THE MODERN MINT BLOG
UPDATE: I STILL TEACH TOPIARY COMPOSITION, BUT AM GOING TO MAKE A VIDEO OF THE CLASS TO ALLOW MORE PEOPLE TO VIEW IT – FOR MORE INFORMATION CHECK OUT THE TEACHING PAGE!
Topiary Composition and design is a major part of my work – which is why I have created an online seminar for keen gardeners and creatives to learn how to compose a piece of topiary.
There are several dates available so please head here to buy a ticket.
The seminar lasts two hours (including q and a) and will explore the process needed to look at a shrub or hedge and work out what you can design from it.
These principles have been learnt the hard way – through mentoring, experimenting and years of practise.
Hopefully, it will help you shortcut any mistake and get you to a wonderful piece of topiary in no time – and not be too back-breaking to maintain!
Do join me for my topiary composition seminar.
I have been a topiary artist for a long time – you can see my work here in the Artisan Series in the Guardian newspaper or some of my basic work on the website here.
I also teach topiary and pruning at many places including the European Boxwood and Topiary Society and The English Gardening School.
Most topiary I am asked to make is either quite dull, or based on historical shapes that are fiddly and difficult to maintain. I want, through this topiary seminar, to give you the skills to update your hedges and shrubs to a modern way of gardening – easy to maintain, light, full of life and possibly even a ggod home for birds, or a provider of nectar filled flowers for bees.
This means choosing the right plants, giving them time to grow and evolve, and placing the right plants around it to show it off.
Often with topiary less can be more, so you will (if you join the seminar) be given real world examples and the htought process of how I made it – and why.
I want you to go away inspired, with a better understanding of what makes a good topiary and how it fits into a modern garden.
Join me if you are a gardener or a creative person on one of the days here, online, for a topiary composition seminar!
Or check out my topiary work here.
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, …