What is Topiary?
Topiary is the art of ornamental gardening. Topiarists trim, weave, and train plants into all shapes and sizes. Some topiaries are as large as a tree shaped as an ice cream cone, whereas others are small as an ivy heart in a porcelain cup. Interest in changing the shape of plants can be traced back at least 2000 years, and lives on in today’s imaginative gardens. The early Romans, perhaps influenced by Jews or Greeks, pruned their hedges into ornamental shapes. When Italy was no longer part of the Roman Empire, monks continued to cultivate topiaries in the early 1000s. From there, it spread to Britain, France, and all of Europe, and reached a height during the Renaissance. With its formal aesthetic, topiary expanded with hedge mazes and knot gardens during the Victorian period. Landscape designers grow outdoor topiary by trimming bushes and trees the way a sculptor works stone. Simple geometric shapes, such as cones and cylinders act as architectural elements. Juniper and rosemary make
Topiary is simply the art or practice of trimming and shaping plants into ornamental shapes. The shapes can be any object or geometric shape one can think of. History tells us that Pliny the younger (AD 62-110) described his villa in Tuscany as being embellished with various figures and adorned with animals out of boxwood. So topiary has been around for nearly 2000 years. Its still popular in mansions as well as in the home garden. The term topiary today can mean a large specimen, such as a garden giraffe or a small tabletop centerpiece, but its always related to shaped plants. Here are some of the most popular uses for topiary today. GARDEN TOPIARY Topiary is found in a wide variety of home gardens as well as commercial establishments. Formal gardens will often include pyramids or arches, maybe even cones or teardrops with little birds pruned on top. Whimsical topiary shapes such as animals or birds or even trains and airplanes may grace a park or zoo, or accent one’s garden, bringing
