Italian mixed topiary bed

JoeX

Hi all,

Each of my beds are 2.4m square, I laid out this bed Jan 2020 in a quincunx (a theme in all four beds), like the 5 you’d see on dice.

So I still like a water bowl central, opposing dogwoods on one diagonal and opposing topiarised cypress macrocarpa goldflame (all lower growth died off) and topiarised cypress leylandii.

In it’s prime it did look okay, honest 🙂, but end of summer 2021 it’s time for a change and continuing the Italian theme Ive seen various shapes topiarised evergreens that look randomly cobbled together but also look very designed.

A random buxus lollipop I added has died from what looks like box caterpillar, I have six other buxus around I was going to develop into a hedge but now I think shaping them as balls maybe a better idea and if they die they die.

Has anyone seen the kind of mixed Italian style topiary I’m talking about and offer ideas and advice?

Thanks
Joe

Fairygirl

People have this idea that all Italian gardens are full of topiary and not much else, but it's totally wrong. Most have perennials, and quite lush planting, in beds alongside, or surrounded by, formal hedging or topiary. 
Picking the right specimen to use for topiary is the most important thing though - leylandii would never be any good. Any conifer will need loads of water, so not much good if you're in a dry area, and they need properly trimmed if you want to avoid them dying. Very few of them are any use if they're pruned too heavily. 

Yew is always stylish and easy to maintain, Lonicera nitida or pileata are excellent as a replacement for box. Hebes - if you choose the right ones, are also excellent for a globe/sphere. Even privet can be used in imaginative ways. Portuguese laurel might work too if pruned precisely from the start.
You could also use Bay if you're not in a cold area. 

JoeX

Indeed, this is one bed I’m considering moving to purely topiary - not the whole garden.

I have a bay that’s recovered to health and needs a bit of shaping, but I’d be nervous moving it…which brings me to a question on the bed and soil quality: It’s clay, I removed the grass, dug holes for the things going in, added a splash of compost and maybe the mycorrhizal fungi.  Then covered with cardboard and a woodchip mulch.

Dovefromabove

You need to improve the soil in the whole bed
by incorporating lots of organic matter … well-rotted manure is best. 

Simply digging a hole in clay, adding a ‘splash of compost’ and planting something means that you’ve created a sump which will fill with water and can rot the roots of your plants. 😞 

Fairygirl

Yes - the whole area needs improved if you want success with any plant. If you spread a load of manure on a bed now, and a load of compost [if you have it] it'll be infinitely better by spring. 

Loxley

Hornbeam can make really good topiary shapes (arches, spirals, pillars, beehives etc) and you get extra interest compared to evergreen topiary - you get the vivid green flush of fresh leaves in spring, buff/yellow autumn shades, and extremely sculptural skeletal form in winter. It's also suitable for less well drained soil.

Loxley

The last one is actually beech but you get the idea, it's more interesting. It's also a lot cheaper of course.

Fairygirl

I love Hornbeam @Loxley. My favourite hedge. Good idea for a bit of topiary too.
There are loads of suitable 'shrubs'. Osmanthus can be clipped, and so can Ilex.

Some  Olearias could be good I think, depending on the location and the shape required.

Dovefromabove

That beech is absolutely gorgeous ........ and the difference when it's green will be fantastic ... not often you get those changes with topiary 

JoeX

Loxley said:

The last one is actually beech but you get the idea, it's more interesting. It's also a lot cheaper of course.

That is mad - I love it!  

JoeX

Fairygirl said:

Yes - the whole area needs improved if you want success with any plant. If you spread a load of manure on a bed now, and a load of compost [if you have it] it'll be infinitely better by spring. 

So no specificity for the kind of plants used in topiary? I (finally) have garden compost, and also topsoil from a turf stack, plus leaf mould. Manure struck me as very rich, and for no particular reason I didn’t think cypress, buxus, cornus wanted that sort of conditioning.