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History

History

Much has been written on the history of topiary and how the fashion for it has changed over the years. Currently it is receiving a strong revival of interest as garden designers view it as an integral part of the structure of many modern gardens and as an art form, in its own right.

The history of topiary is inextricably linked to the discovery and use of Buxus (Box) and Taxus (Yew) and the chronology of this development has been summarised into the historical summary shown below.

Chronology

7,000 BC

Buxus growing in England UK – pollen grains discovered dating to this time – destroyed during Glacial epoch

4,000 BC

Egyptians clipped box hedges in their gardens

800 BC

In the tomb of King Midas a table made from the wood of Buxus was discovered in 1951

300 BC

Greek horticulturist Theophrastus recognised the virtues of Buxus

100 BC

Rome – In the reign of Emperor Augustus many villas were planted with Buxus hedging and Topiary

Pliny the Younger created buxus gardens. Pliny the Older documented how to use the wood for making instruments etc.

Romans re-introduced Buxus to England

Dark Ages

Europe returned to topiary through hedges and galleries. One special form was the clipping of trees into tiers (wedding cake)

1494

During the reign of Henry VII, knots or knotts first recorded with clipped box, thrift or cotton lavender, bordering them.

1509 – 1547

During the reign of Henry VIII, individual specimens were cut for Hampton Court Palace. Cones, spheres, running greyhounds, deer, bears, urns, vases and boats, mostly in cypress (Cupressus) after the first Italian examples, but it wasn’t reliably hardy

1549

Parterre – first used in France then used in England from 1639 which may have been influenced by Queen Henrietta-Maria wife of Charles 1.

1603 – 1625

Clipping seems originally to have been done with very sharp but small knives. By 1606, during the reign of James 1, shears similar to those used today were in use.

1652

USA – Nathaniel Sylvester believed to have planted the first Buxus sempervirens at his Long Island home

1660 – 1685

During the reign of Charles II, John Evelyn writing in 1662, claimed to be the first to bring yew into fashion.

1700

By the early 18th Century, several nurseries in Great Britain were producing already formed topiary specimens in containers, and some of their original creations are almost certainly still be to be seen at Levens Hall in Cumbria.

1716 – 1783

Lancelot Brown (known as Capability Brown), renowned for natural landscape movement,  was responsible for the removal of much formal box hedging.

1720c

Ha Ha – Sunken boundary – thought to be first created by Charles Bridgeman (1690 – 1738), instigator of the naturalistic landscape movement which caused the destruction of many formal parterre and topiary gardens

1850c

The latter part of the 19 th century saw a vast influx of plants from South and Central America and South Africa, usually tender perennials which had to be over wintered and bedded out in late spring. This led to a return to the knot garden and parterre, with their clipped box edging and clipped cotton lavender, sometimes referred to as carpet bedding.

1854 – 1933

Harold Ainsworth Peto – originally an architect who sold his practice and his contract stated that he was not allowed to practise architecture for a period of 15 years. He became an interior and garden designer specialising in Italianate gardens – Iford Manor, Bradford-upon-Avon.

1869 – 1944

Edwin Lutyens – architect and a former pupil for one year of Harold Peto. Created many gardens in partnership with Gertude Jekyll.

1913

erbert J. Cutbush, a nurseryman, also specialising in topiary. Exhibited Cutbush’s Cut Bushes at flower shows around the country and a display of Topiary at the present site of RHS Chelsea Flower Show 1913 – an arrangement of topiary including exotic birds and animals set down on grass.

1925

Nathaniel Lloyd (Father of Christopher Lloyd, Great Dixter.) – influenced by Lutyens – first published a book entitled ‘Garden Craftsmanship in Yew and Box’

Mid-late 20th Century

Emergence of great garden designers and buxus/topiary specialists; legendary names such as Jacques Wirtz (Belgium), Piet Oudolf (Holland), Rosemary Verey, Elizabeth Braimbridge, Allain Provost, and modern designers and Chelsea Gold winners, Tom Stuart-Smith, John Moreland and Arne Maynard, to name just a few.

1990c

Cleve West, garden designer – modern sculptural topiary

Compilation by James Crebbin Bailey of www.topiaryarts.com

History