Japanese Zen (karesansui, dry rock) garden that makes extensive use of so-called O-karikomi combined with Hako-zukuri (see above). Tsubo-en O-karikomi center seasons run-opt

Tsubo-en O-karikomi center seasons run-opt

* Gardens of the Palace of Versailles outside Paris, France

North America

Hunnewell Arboretum The H. H. Hunnewell estate in Wellesley, Massachusetts was the country home of H. H. Hunnewell (1810–1902), containing over 500 species of woody plants in 53 families. The estate remains in the family, and includes the first (1854) topiary gar ...

( Wellesley, Massachusetts) :140-year-old topiary garden of native white pine and arborvitae. *

Ladew Topiary Gardens __NOTOC__ Ladew Topiary Gardens () are nonprofit gardens with topiary located in Monkton, Maryland. The gardens were established in the 1930s by socialite and huntsman Harvey S. Ladew (1887–1976), who in 1929 had bought a farm to build his ...

(

Monkton, Maryland Monkton is an unincorporated community in northern Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It has a population of approximately 4,856 people. The community is in area, with approximately . As an unincorporated area, Monkton has no legally ...

) : A topiary garden in Maryland established by award-winning topiary artist

Harvey Ladew Harvey Smith Ladew II (April 6, 1887 – July 28, 1976) was an American topiary enthusiast, and a fox hunting enthusiast, who created the Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, Maryland. Biography Ladew was born in Manhattan, New York City on April 6, ...

in the late 1930s. Located approximately halfway between the north Baltimore suburbs and the southern Pennsylvania border. Ladew's most famous topiary is a hunt, horses, riders, dogs and the fox, clearing a well-clipped hedge, the most famous single piece of classical topiary in North America. * Topiary Garden at

Longwood Gardens Longwood Gardens is a botanical garden that consists of over 1,077 acres (436 hectares; 4.36 km2) of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, United States in the Brandywine Creek Valley. It is one of the premier h ...

( Kennett Square, Pennsylvania)
Columbus Topiary Park at Old Deaf School
(

Topiary Park Topiary Park is a public park and garden in Columbus, Ohio's Discovery District (Columbus, Ohio), Discovery District. The park's topiary garden, officially the Topiary Garden at Old Deaf School Park, is designed to depict figures from Georges S ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

) : A public garden in downtown Columbus that features a topiary tableau of Georges Seurat's famous painting '' Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'' *

Pearl Fryar Pearl Fryar (born December 4, 1939) is an American topiary artist living in Bishopville, South Carolina. Biography Pearl Fryar was born on December 4, 1939 in Clinton, North Carolina to a sharecropper family. In the late 1950s, he attended ...

's Topiary Garden, (

Bishopville, South Carolina Bishopville is a town in Lee County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 3,471 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Lee County. Geography Bishopville is located at (34.219027, -80.248877) near Lee State Park. According t ...

) *

Green Animals The Green Animals Topiary Garden, located in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, is the oldest and most northern topiary garden in the United States. The estate overlooks the Narragansett Bay. It contains a large collection of topiaries including eighty ...

, a topiary garden outside Providence, Rhode Island. One of the subjects of the documentary ''

Fast, Cheap and Out of Control ''Fast, Cheap & Out of Control'' is a 1997 documentary film by filmmaker Errol Morris. Summary The film profiles four subjects with extraordinary careers: Dave Hoover, a wild-animal tamer; George Mendonça, a topiary gardener at Green Animals ...

'' (1997) was George Mendonça, the topiarist at Green Animals for more than seventy years: "it's just cut and wait, cut and wait" Mendonça says in a filmed sequence. *Busch Gardens Tampa, established 1959. 365 acre property featuring large, colorful and detailed sphagnum topiary.

In popular culture

* In the

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...

Johnny Depp John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...

film '' Edward Scissorhands'', Edward proves to have a natural gift for topiary art. Numerous creative works are shown throughout the movie. * In the Stephen King novel '' The Shining'', topiary animals that move when people are not looking frighten the Torrance family. * In the children's novel ''

The Children of Green Knowe ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' by

Lucy M. Boston Lucy M. Boston (1892–1990), born Lucy Maria Wood, was an English novelist who wrote for children and adults, publishing her work entirely after the age of 60. She is best known for her " Green Knowe" series: six low fantasy children's novels p ...

, an overgrown topiary figure of

Noah Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...

plays a sinister role. * A real-life topiary artist is one of the subjects of

Errol Morris Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara ...

's ''

''.

References and sources

;References ;Sources * Curtis, Charles H. and W. Gibson, ''The Book of Topiary'' (reprinted, 1985 Tuttle), * Lloyd, Nathaniel. ''Topiary: Garden Art in Yew and Box'' (reprinted, 2006)

External links

European Boxwood and Topiary Society
{{Authority control Horticulture Trees