Gardens extraordinary, beautiful, where order and harmony become laws to be followed and where fascinating sculptures, seemingly out of fantastic stories, animate every corner and everything seems to be a kind of real, tangible picture book.
We are talking about thetopiary or the art of cutting hedges and shrubs, turning them into artistic creations.
That topiary is an ancient art - apparently dating back to the Flavian era of ancient Rome - and consists of pruning trees and shrubs in order to give them a geometric shape, different from that naturally assumed by the plant.
The results obtained with this technique are sometimes astounding, requiring years of preparation and practice.
Shaping shrubs and plants geometrically is not easy: metal supports are needed to guide branches and leaves, as well as precise tools and techniques to follow.
One aspect that must also be taken into account when talking about topiary art is the type of plant you will be working on, which will condition the type of intervention possible.
Pruning, grafting, choosing the best ornamental plants and all the other delicate operations that can be done on the plantsmust be studied in the smallest detail, to prevent inconveniences, optimise treatments and achieve the best results.
Historic palaces and villas or important gardens, many of them located in Italy, are extraordinary examples of topiary art, often applied to individual plants or on a series of plants that form a border or create a fascinating labyrinth.
The plants of topiary art
L'topiary can be applied to different types of plants and shrubs, among them mainly low-growing evergreens, such as:
- Laurus nobilis
- Cupressus
- Buxus sempervirens
- Taxus baccata
- Ligustrum jonandrum
Here are some examples of topiary art:
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Discover the master's degree in Garden Design by Italian Design Institute.
Cover photo by: keblog.co.uk
