THE MODERN MINT BLOG
If you are a garden designer in need of some topiary for a project, please do get in touch here at Modern Mint.
Darren has been pruning trees and hedges for 18 years. Charlotte has been a topiary artist (and is the best you will find) for well over 3 decades. 
We are happy to help you design a topiary, provide ideas or feedback for an existing piece, maintain a sculpture to the highest standard or advise on the health and management of the plants.
We work all over the UK and into Europe.
Often we are asked to prune and sculpt in boxwood or yew, but are equally at home working with deciduous plants. Also don’t forget that heavy set evergreen shrubs, like camellias for example, can be made a feature of the garden through judicious cutting in the just the right places.
Giving these shrubs air, light and a feeling of transparency is all part of the topiary arts.
You can see a recent interview we gave to the Guardian, with photos, here – Cutting Hedge Technology.
Or please do contact us now to talk through your project.
Many thanks!
Darren and Charlotte
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….! …
ClipFest 2025
On Sunday June 22nd there will be Clipfest 2025 at Ichi-Coo Park in Surrey. It is a celebration of all things pruning and topiary, and I will be there in my capacity of teacher at the European Boxwood and Topiary Society to demonstrate tool cleaning and sharpening, and how to clip. Tickets can be found here on Eventbrite. We are hoping for great weather and to see lots of keen pruners getting their shears out and joining us at this amazing garden! And for more on topiary…
Secateur Holders
A present arrived from Norway today, from a student who visited last February to work with Chris Poole and I on learning topiary. His new hobby – a beautiful and neatly stitched secateur holder. Thrilled with this! The holder will save me keep losing my secatuers too…! Thank you Bernt! It was the same student who introduced me to the APA with whom I am doing a talk at the end of March. Tickets can be bought here for ‘Defining The Essence – Aesthetic Pruning in the Garden’. Do join the European Boxwood and Topiary Society for that!