Topiary is the art of decorative cutting trees and shrubs. For millennia, green sculptures were adorned with exceptionally rich estates and palace parks. Today this trend of landscape design is developing rapidly, gaining universal sympathy and great interest. Green sculptures - topiari these days can be found in the metropolitan parks, and in the streets of provincial towns, and in the homestead plots of wealthy Russians, and even in the notorious 6 summer cottages.
History of topiari
History of topiari is incredibly interesting. According to one of the versions, the ancestor of this art was the gardener Julius Caesar named Calvin, who managed to sculpt a bust of his master from the green bush. However, the elements and techniques of the topiary were used much earlier: in ancient Egypt, gardens were spread with rows of trees and shrubs, having clear geometric shapes, with decorative borders. Elements of the topiary art were widely represented in the hanging gardens of the Semiramis in ancient Babylon.
But the real boom in this area was observed in the XVII-XVIII centuries in England, France and Italy: it was then that amazing masterpieces of the were created, such as the Villa Lante Park and the gardens of the Villa Garzoni( Italy), the Garden of Luxembourg and Versailles( France), Kensington Garden and Hampton Court( England), etc. His appearance in Russia this kind of landscape design is due to Peter I, who sent gardeners to Europe to learn from the experience of the famous masters topiary .
Types of topiari
Today, the art of green sculpture is diverse in style and technique. Modern topiary can be divided into 2 types:
1. Traditional topiari
Already a ready-made plant - a bush or a tree - is cut, giving it the desired shape. If the required shape is simple enough( ball, cone), the pruning is done by eye with ordinary garden scissors. To obtain an object of complex shape above the original tree or bush, carefully insert a metal frame of the required shape. And when the plant grows and goes beyond the frame, it is trimmed along the contours of the frame, thereby obtaining the desired object.
2. New or American portable topiari
This species differs from the previous one in that the plant is initially grown in a special frame. According to the shape of the future sculpture, a figured frame is made, it is wrapped with a fishing line and filled with a special soil, optimal for this type of plant. Then they put inside the framework the necessary culture, which grows, filling the frame and acquiring the desired shape. The advantage of this method is the mobility of the sculpture, the ability to move it from place to place.
Plants for topiary
In addition to the technology of creating topiari, you need to determine the type of plant. In the central strip of Russia, the choice is better to make in favor of either an annual or a frost-resistant species. To create complex shapes, it is ideal for boxwood, for simple ones - yew. You can also use laurel, hawthorn, spruce, willow, which are also used when planting a "green" fence - a hedge. Masters manage to create multi-colored topiari, thanks to the use of different types of plants and flowers.
Success in this field largely depends on the choice of the instrument and its ownership. Conventional garden shears, pruners, special scissors for topiary and even electric trimmers: choose what your hands are used to, what you own better.
The art of topiari is extraordinarily fascinating and diverse. Try to learn the basics, growing simple forms, and then you can aim at something more complicated. By the way, it is quite realistic to grow a topiari figure at home, in a flowerpot, and, thus, to turn not only your garden, but a window sill or balcony into a unique museum of fine arts.
