Sculptured Greenery.(Brief Article)

Art comes to life in topiary, natural creations shaped by a gardener's hand

The art of training or sculpting living plants into ornamental shapes dates back at least to the Roman Empire. The encyclopedist Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79) made note of topiary in the form of "hunting scenes, fleets of ships, and all sorts of shapes" fashioned from shrubbery growing in Roman gardens. Pliny (in rather typical imperial fashion) attributed the practice's invention to fellow countryman Gaius Matius, whose other claim to fame was a kinship through marriage to Julius Caesar. This connection to Caesar is of interest both historically and horticulturally, because the only other evidence of topiary predating the time of Christ appears in obscure ancient Egyptian references: It's plausible that the fashion of creating topiary in the West started with the arrival in Rome of Cleopatra, Caesar's fashionable Egyptian mistress. Whatever the art form's exact origin, topiary eventually took root throughout the Roman world, and, for a time at least, almost faded away with it. With the end of the civilized ag e that gave rise to monumental cities and large country villas, the urbane practice of making topiaries was nipped in the bud.

It wasn't until the confined spaces of Medieval cloister and castle gardens necessitated the growing of various trees and shrubs in tight surroundings that something resembling topiary reappeared in European gardens. Fruit trees were first pruned flat against walls in a form of topiary now known as espalier, and as time progressed, various other trained shapes were devised or rediscovered. From the Middle Ages on, the popularity of topiaried forms was unbridled: Renaissance and Baroque gardens bulged with topiary in every imaginable shape.

According to Barbara Gallup, author of Topiary (Workman; 1986), the first artfully pruned hedges and plants in North America took shape in Williamsburg, Va., during the 1690s. From there, the art form soon spread throughout the Colonies. Though fluctuating tastes eradicated many European topiary gardens late in the 18th and early in the 19th centuries, American topiary continued to be created throughout the period, going on to experience a revival during the Victorian era. A prominent landscape guide of the day, Frank J. Scott's Suburban Home Grounds, devotes an entire chapter to the "artificial adaptations" of trees and shrubs, noting that where "less costly construction" is wanted, topiaries make charming, verdant arches, bowers, and pavilions.

Topiaries--both the large outdoor versions and the smaller indoor varieties--are principally fashioned in ...