THE MODERN MINT BLOG
World Topiary Day 2022
World Topiary Day 2022 is on Thursday, May 12th this year – so just a few weeks away now Easter has passed!
If you are keen on topiary, here are my recommendations for how to celebrate or get involved and learn a little more about pruning, and causing havoc with your shears, this World Topiary Day…
World Topiary Day In The USA
Join myself via Zoom from the Madoo Conservancy, the garden of the late painter Robert Dash, to learn about topiary composition and how to improve your garden with a few of the right cuts.
If you are in the USA – especially near New York! – you can also join me at Madoo after World Topiary Day, and join in two workshops I am running on the Friday and Saturday.
Where else in the USA can you celebrate World Topiary Day 2022?
Try Ladew Topiary Gardens, a 22 acre space with over 100 topiaries, named one of the top 5 gardens in North America. Just north of Baltimore, the historic house was designed and developed by Harvey Ladew, and it has these wonderful ‘Hunt’ topiaries….
How much fun is this photo! Ladew Topiary Garden opened in April, and has a wonderful garden festival on May 7th.
(I love topiary gardens in winter, when everything is calm and the cold and ice accentuates the shapes you have clipped. Here are some topiary hedges I cut in January…
And In The UK?
In the UK you can visit the garden that started World Topiary Day – Levens Hall!
An extraordinary garden that has had only 10 head gardeners – just 10! – tending the topiary since it was laid out in the late 17th Century…. they chose to be mad about topiary on May 12th because that is when the ‘Radish Festival’ use to take place.
See the Levens Hall website for more details about the bizarre goings-on of the Radish Festival (you may already be thinking the privileged, white male ego has something to do with it… and you would be right!) but though World Topiary Day at Levens may not be quite as riotous, I would recommend you visit then and mark this piece of history…
… and marvel at the riotous topiary they have!
Other Gardens To See On World Topiary Day
The European Boxwood & Topiary Society has a fantastic map of every garden opening specifically for the day, so you can easily find somwhere to visit near you.
It also links to gardens in France…
Check out the EBTS World Topiary Day Garden Page for more.
Busy on the day itself? Don’t despair, I recently did a Garden Masterclass chat on Modern Topiary, to give you a little food for thought about how and why you might clip.
The perfect accompaniment to your garden visits, but available as and when you have the time!
And finally…
What About On The Far Side Of The World?
Topiary has got two fantastic enthusiasts in Australia, Lucy and Richard Marshall, who have a garden called Merribee. They are setting up the Australian and New Zealand Buxus and Topiary Society… you can find them on Instagram if you need more information for now.
Very excited about their topiary and hedging festival, which will be on at the same time as these other gardens share their clipped shapes in May!
So there you have it. Lots to see and visit on World Topiary Day, which this year is May 12th 2022.
For more about my work, you can take a look at some photos here.
Or join me from Madoo on May 12th…
Michael Gibson, New York Topiary Art!
In the New York Times earlier this year was a lovely interview with Michael Gibson, who makes topiary and gardens in New York. The article is here but you may not have access… however, search the internet, find it and have a read. It is great! His philosophy of pruning is especially worth it… Sacred geometry in topiary? Yes please! What a phrase! I think (and speak) of balance, of major and minor, of leaf volume… but sacred geometry might well make it into my topiary teaching lexicon! And the idea of directional trimming? I realise I do this, but …
Topiary Library
I do a lot of teaching topiary. I had the opportunity from my mentor, Charlotte Molesworth, to work on her garden and experiment and test techniques and generally try making shapes without the worry of failure, or being fired, or being sued and run out of business for getting it wrong. This opportunity was essential (along with Charlotte’s insistance that pruning standards had to be high!) in becoming better at topiary. When I look around the world at our cultural vitamins, what we see in the media day in and day out, I see the stupidest and grossest of people …
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 …