Javascript required
Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

French Gardening: Your Topiary Masterpiece Awaits

Peradventure you've been lucky adequate to visit Palace of Versailles and experience its magnificent gardens. If not, I suggest you bring up a virtual tour of the Topiary Gardens of Versailles and treat yourself. Thusly, what incisively is a Topiary garden and how can you have unrivaled?

Hopefully, I can help you understand its history and down you off on your ain travel to add one of these magical mazes to your very own backyard.

Photo courtesy of Molly Wilk at www.mollyjwilk.com

What Is a Topiary?

Merriam-Webster defines a topiary American Samoa, "the practice or art of training, cutting, and trim trees and shrubs into odd operating theater ornamental shapes."

A person World Health Organization performs the horticultural exercise of training perennial plants by clipping the foliation and twigs of trees, shrubs and planters to create a definite shape is called a topiarist.

Traditional topiary forms use foliage pruned and/or carven into nonrepresentational shapes, so much as balls, cubes, obelisks, cones and dwindling spirals. You mightiness even picture amusing shapes of animals or the great unwashe.

Photo good manners of Mollie Wilk at www.mollyjwilk.com

Where Did the Art of Topiary First Appear?

Information technology is believed that the practice of Topiary originated in Europe during the Roman Empire around 44 Before Christ and spread from on that point around the globe. The Romans demanded order and structure in their society, and in their gardening as well.

The first tree to equal carved was the olive tree. Shaping the olive trees provided a straight and well-maintained surroundings which the Romans insisted upon.

From Italy to France

It's no storm that the Sun King, Louis XIV (1643-1715) brought the best topiary to France in the mid-1600s. He was first exposed to "hedged art" piece along a visit to the Vatican when he fell in love with clipping of the gardens. When Louis Fourteen returned to France and Versailles, He brought the melodic theme there.

Upon closing of Versailles, Louis immediately began turning the gardens into both formal and fun spaces direct Topiary horticulture. Even today, you can control Louis XIV's compulsion with the topiary stylus of gardening. Many of the plant-based sculptures in current private gardens in France are inspired aside visits to Versailles.

Photo courtesy of Molly Wilk at www.mollyjwilk.com

What Are the Best Plants Used to form a Topiary?

I think about topiarist would agree that the Boxwood (Suffruiticosa and Morris Dwarf) is the virtually pop as a leave of its small leaves and stupid foliage, as are umpteen other woody, slow foliage plants, such Eastern Samoa Yews (Taxus x media "Hicks") Bay Laurels (Laurus nobilis) Holly and Privet Sideste (Ligustrum valgare.)

And let's not forget the pretty-pretty flavourer plants, including lavender and rosemary, that can be grown into splendid topiaries.

Home Grown

How does the menage gardener start to make his or her quintessential French topiary garden, whether small or large? The pursuit suggestions should help make the process easier and hopefully, more enjoyable:

Prefer Evergreen Plants

Start by planting some type of half-evergreen (in the ground) or herbaceous plant (in a tidy sum). If you choose a hedge, think the fudge will furnish a backdrop for geometric shapes and privacy.

Pots

Use pots to assistanc define space; large pots are the incarnation of French garden style and may help to form an alleyway that leads the visitor to the topiary garden.

Same Plants

Use the same type of plants throughout the garden. Standard planting using the same, mirrored version of other plantings is suggested.

Think More or less Color

Usance color with your evergreens – merely use it sparingly. Cherry-red seems to be the most striking and will draw the most tending. The contrast with the red color and the deep super color of the evergreens will add a bit of whimsy to the garden. Look at adding a bolshy birdhouse or perhaps red pots to bring fun to the garden.

Free of-Flowing Plants

To relent the lineal lines and strong shapes of the topiary garden, you can plant rid-flowing ornamental plants like chromatic. Lavender placed at the bottom of the half-evergreen testament not only provide movement, but a delightful scent as well.

I leave you with one final tip. Remember, growing a long-standing topiary requires solitaire and a steady hand. Yes, it is true, modern Clarence Shepard Day Jr. topiaries can beryllium grown over cable cages, but what about you? Do you favor the classic method of grooming your topiary one leaf at a time as the Romans did? I do. And why risk with a sure thing?

Piece your topiary garden may not look exactly comparable those of Versailles, IT will certainly add color and excitement to your home. Happy planting!

What does your garden look like? Have you tried to create order with love and care? Have you visited Versailles and strolled the awesome topiary gardens? If you don't have a garden, do you use pots to create a natural feel to your space?

https://sixtyandme.com/topiary-gardens/

Source: https://sixtyandme.com/topiary-gardens/