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…
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 …