The book of topiary

by Charles H. Curtis; W. Gibson

It is evident to anyone who has seen an old Dutch or Topiary garden, that, in the formation and laying out of the grounds, boxwood has always been considered one of the principal features, and in most of them it remains so to this day.

Where box succeeds well and remains in perfect health, no care or attention should be spared to keep it so, for there is no edging that can be used in the garden to be compared with it for beauty. It has, however, some drawbacks, the principal one of which is the excellent accommodation it affords to snails and other garden pests; but its advantages more than counterbalance its defects. Like the hollies, every other year is sufficient for clipping it, and there is no more suitable month for the work than June. There should be no clipping done to boxwood until all danger of frost is gone, as it is extremely dangerous to clip before that period has passed. There is nothing more injurious to newly clipped boxwood than sharp frosts. I have seen boxwood that was over a hundred years old clipped in April, with the result that a few sharp frosty nights killed the whole of it.

LEVENS GARDENS
GENERAL VIEW

Excepting during the clipping season, there is very little work to be done to the trees in a Topiary garden, unless it is top-dressing them with some sort of manure, or keeping a look-out for branches that have become loose through wind or some other cause. If this occurs, the branches should be immediately tied back into their places before any injury takes place to the tree.

There is another danger that should be strictly guarded against in winter, and that is, the danger the trees undergo in the event of heavy falls of snow. When the trees are old and large and in every way adapted for carrying a heavy weight of snow, no time should be lost in getting it removed as quickly as possible; the sooner the men get to work the better, even before the snow has ceased if it is at all likely to be a heavy fall. The labour of having to go over the trees two or three times must not be considered if they are to be saved from injury. It is much better to keep constantly knocking the snow off with light switches, than take the risk of having the trees crushed out of shape and broken.

THE MANAGEMENT AND TRAINING OF YOUNG TREES

In my last chapter I dealt almost exclusively with the management of old trees. In this chapter I intend to devote the space principally to the treatment that will have to be followed in the training and shaping of young trees in the Topiary garden. I shall try to give as clear and concise an idea as possible to those who are contemplating laying out a garden, or who may already have done so, in which Topiary work is intended to be the main feature, although the training and shaping of young trees does not belong entirely to a garden in course of formation. Generally in old gardens, trees will be found in the course of being trained. If the garden has been laid out and the trees carefully planted on the lines advised in a previous chapter, a record should be carefully made as to the exact date when each tree was planted and also regarding the shape that each tree in the garden is intended to represent when it is finished. A record of that description, made at the period of the work, will prove of great interest in after years, both to those who own the garden and to others who are either interested in it or may happen to visit it. A record of the date of planting and the shapes that the trees were originally meant to represent, seems to have been a thing quite neglected during the formation of the old Topiary gardens, which seems to me to be a very great pity.

To a great extent the general management of young trees is altogether different from the management required to be given to old trees; inasmuch as the difficulties are more numerous, and the care and attention necessary to be bestowed on them more manifold. Our forefathers with the greatest skill and care laid out and formed the old established Topiary gardens of the present day, and afterwards year by year trained and shaped the fine old specimens of the Topiary art now to be seen in some of the old gardens, so that when a person is walking through one of these gardens, and examining the quaint and curious shapes of the trees, he cannot fail to admire them and to reflect upon the amount of skill and labour that has been bestowed on them. It would be curious, indeed, if he failed to pause, and consider the amount of patience the gardeners of earlier years were endowed with. In many respects the gardener of the present time has the advantage in Topiary work at least over his brother of one or two hundred years ago. Whether the gardeners of the present day are more skilled in that special art, is a question which I am not prepared to answer; but I am certain that there is no mistaking the abilities of the old gardeners in the art of training trees. The work they have left behind them proves this beyond a doubt. The gardener of the present day has more variety of shapes to choose from, and a larger and more varied selection of trees to work upon.

If the trees were a good size and well grown when they were planted, the work of clipping and training them may be commenced the following year, according to the shape into which it is intended to form the tree. It is not advisable that any clipping or training be done to the trees the same autumn or winter that they are planted. It should be deferred until the following autumn, in order to allow of fresh root action taking place. Some of the trees can be clipped into certain shapes when they are quite small; but for other shapes a much larger tree is necessary to commence work upon. It is a very wise policy to go to a little extra expense on the original outlay of the trees, rather than buy small trees that will be of no use whatever for the work for which they are ultimately intended.