Topiary with their hands: investigating the 3 different techniques of creating green shapes

The desire of mankind to do everything «quick» reflected in this meticulous garden art, topiary. The formation of a fanciful crown of the tree, requiring sometimes decades, it takes more than a few months. Who is so easy on the hard work of the gardener? As usual, the hurried nation in the world. Lightning trying to absorb another portion of fast food, some of the Americans came up with how to make fast topiary quick and easy. To grow intricate green shape, thanks to the sparkling thoughts come from overseas is now easier than ever — no need to wait years until the tree will grow, and then long to cut it to achieve a specific configuration of the crown. Enough to buy ready-made wire frame, fill it with earth blend, planted ground cover plants and – voila! Topiary is ready. Curious? To be continued…

The contents

Desire to diversify your life encourages us all to seek exciting activities, designed to paint the monotonous everyday life in bright colors. If your passion — gardening, why don’t you transform your smallholding original plant figure — duck or peacock, elephant or lion… or maybe you prefer a flower car? The ancient art of topiary, redrawn in a modern way, will allow you are not straining to create a topiary with their hands literally in one day. Of course, if you are planning on doing something major that affects its size owners of nearby land. For a start, it is better to try your hand at creating a small garden figurines in frame technology «topiary», gradually moving on to more complex compositions.

Technique #1 — topiary on the finished frame

Learn how to make a topiary with their hands with the help of ready-made metal frame for any green thumb, having a due measure of patience and perseverance. First, you need to choose the framework for the future of the green sculpture. Its size and shape should fit harmoniously into the landscape. It is better to take small but expressive form — after all, you are creating an accent that is simply obliged to draw attention to yourself.

Expressive green sculpture on motives of Formula 1 is made of ground cover plants on the basis of the framework

Exotic ostrich, created based on spherical Bush topiary will add your garden a touch of extravagance

Ready-made frames which can be purchased at specialty garden stores are made of 2-3 mm of wire. They constitute a lattice structure with sufficient clearance to be able to get inside. In addition, in the upper part of the frame is a cover, which is designed to simplify access «the insides» metal structure while filling it with the substrate — a mixture of earth and peat, or sphagnum moss.

Before you start to fill the frame, the moss must be soaked in warm water for about 30 minutes. Filling structure of a future topiary substrate, need to prudently create a hole, which are then planted ground cover or climbing, succulent or herbaceous garden plants. For these purposes, perfect: houseleek, saxifrage, Sedum, loosestrife, ivy, grapes.

Fluffy hedgehogs, born thanks to the frame of the topiary, decorate the green lawn in your yard

Cute family of pigs, made on the basis of the frame and groundcover plants will provide outstanding colour in the garden

Care frame topiary involves regular watering and fertilizing, and pruning pinched. It should be remembered that such a green sculpture cannot be left to winter outdoors — better to bring in an unheated room with temperatures of about 5 degrees. If the weight or volume of the topiary does not allow it — it is possible to cover it wooden, insulated with straw or foam boxes.

Trimming shrubs — topiary elephant under the force experienced masters green sculpture

Technique #2 — espress-topiary

In the quest to further accelerate the process of creating a green sculpture of complex shape, was invented Express topiary. The essence of this method of formation of the topiary simple — spring in the open ground planted such trudging plants, as the periwinkle, parthenocissus, ivy or hops, tend to quickly form shoots.

Then upon landing, install a metal mesh cage that serves as the basis for creating a topiary. As you grow, branches of plants are distributed along the frame and fastened with rope made of natural material or trimmed. By the end of the season, the overgrown frame, metal rods completely hidden under the green cover — only need to remember to water and fertilize the topiary.

It will take only a couple of months and frame retro-car will turn into a green sculpture of incredible beauty

Pyramid-shaped trees created by using topiary techniques, give your garden landscape the solemnity and elegance

Technique #3 — classic topiary

Of course, the ancient Roman gardeners, and even could not imagine how modern society will transform the classical gardening art, similar in its design sculptural modeling. Indulging in topiary, they didn’t try to speed up the process of creating living sculptures, on the contrary, found the beauty at a leisurely search for the perfect form. If you are closer in spirit to the classical approach, then you can do the topiary as it did the Romans, and after them the gardeners of the 18-19th centuries. What do you need? A lot of patience, imagination and a well honed tool: garden or hedge shears, lopper, pruner, wooden slats.

