NIGEL LIVES ON – IN YEW

‘Topiary’ seems a rather grand word for what I do in this garden, but it is simply the art of clipping and training a woody plant to a shape. Any shape. It does not have to be figurative, and some of the loveliest topiary I have seen was in Japan, where almost every tree and shrub is carefully clipped and trained according to the form that the topiarist thinks most appropriate.

I have two kinds of topiary in my garden. Above all I have scores of yew and box cones of different sizes in various parts of the garden, and my one figurative piece, Topiary Nigel (above), the yew representation of my golden retriever Nigel.

Twenty years ago, the 64 large box balls in what is now the Herb Garden were my pride and joy. But I failed to anticipate the ravages of the box blight that ripped through this garden, so a few years ago we dug them up and put them on the bonfire. The box cones I still have down the Long Walk and in pots on the Cricket Pitch are made from the exceptionally vigorous Buxus sempervirens ‘Handsworthiensis’, which seems to recover well from box blight if it gets it at all.

The other cones I have are in yew and are growing in front of the house. These have been there since 1993 and have not changed at all. They seem to be perfectly healthy, needing just a trim every August.

Topiary Nigel demands a different approach. For a start he is made of four separate plants (essentially, one for each leg, although the vast majority of him comes from two plants) that were trained from the outset on a crude cane structure. Secondly, there is not a lot of room for improvisation, although I confess the likeness is notional, at best. Topiary Nigel started as a piece of fun but is now a living tribute to a much-loved friend.

Monty’s box balls were his pride and joy, but suffered box blight