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I recently visited the beautiful Thai botanical garden Tweechol Botanic Garden, which is located in Northern Thailand - in the city of Chiang Mai, and was once again amazed at the skill of the Thais in the field of topiary art. I was wondering - maybe I could make a couple of green sculptures at my dacha? I am studying this topic for myself and sharing my findings with you.

If we have enough patience to take care of the garden, then we are quite capable of making a topiary at the dacha.

Topiary art is the creation of green figures from plants, a kind of living sculptures. Previously, it took decades to form a bizarre shape from wood, but now faster ways of creating a topiary figure have been invented. The process was accelerated by the use of a ready-made wire frame. How to quickly create a topiary in your dacha? There are two simple methods.

The easiest and fastest way is to use a frame structure

We start by choosing the shape of the frame - inexperienced gardeners are recommended to take something not very large and of a simple configuration. Now let's choose a place for the green sculpture. The best background for it would be a flat paved area or a section of lawn. A topiary would also look good in the center of a bright flower bed with low flowers. In all cases, it is advisable that this form be viewed from different places plot and looked harmoniously from any angle.

The finished frame can be purchased at a special store. garden and garden supply store. It is usually made of 3mm thick wire and looks like a lattice structure with convenient access to the inside (for laying the substrate). The frame is filled with a mixture of moss and earth - you will need to make holes in the earthen coma where the plants will be planted.

What plants should I plant?

It will be easiest for you with ground covers and succulents - they do not require watering and grow quite slowly. If you want to make a green sculpture from hanging plants, then you will need one or more seedlings with a lump. Place the earthen lump inside the frame, and arrange the shoots beautifully on the surface and secure with thin wire or clamps.

During the warm season, you will have to care for the topiary - watering, feeding with an aqueous solution with mineral fertilizers, trim the shoots. If the plants are perennial, then for the winter it will need to be removed into a room without heating. They are best preserved at a temperature of +3+8 degrees C.

The second method is topiary from vines

It will not be difficult to create a topiary from climbing plants like hops, grapes, ivy. You will need to plant the seedlings in the ground and place a form over them on which the plant can climb. You can make a similar shape with your own hands. One of budget options- a frame made of wooden slats, which is tied with thick twine to clarify the shape. In this way you can do simple shapes- cubes, pyramids, cylinders. If you have enough imagination, you can make more complex forms - animals and birds.
Pick up the vines during the first months, they will close the frame and you will get a garden sculpture with almost no investment.

I suggest you watch my video from the botanical garden Tweechol Botanic Garden, who inspired me to this research

Topiary as a species garden design, known since Ancient Rome. In the gardens of wealthy citizens one could see intricately trimmed trees and shrubs. Plants were given strict geometric shapes, patterns were cut out, and even figures of animals or birds were formed. Currently, the art of garden topiary is still at the height of fashion. In parks, public and private gardens, in city squares you can see not only neatly trimmed hedges, but also real works of art - green figures of people, animals, compositions of flowering sculptures.

In addition to the imagination and skill of the gardener, choice plays a huge role in the successful result of creating a topiary suitable plant. It must meet several requirements:

• respond well to a haircut;
• be unpretentious and winter-hardy;
• have the ability to actively form new shoots from dormant buds;
• grow slowly;
• grows well in the shade.

Many trees and shrubs meet these requirements. They can be divided into two groups: deciduous plants and conifers. Conifers grow more slowly, you will have to wait longer for the results of your work, but they are decorative all year round. From conifers to create garden sculptures fit:

• common and prickly spruce;
• thuja occidentalis;
• Cossack and common juniper;
• fir;
• boxwood;
• Siberian larch.

Deciduous plants for topiary:

• Tatarian maple and ginnala;
• apple (wild) and pear;
• small-leaved elm;
• small-leaved linden;
• barberry and Thunberga;
• vesicular carp;
• cotoneaster;
• hawthorn;
• euonymus;
• irga;
• spirea;
• golden currant.

Whatever the gardener's choice, the plant must be healthy. As a rule, the formation of the necessary forms begins no earlier than the tree is five years old. By this time, it will have formed a well-developed root system and will quickly recover after cutting.

Basic rules for creating topiary

There are clipped and frame topiaries. The first ones are simpler; even a beginner can create them. Plants are given simple shapes by shearing:

• pyramidal,
• spherical,
• cuboid.

Frame ones are more complex and allow you to create real green sculptures of animals, people and any objects (cars, houses, furniture). For such forms, a metal frame is made, inside which plants are planted. They fill the space of the frame; all unnecessary branches extending outwards are cut off. Small parts of the frame are filled with a mixture of peat and moss, where seedlings are planted, achieving the desired density and volume. It is not at all necessary to create a sculpture from one type of plant. The forms consisting of foliage of different shades and shapes look very picturesque. Often, additional flowering crops or cereals are planted in a frame topiary.