The combination of manicured borders and topiary in the form of pyramids clearly separate the lawn from the track

Here are some tips on how to make a classic topiary. To start «sharpening» mastery is better on simple geometric figures. Moreover, a simple three-dimensional shape can easily complicate, transforming it to another cube to turn into a ball, cylinder or pyramid — cone.

Pyramidal topiary towering on the background of spherical bushes, creating an unusual contrast of shapes and colors

Topiary simple geometric shapes

To begin with identify «patient» for your first exercise. So go in search. Your goal is a tree or Bush between the ages of 5 years and older, with well-developed root system and crown size is larger than the intended size of the figure. Good options in order to make a topiary, choose from plants such as spruce or prickly, shiny cotoneaster, physocarpus purple, hawthorn pinnatifid, the Tatarian maple. Topiary haircut is best done in March or April or June to August, but not in the fall, so as not to weaken the plant before wintering.

Topiary complex geometric shapes are created over the years — they require careful clipping of the crown as of its growth

Driven step-by-step instructions that will guide you through the topiary in the form of a cube:

1. On the ground, under the canopy of the tree you want to draw a square with the desired side length of the cube.
2. On angles of guadrate install wooden slats or bamboo sticks with a diameter of 2-3 cm, and seal it from between horizontal cross laths — it will be your frame of reference.
3. With the help of hedge trimmer do the rough cut, outlining the approximate contours of the body — start with the top face, then treat the side.
4. Checking the sides of the cube, the curvature, fix the plane and go to final cut, gradually evening the volume.
5. The final touch to guide the shears, removing the small twigs that stand out of the masses.

A pergola of grapes harmoniously exists alongside the unusual landscape created with the help of topiary on the shore of lake

Topiary complex shapes

Topiary in the form of a ball can be made from a cube by truncating his face. The most suitable plants for the spherical topiary: purple willow, barberry Thunberg, physocarpus, thuja occidentalis, Spiraea grey, spruce, yew, boxwood, and many other.

Spherical topiary molded out of Stam tree will look spectacular in both regular and infinity landscape

Cylindrical topiary, as a rule, can be done easily from the thuja Western, a kind which by nature has a column-like shape. Good cylinders can be obtained from the European larch, of amelanchier rotundifolia, Linden. The principle of cutting of topiary in the form of a column is the same as cubic. Under the crown of the tree draw a circle, set the guides to wooden stakes already and bolder than impressed by you, cube, cut out a cylinder.

Look good topiary in the shape of a cone and a truncated cone. In order to build a frame under the cone-shaped topiary, pricopie at least three poles and staple them in the center, at the location of the imaginary vertex of the cone of the future — in the likeness of an Indian wigwam. Again, to help the beginner topiarius comes to the aid of nature itself by creating Western thuja with a conical crown shape «Smaragd».

Haircut of topiary in the form of clouds or «POM-POM» creates the effect of the landscape is of extraterrestrial origin

Topiary in the form of cones or columns can serve as the perfect setting for a green track leading to the fancy arch

Training steady hands, you can later try your hand at the pyramidal implementation of topiary with three and four faces, arranged in his garden mini-complex of the Egyptian pyramids, giving your site a completely unique look. Bringing their skills to perfection, you gradually move on to create such complex green sculptures like spiral, tiered geometric shapes and their combinations, and not far off — to the figures of animals and people.

Thanks to modern vision, topiary becoming increasingly complex and unexpected forms

Classic topiary frame

Greatly simplify the process of cutting the classic topiary removable metal frame, which mount on top of the crown of the tree or Bush. Such a supporting element is used in order to make it easier to make a topiary with their hands and is the best fit for beginners topiarius.

The easiest option for the novice topiarius — the creation of a green ball from a Bush of boxwood, planted in a pot

A separate area in topiary art — Japanese niwaki, which is a cut trees in the form of clouds

Plant «lives» in a mesh garment conforming to a predetermined shape, and you only need to trim unruly branches sticking in spite of the imposed trajectory. At the end of crown formation, the frame is removed. However, with a similar approach to how you can make the topiary, I do not agree many gardeners plant so prone to coalesce with his «outfit», it can’t be removed without damaging the crown.

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