Topiary gardening, the art of fashioning living plan into ornamental shapes, has been practiced for centuries. Found throughout the gardens of the Walt Disney World Resort are hundreds of topiary figures, ranging from traditional hedges and sheared
Topiary gardening, the art of fashioning living plan into ornamental shapes, has been practiced for centuries. Found throughout the gardens of the Walt Disney World Resort are hundreds of topiary figures, ranging from traditional hedges and sheared trees to fanciful shapes and a whole menagerie of "chlorophyll" Disney characters.
Types of Topiary
Four different types of topiary at the Walt Disney World resort have developed out of our desire to put on an award-winning horticultural show. Free-form topiary and standard form topiary require your imagination and some sharp shears - the other two utilize a frame specially suited to their needs. A lightweight frame is used for shrub topiary, while sphagnum topiary require a much stronger frame specially designed to support the weight of the figure.
Standard Form Topiary
The world standard is used to describe a plant that is grown to a designated height and then encouraged to bush or form a "head" at the top – many think this resembles a small tree.
Free-form topiary is the oldest form of topiary and his practice for centuries. Look around your neighborhood and you can probably spot free-form topiary in many yards. Shrubs and trees, with some imaginative shearing, can change into balls, squares or rectangles, or other geometric forms. Before starting, check your yard to see where a topiary will add to the landscape and be able to grow for a long time – then, you