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
Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue
With Chris Poole of the European Boxwood and Topiary Society we visited Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue in Rutland. Do you know it? Amazing place! Chris and I were teaching a topiary workshop in order to give local people the skills and technique, and tenacity! to help with the pruning of the avenue and elevate it to something even more special than it already is. Read more about the workshops here. We hope to run a further workshop in September 2026, as well as teach an advanced course too. Check the teaching page through the year as it will be updated …
Aesthetic Pruners Association – New Talk In December
An organisation I love and have been learning lots from in the last two years is the Aesthetic Pruners Association based in the USA. Sharing knowledge with them about clipping and the overlap – and differences! – in style is something worth exploring, so I recommend a visit to their website and to join onto their events and talks, which are all on Zoom meaning you can access them from anywhere in the world. No excuse not to learn! The next event will be led by Jocelyn Cohen and be about ancient trees in the British Landscape. This is such …
The Amelia Project – Episode 88: Didius Julianus
Friends of mine write a sitcom podcast called The Amelia Project (I wrote about this years ago, when they started it….!) December 2024 I had some fun playing the tiny part of Fornio in episode 88 – Didius Julianus. I have not listened to the episode yet, as I am clearly not an actor… and the thought of listening to my dulcet tones for the few minutes I’m in it just… makes me feel ill. But the recording and being in the studio was great fun, the real actors were hilarious and the script is brilliant – not just funny, …