Topiary

We keep a selection of sizes of standard Olives and Bay in stock,  also standard Photinia. Box balls and Pyramids can usually be obtained to order; also Ilex crenata and Yew, subject to availability.

Topiary has been used historically in many different European gardening styles, from early Roman to modern-day.  It is the art of training plants (typically evergreen shrubs and trees) into intricate or stylised shapes and forms, thus creating sculpture – from box balls to yew ‘peacocks’.

The word comes from the Latin word for an ornamental landscape gardener, topiarius, a creator of topia or “places”.  Common species often chosen for topiary include box, pleached hornbeam, yew and bay.

Did you know the maze at Longleat is planted entirely of English Yew – 16,000 trees!  Planted in 1978 there are 1.7 miles of pathway covering two square miles.

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