A cut above – our topiary top 10
These neat little evergreens won’t object to a short back and sides. Val Bourne picks her favourites
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The ancient art of clipping evergreens into tight topiary shapes is said to have been invented by a friend of Roman Emperor Augustus in the 1st century BC. It’s been around for 2000 years and it’s still a garden essential today, especially in winter. Solid blocks of leafy colour, whether green, gold or variegated, carry the eye through the garden and make a real impact on its design. Slow-growing plants are ideal and green-leaved Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’ is the most commonly grown, but there are plenty of other candidates to trim and tweak – just have a look at our top 10 here.
Small-leaved evergreens can be clipped into more intricate shapes, including spirals, cones and balls, while larger-leaved plants are better for simpler shapes such as cubes, mop heads, mushrooms or pyramids.
The Japaneses are masters of cloud pruning – a technique called Niwaki that’s become very popular here.
Feed your topiary plant with a potash-rich feed, such as Vitax Q4, in May to keep the foliage looking good. A light tidy in late autumn neatens up the foliage, but if you want spring flower or colourful new growth leave well alone. If your topiary is in containers, water and feed between May and August. Invest in a good pair of hand shears too: my personal favourites are made by Jakoti.
Buxus sempervirens ‘Elegantissima’
This slow-growing variegated box has small green leaves edged in cream. It’s more drought tolerant than green-leaved box so it can be used in sunnier places and poorer soil, a trait shared by many variegated plants. It doesn’t seem to suffer much from box blight either.
The paler foliage looks extremely good with sultry summer foliage such as hylotelephium ‘José Aubergine’, strappy-leaved Ophiopogon planiscapus ‘Nigrescens’ and purple sage, Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’. Shape in June and trim in late autumn. ✿ Unpruned, H1.2m (4ft) S23-28 (9-15in)
Ilex aquifolium ‘Alaska’
This smaller-leaved evergreen holly is very hardy and slow-growing so it’s one of the best for topiary. Its prickly dark-green foliage is very glossy.
‘Alaska’ hedges can be cloud pruned into individual mounds to catch the frost, or made into wedding cakes. This involves removing bands of growth at the trunk to create a series of distinct, separate tiers.
Autumn is the best time to cut, although you’ll lose some berries. All hollies prefer well-drained soil and these prickly-leaved ones are best sited away from borders because they shed their brutal foliage all year round. ✿ Unpruned, H4-8m (13-26ft) S2.5-4m (8-13ft) Viburnum tinus ‘Eve Price’
This named evergreen viburnum produces tighter growth than the others, so it’s the best one to topiarise. Trim it in September so it has enough time to produce clusters of pink buds and white flowers in spring.
✿ Unpruned H and S3m (10ft)
Ilex altaclerensis ‘Golden King’
Highclere holly has larger, rounder leaves that are kinder on the hands, so it can be used in borders. Jaunty ‘Golden King’, a berrying female despite the name, has vivid yellowedged green foliage that brightens up any winter’s day. It’s perfect for trimming into lollipops, umbrellas and mop head standards.
It’s easy to turn a mature
‘Golden King’ holly bush into topiary: just cut away the lower branches.
Good drainage.
Unpruned,
H4-8m (13-26ft)
S2.5-4m (8-13ft)
Prunus lusitanica ‘Myrtifolia’
It’s the combination of narrow, slightly wavy dark green leaves held on red stems that make this evergreen so attractive in winter light. It’s tough, easy and slow growing, so it’s far simpler to get and keep several mop heads or pyramid specimens the same size. It prefers a little shade, but isn’t fussy about soil. Cut in mid-May or July so new growth comes through in plenty of time for winter.
✿ Unpruned, H and S8m (26ft)
Taxus baccata
English yew is an extremely slow-growing evergreen that’s generally cut only once a year, in August or September. Although it makes the perfect hedge it can also be cut into pyramids, cones and balls, or far more intricate shapes. The willowy Irish yew, ‘Fastigiata’, is perfect for slender shapes and there are golden forms of English and Irish yew, named ‘Aurea’. Yew is the only conifer able to regenerate from brown wood if it’s cut back hard. It needs well-drained soil ideally, although you can mound-plant on clay to improve drainage.
✿ Unpruned, H12m+ (39ft) S8m+ (26ft)
Cupressocyparis leylandii ‘Castlewellan Gold’
This is a fast-growing golden conifer, that can reach 25m (82ft), so needs two or three trims per year. The golden foliage is very feathery and fine, so it’s often clipped into tight spirals, or shaped into a series of balls or pom poms. This greedy plant needs plenty of water and a monthly potash-rich feed in the growing season.
✿ Unpruned, H12m+ (39ft) S2.5-4m (8-13ft)
Dark green leaves on red stems make this evergreen attractive in winter light
Santolina chamaecyparissus
Silvery plants can look stunning in winter light and this cotton lavender forms grey-green roundels of feathery growth if clipped in late-summer. It’s often mass-planted in a grid system, like a series of mini coral reefs, but it also makes an eye-catcher at the end of a summer border. Clipped regularly, it should give you ten years. Sun and good drainage.
✿ H and S90cm (3ft)
Hebe pinguifolia ‘Sutherlandii’
This glaucous hebe from New Zealand is easy to grow and far hardier than most. The small rounded leaves are thickly textured and show up well in winter light because each grey-green leaf is highlighted by a fine golden edge. ‘Sutherlandii’ is often grown in coastal gardens, but it’s also pollutiontolerant. White summer flowers can be left, or it can be trimmed into soft mounds. Ordinary soil, good drainage and some shelter from strong winds.
✿ H and S90cm (3ft)
Photinia fraseri ‘Red Robin’
The new spring growth on this widely available glossy evergreen is a vivid red so it’s suited to more informal shapes, especially rounded mop heads and flat-bottomed mushrooms. Clip twice, in late spring and then again in August, to allow the new sealing-wax red growth to come through before temperatures drop. It can also be turned into fuzzy pillars or rounded ovals. ‘Little Red Robin’ is a more compact form. Best in a sheltered site because wintry weather can damage the red growth.
Unpruned, H and S4m (13ft)