As plans are underway to revive a topiary garden at Sandringham, we revisit some of the finest examples in Britain
This summer, Sandringham – under the precise eye of King Charles III – will reveal a new climate friendly Topiary Garden. Admirers of the joyful symmetry of Georgian architecture will also take pleasure in the ornamental arrangement of a well-balanced topiary garden. All the more impressive, because, unlike bricks and mortar, the unruly greenery requires time, painstaking care and continual clipping for the most spherical of orbs and princely of chess pieces. The taming of the yew, if you like.
Topiary has been around for hundreds of years, an ancient art form, with oscillating sculptural hedges cropping up since Roman times. They usually fall into one of two categories: architectural, with arched walkways and box-bordered paths; and whimsical, like artful teapots, peacocks and chess pieces. Here are a handful of Britain's finest – and one irresistible French example from the Dordogne.
Roger Coulam / Alamy Stock Photo1/5Levens Hall gardens, Kendal, Lake District
Levens Hall is the world’s oldest topiary garden. Once upon a time it was just a stark fortified tower; by the 1690s, behind a high stone wall, an effervescent garden had evolved that is now a bed – and home – to 30,000 ever-changing plants. The 10 acres of garden that sit before the Elizabethan house retain many of those original features today, including surreal and unique box and yew trees sculpted into abstract or geometric shapes. The bountiful, bulbous topiary, a judge’s wig to a jug of Morocco ale, just three of the 100 pieces of garden sculpture, arise from decorative and eclectic underplanting.
Despite being the oldest, Levens Hall is far from stuck in yesteryear: keep abreast of horticultural goings-on in this Lake District garden by following Chris Crowder, the Head Gardener of Levens, on Instagram via the moniker @levensgardener.
levenshall.co.uk
Carole Drake2/5Balmoral Cottage in Benenden, Kent
Charlotte Molesworth’s magnificent topiary garden is formed almost entirely of recycled, rescued or home-grown plants. Just over 30 years ago, there was no greenery to be seen and the space was practically derelict. With yew seedlings Charlotte and her husband, Donald, received as a wedding present they have built an impressionable, green space with whimsical peacocks and wave-like hedge clippings. It’s a varied, romantic and witty garden, for a gardening enthusiast to bask and take pleasure in – the garden will be open for the National Garden Scheme on April 16 and May 7 and 21 this year.
Bob Jenkin / Alamy Stock Photo3/5Gardens at Cliveden, Maidenhead, Buckinghamshire
Cliveden, the Italianate mansion not far from Windsor, that was home to Viscountess Astor and where the notorious Profumo affair took place, is also a destination for some decadent topiary. A combination of the abstract alongside the prim and manicured: find peacocks with a headpiece of sculptural hedge, and feathers formed by meticulous pruning. Beside the peacocks is a kind of topiary gateau formed of glorious sage-green yew. The garden was designed to house part of William Waldorf Astor’s sculpture collection that includes 18th century stone characters from the Commedia dell’Arte: a tasteful, spectacular meeting of living and material art.
nationaltrust.org.uk
John Keates / Alamy Stock Photo4/5Biddulph Grange Gardens, Staffordshire
This elegant Victorian garden fits into the ‘architectural’ topiary bracket with neat yew hedges emerging like buttresses from a risen garden, adding a dose of satisfying formality to the dahlia walk. The topiary is designed so as to conceal, then reveal, different realms of the garden as you wander through. Experience a Chinese landscape, a Himalayan glen, an Egyptian court and an Italianate garden all in one ramble through a plot of Staffordshire land. A side note of interest, these gardens were designed by a Darwin contemporary, James Bateman, who maintained the same beliefs as the great naturalist and evolutionary theorist.
nationaltrust.org.uk
Dominique REPERANT/Getty Images5/5Jardins de Marqueyssac, Perigord, Dordogne
The Château de Marqueyssac is a 17th century castle in the Dordogne, with fantastically zany, frivolous topiary. Known as les jardins suspendus de Marqueyssac or ‘the overhanging gardens of Marqueyssac’ for its position doused in south-westerly sunshine. The oscillating valley of the Dordogne is lined with Boxwood trees that have been trimmed into bulbous green spherical shapes, delightfully plump and grouped together like flocks of sheep between gravel walk ways. The gardens, fist opened to the public in 1966, are now classified amongst the Notable Gardens of France.
marqueyssac.com