1. Haircuts are carried out no more than 2 times per summer, removing no more than a third of the crown. The latest pruning is carried out no later than September. This way the plant will be able to regain its strength before wintering and will not get sick.
2. During the season, you need to give the necessary fertilizing to the seedlings.
3. Sometimes, if the crown is too thick, it is necessary to thin out the dense branches, letting light in. If this is not done, you can end up with bare areas - not receiving enough light, the branch will simply shed its foliage.
4. Be patient. Even creating simple geometric shapes takes at least 3 years.

Tools for work

For work, the gardener will need: a lopper, trellis shears, pruning shears, a level, wire and slats for constructing the frame, a template, and garden varnish for covering the cuts. All cutting tools must be sharp.

If you plan to arrange a topiary in the shape of a ball or other complex shape, you cannot do without making a template. Lines of the required shapes are drawn on a piece of cardboard or plywood, and the excess is cut off. For example, if you plan to trim the crown of a tree in the shape of a ball, then an arc of half a circle is drawn on the template, the right size. Interior the circle is removed.

When working with a seedling, the template is applied vertically to the crown, and all shoots extending beyond it are cut off. Here it is important to hold the template evenly relative to the vertical so that the ball is formed on all sides without distortion.

You can make a template for a spherical topiary from wire. An arc bends from it the desired shape and size, and small hooks are bent at the ends. The lower end is attached (not tightly!) to the trunk of the seedling from below, the upper hook of the template clings to the central vertical branch (if there is one). Carefully guiding the template in a circle around the plant, cut off the excess shoots.

For more complex shapes, the wire frame is bent directly around the seedling. Sometimes a metal or plastic flexible mesh is used, securing it over the main frame. If you paint it in advance in the color of the tree’s crown, it will become completely invisible.

The grid greatly facilitates the work when creating a green sculpture.

Step-by-step instructions for creating a pyramid-shaped topiary

1. Select a healthy, well-developed plant with a dense crown (thuja, larch, barberry, yew), at least 5 years old.
2. An even triangle is drawn on the ground around the seedling - this is the future base of the pyramid.
3. Even long blocks are installed at the vertices of the triangle. Their ends are tied together at the top of the “pyramid”. The frame of the future topiary is ready.
4. First, with a lopper, then with scissors and pruning shears, they begin to cut off the branches protruding beyond the frame. Form straight corners and the top, then level the planes. To make it easier to align the sides of the pyramid, periodically apply a wide, even strip to the end bars.
5. When finished, remove the template.

During the season, the sculpture is regularly trimmed, giving the edges clarity. All the beauty of geometric shapes in plants is in their smooth and straight lines. The slightest carelessness and crookedness is noticeable and ugly.

Most people tend to do everything quickly, which is reflected in this painstaking gardening art. If previously this work required decades, today it is possible to form a fancy tree crown in just a few months. Who managed to make the hard work of gardeners so simple? The most hasty nation in the world is the Americans, who, during a break between lightning-fast swallowing of another portion of fast food, figured out what to do to quickly and easily get fast topiary.
That is why today it is very easy to grow intricate green figures - you don’t have to wait several years for the tree to grow, then trim its crown for a long time in order to get a certain configuration of the plant. You just buy a wire frame, fill it with soil mixture, and plant it in it. ground cover plants- And topiary built.

How to make topiary with your own hands

A fun activity that can brighten up the monotony of everyday life bright colors, appeared thanks to people's desire for diversity in life. Gardeners often transform their personal plots original plant figures. This could be ducks or a peacock, an elephant or a lion, or perhaps the presence of a flower car in the garden.

Topiary in the shape of a car.

Topiary landscaping is an ancient art that has been redone in a modern way. You can create topiary yourself in just one day. However, with large-scale ideas that can amaze the neighbors from the surrounding mansions with the scope and breadth, naturally, more time will be needed.

At first, don’t dream about too big compositions, but try yourself by creating a small one. garden figurine in frame technology. Only after you succeed, you can perform more complex compositions.

Arranging a topiary using a ready-made frame

Independent topiary construction, which uses a ready-made metal frame, can be done by all gardeners who have the proper patience and perseverance. First, choose a frame for the intended flower figure. Moreover, the figure should, with its size and shape, harmoniously complement the landscape of the land plot. Small is preferred, but expressive form, on which you can create an emphasis that will not fail to attract the attention of others.

