THE MODERN MINT BLOG
Came across this post a little while back, about ‘A Revival of English Topiary’.
Great little look at the clipped trees of the Dutch being brought to the UK, with fantastic photos and ideas on what were the most popular figures….
“Pyramids, mop-heads and blunt cones… sitting hens, geese and ducks are common designs, and to protect the verdant poultry one may obtain equally verdant dogs.”
Verdant dogs? I love that! Sounds like a pulp fiction novel, a blood lust of a Western, rather than a 14 year old figurative yew plant placed as a visual joke into an English garden!
Not often you come across a well-written blog, with enough information to be useful too, but I was inspired by this.
Check it out – Planting Diaries: A Revivial Of English Topiary
Or take a look at some recent work of mine… Organic Blobs, 18 Months Apart
Box Hill – Novella by Adam Mars-Jones
I picked this book up back in 2020 because of the title – Box Hill – fabulous, I thought, a book about boxwood. I’ll peruse this for its respective thoughts on the plant I clip most when I make topiary. I didn’t read the blurb on the back. Didn’t know the author (although I knew the publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions, as I love many of the essays they have published… so trusted the author would be worth spending time with.) By page 2 I realised this novel wasn’t quite what I had expected. I started the book at 10pm, after getting …
The Henderson, Topiary Art Interview on Instagram
In a suit… eek! View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Henderson (@thehenderson_hk)
Topiary, The Art Garden at The Henderson
The Art Garden at The Henderson in Hong-Kong has now opened to the public. I joined the project last March, to work with Gillespies Landscape Architects on the topiary that had been designed for the Art Garden, which gives a calm, green space below the extraordinary Henderson skyscraper designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. The garden has been designed with butterflies in mind, so lots of nectar plants, and has other art projects and installations within its footprint. The history of the site is interesting too – it was originally the first cricket ground in Hong-Kong! So still a green space….! …