Plastic topiary balls are ‘an affront’, says Titchmarsh

PLASTIC garden decorations such as hanging topiary balls are “an affront to good taste and the environment” and “should be sent into extinction”, Alan Titchmarsh has said.

Topiary balls, which imitate arrangements of fresh leaves, may be tempting for garden enthusiasts who are looking for something long-lasting and with no need for watering or care, but Titchmarsh describes them as “about as decorative as a hanging up a single welly”.

“Flower fashions come and go, but the recent trend for plastic topiary balls is an affront to good taste and the environment,” Titchmarsh wrote in this month’s issue of the BBC’s Gardeners’ World magazine.

The balls, which usually consist of green plastic leaves, lose their colour and take on a pale minty green hue over time.

“They dangle like a cut-price pawnbroker’s sign. Hanging a single welly would be just as decorative and far more original,” Titchmarsh wrote.

Additionally, plastic imitations of plants and leaves add to the environ- mental burden of plastic waste, according to the popular television gardening presenter.

“Imitating in plastic, as we’re all aware, is doing immeasurable harm to the environment. Perhaps I can start a movement to send plastic topiary balls the way of plastic straws – into extinction,” he said.

Titchmarsh also condemned spraypainted heather. This decorative trend consists of adding different coloured spray-paint to real heather.

“What’s the matter with the natural green colour of the living plant and the complementary flowers of pink, winered and white?”, Titchmarsh wrote.

“Can nature really be improved on by investing in a graffiti artist’s aerosol and changing their appearance completely?”

Under the paint, the heather usually turns crisp and withers away over time. “How can I stand by while such atrocities are committed in the name of colourful gardening?”, Titchmarsh said.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder but, try as I might, I can’t believe that there is merit in spray-painted heather or a ball of green plastic leaves.”