For the production of ready-made frames, which offer specialized products for sale garden shops, a wire having a diameter of 2-3 mm is used. Such frames are lattice structures that are made with certain gaps for penetration inside them. In addition, there must be a lid on top of the frame, thanks to which it is even easier to get to the “insides” of metal structures in order to fill them with a substrate, which is a mixture of soil and peat, or sphagnum moss.

Frame for topiary in the shape of a turtle.

Before starting to fill the frame, it is necessary to prepare the moss, which is soaked in warm water about half an hour. When you fill the frame with substrate, try not to forget about the prudent creation of holes for the subsequent planting of ground cover or climbing, succulent or herbaceous garden crops. It is advisable to plant juveniles, saxifrage, sedum, loosestrife, ivy or grapes in these holes.

If you are forming a topiary using climbing plants, you need to move the earthen ball from plastic containers into metal forms, and distribution of shoots along the frame.

Moreover, the shoots must be grabbed using U-shaped clips. If you decide to create a figure that has a medium or big size, in order to lighten its weight, place bags filled with pieces of crushed polystyrene foam into the substrate.

Frame topiary requires constant care: regular watering of plants and fertilizing the soil, as well as pinching and pruning. Remember that such a green sculpture should not be left for the winter. outdoors. It is better to bring it into a room that is not heated and in which the air temperature is about 5 degrees. If the topiary is large or heavy, leave it on the site, just cover it wooden box, which is insulated with straw or polystyrene foam.

Making express topiary

Express topiary saw the light of day thanks to people’s desire to speed up the process of creating green figures with complex shape. This method for forming green sculptures is quite simple. Spring in open ground climbing plants are planted that quickly form shoots: periwinkle, girl's grapes, ivy or hops.

How to make topiary with your own hands.

After this, a metal mesh frame is installed on top of the planting - the basis for the future topiary. The plants grow and their branches begin to spread throughout the frame. They must be secured using a rope made of natural materials, or trim. By the end of the season, the frame has time to overgrow and completely cover the metal rods under its green cover. The main thing is to always remember about timely watering and feeding of topiary plants.

Building a classic topiary

The ancient Roman gardener could not even imagine that modern society It will be possible to transform art related to park classics in this way. When the ancient Romans issued free time, they created living sculptures, without trying at all to speed up the process. On the contrary, they preferred a leisurely search ideal forms and sizes.

Making topiary of a classic shape.

If you are an adherent of the classical approach, then perform topiary the way it was liked by the ancient Romans, and later by the gardeners who lived and worked in the 18th and 19th centuries. You don't have to be a wizard to do this. It is enough that you are patient, that you have imagination and a sharply honed instrument:

1. Garden or trellis shears;
2. Lopper;
3. Secateurs;
4. Wooden slats.

Some tips that will be useful to you when equipping a classic topiary:

First, the skill and hand are “trained” by making simple geometric shapes. It is possible to complicate simple but three-dimensional figures, for which it is transformed into another, for example, a cube is turned into a ball, and a cylinder becomes a pyramid or a cone.

Making topiary with a simple geometric shape

First you need to understand what kind of figure you want to get when performing your first exercise. You need to find a specimen of a tree or bush that is at least five years old. older than years, as well as a well-developed root system and crown. Its dimensions should be larger than the intended dimensions of the figure. Ideally, topiary can be made from the following plants:

1. Spruce or prickly spruce;
2. Cotoneaster;
3. Bladderwort purpurea;
4. Hawthorn pinnately incised;
5. Tatarian maple.

The best time for a topiary haircut is March-April or June-August. You should not cut plants in autumn days, as this will weaken them before they head off for the winter.

Topiary of a simple frame shape.

Must be followed step by step instructions to make a cube-shaped topiary:

A square having the desired length of the side of the cube is drawn on the ground, directly under the crown.

In the corners of the square it is necessary to install wooden slats or bamboo sticks with a diameter of 2-3 cm. They are fastened together using horizontal cross bars. The result is a frame - a landmark.

Using trellis shears, make a rough cut to roughly outline the outline of the intended figure. First, cut the top edges, then process the side edges.

After checking the sides of the cube for evenness, it is necessary to correct the planes and proceed to finishing cutting, during which the volume is gradually trimmed.

Grab your pruning shears for the finishing touch. At the same time, small branches that stand out from the overall composition are removed.

From time to time, evaluate the correctness of the forms from the outside. To do this, you need to move 3-4 meters away from the sculpture.

Making topiary of complex shape

By truncating the faces of a cube, you can get a topiary, which is a ball. Ball-shaped topiary is best obtained from the following plants:

1. Purple willow;
2. Barberry Thunberg;
3. Bladderwort;
4. Thuja occidentalis;
5. Spiraea sulfur;
6. Common spruce;
7. Tisa;
8. Boxwood and others.

