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
Modern Topiary, the Book, at Garden Media Guild
My book about topiary, Modern Topiary, has been mentioned on the Garden Media Guild newsletter…. As the screenshot says, the book can be read for free online here. At the bottom of the screenshot, it looks like another Garden Media Guild member has a book out called ‘A Year In A Cottage Garden’…. so if that is where your garden heart lies, check that out too! And at the top of the screenshot, it looks like I was listening to Pelleas et Melisande, by Debussy. What a classy chap I am, listening to classical music as I reply to emails. …
Start of the Whitby Topiary Library
I have been offered a space here in the centre of Whitby, south-facing aspect, with some raised beds in, so that I can make a Topiary Library. In my head, a topiary library is a place to showcase the common (and then not so common) shapes you can make out of topiary. With classical topiary plants, as well as some more unusual pieces. This Topiary Library can act as a reference for people to learn more about pruning and clipping. The space is small but the aspect is great and the beds are deep enough to put some plants in. …
Delivery After Dark – From the Makers of The Amelia Project
Last week I spent most nights stood in cold water streams on the moors of North Yorkshire, helping to film a new project called Delivery After Dark from the makers of the Amelia Project. I worked on the Amelia Project back at the end of 2024, lending my terrible vocal talents to a small part in the episode Didius Julianus. But this project is something new – and exciting! – and thankfully only needed me to be filmed, rather than to actually say anything. But not only did I have to stand in cold moving water at midnight, I also …