To obtain a cylindrical topiary, thuja occidentalis is suitable, the natural variety of which is the column shape. For beautiful cylinders the following are also suitable:

1. European larch;
2. Irga roundifolia;
3. Small-leaved linden.

Column-shaped topiary is trimmed, just like cubic topiary. A circle is drawn on the ground under the tree crown, guide stakes made of wood are installed, and a cylinder is cut out. Topiaries are beautiful, trimmed like a cone or truncated cone.

To build a frame for a cone-shaped topiary, you need to dig in three or more poles and fasten them in the center - this is the place where the top of the cone, similar to an Indian wigwam, is supposed to be located. Beginning topiaries are supported by nature itself, which created the plant - thuja occidentalis, which has a cone-shaped crown.

Topiary of complex frame shape.

To train your hand, you can try yourself by performing pyramidal topiaries with three and four sides. So your garden will be decorated with a mini-complex representing the Egyptian pyramids, which will make land plot completely unique. Gradually, you can become a perfect master, and gradually begin to create such complex green sculptures, which are made in the form of a spiral, tiered geometric volumes with various combinations, and a little later create figures of animals and people.

Making a classic topiary with a frame

A haircut classic topiary greatly simplified thanks to the removable metal frame, placed on top of the crown of a tree or bush. Using something like this auxiliary element makes it easier to make topiary yourself and is most useful for beginner topiaries.

The planted plant grows without removing the mesh garment, thus adapting to the necessary shapes, and the gardener only frees it from unruly branches that make their way in the wrong direction.

After the crown is finally formed, the frame is removed. True, many gardeners do not like this method of equipping a topiary, because the plants can grow together with the frame to such an extent that later, when it is removed, the crown can be damaged.

If you seriously decide to take up topiary art and create several figures with your own hands, then you need to carefully approach the choice of plants for cutting. This choice determines whether you will get real topiary figures or not.

For an ideal topiary, the plant must have the following properties

1. High winter hardiness
2. Certain unpretentiousness to growing conditions
3. Ability to produce replacement shoots throughout life
4. Slow growth
5. Suitable crown shape

But, unfortunately, there are very few crops that have all the properties at once. Or more precisely, for each geographical zone it will have its own quantity and types. For example, in southern latitudes, winter hardiness is not as important as in temperate climates. Accordingly, the number of suitable crops for topiary in the south is greater.

Winter hardiness is the main criterion

So, you opened the plant catalog to take a closer look at the requirements of some “persons” flora. If you haven't had the chance to live in South America, or at least in Sochi, or in the Crimea, then the first thing you should find out is: how the topiary “candidate” endures winter and what minimum temperature it can survive.

In addition, you need to know what the average minimum temperature in your city, town. You can check the weather archive. Search the Internet, there are several sites with weather archives. Choose yours locality and compare data for several winters, and then calculate the average temperature.

Or you can look on Wikipedia and find a description of your city. Nowadays, almost every description of any city in the text necessarily contains a “Climate” section, where the average minimum temperature of the area is indicated.

If it turns out that the temperature values ​​of your area differ significantly from the temperature regime of the plant itself, then it is better to immediately discard its candidacy and not waste time on further acquaintance with it. Otherwise, by selecting this type for topiary, you may simply lose it in the first winter.

But if you really like a certain look and you don’t want to give it up, then try to find people living at approximately the same latitude as you who are interested in topiary figures (the Internet and forums will help you). What if they already have experience growing your favorite plant?

Or another option is to create the topiary in a tub, so that during particularly cold months you can move it to an unheated room.

So if temperature regime If the plant allows you to grow it in your area, you should pay attention to other requirements, such as: lighting, moisture, soil type, fertilizing, as well as methods of shelter for the winter.

Plant shape

After you have chosen a crop suitable for your area, you should decide on the shape that can be given to it with a haircut. You need to focus on the very shape of the plant: its height, the shape of the crown, the size and shape of the leaves, the growth characteristics of the shoots, the presence of a leading shoot, the possibility of creating a trunk, etc. For example, if a plant has a pronounced cylindrical or cone shape, then it would be unwise to make a ball out of it.

For figures with clear edges, as well as for figures with the presence of small elements, species with a dense structure and small leaves, the growth rate of which is either slow or medium, are suitable. Such species will “keep their shape” well, and thanks to their restrained growth, this shape will be maintained longer, which will avoid frequent haircuts.

For round figures, as well as for various large figures, there are no such strict requirements, so almost any type that tolerates a haircut is suitable for them.

To make it easier for you to decide on your future topiary figure, we have compiled a table in which we indicate which crops are suitable for a particular form.

Plants for topiary figures table