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10 incredible topiary gardens around the world
Published August 07, 2013
Les Jardins de Marqueyssac
Ladew Gardens Staff Photos
Longwood Gardens/L. Albee
Topiary gardens are where lush greenery combines with structure and form for a magical result.Check out these amazing gardens, open to the public.
1. LEVENS HALL
Located in England's famously picturesque Lake District, Levens Hall boasts the world's oldesttopiary garden still surviving in its original design. Dating back to 1694, the topiaries reflect thelate-17th-century taste for clipping trees and shrubs into abstract masses or geometric forms. Hugeyew and beech hedges create garden rooms (state rooms, really), and parterres are punctuated withtowering top-hatted shapes seeming to totter on a single trunk. The garden also includes an orchard,a nuttery for growing beechnuts and walnuts, and a bowling green.
2. DRUMMOND CASTLE
Drummond Castle and grounds were establishedin Perthshire, Scotland, in 1490. The towerhouse remains largely intact, but the gardenshave been substantially changed over thecenturies. Today there is some back-and-forthover the authenticity of the grounds (restored orre-created?), but most agree that they representa grand 17th-century Scottish garden. Theparterre, with its low clipped embroideryhedges, is in the shape of a large St. Andrew's
cross--geometric topiary forms being all the ragein the latter part of the 1600s. The regimentation of the layout is leavened with the addition ofleaning topiary trees that lend an impish, Harry Potter-ish charm. These tipsy towers accentuate thelong views from the garden, across verdant fields to distant hillsides.
3. MARQUEYSSAC
Les Jardins de Marqueyssac
After you have eaten all the foie gras and truffles you can during your visit to the Périgord regionof France, consider a postprandial visit to Marqueyssac. The original garden was created in the 19thcentury and enhanced when a new owner, Julien de Cerval, acquired the property and made it hislife's work. In 1861, De Cerval began laying out a dreamy topiary garden on a hill high above theDordogne River. He spent the next 30 years overseeing 150,000 boxwoods groomed to mimic thesurrounding hills of the Dordogne Valley or, when viewed from above, the backs of grazing sheep.This might be the most relaxing garden in France. Even the garden's website evokes twilightthoughts of peaceful slumber: Gaze at the count-the-sheep topiaries, or just listen to crickets andsnipping shears.
4. LADEW GARDENS
Ladew Gardens Staff Photos
When you find yourself caught in the seemingly endless tedium of Interstate 95 around Baltimore,take an off-ramp to the wonderful topiary gardens created by Harvey S. Ladew. A bon vivant bornduring New York's Gilded Age and a famous cutup, Ladew (1887-1976) purchased a Maryland farm,later developed 22 acres of it for a garden, and then decided to do all the landscaping and gardenplanning himself. A sporting gent, Ladew often rode to the hounds during visits to England, whichinspired his not-to-be-missed topiary hunting scenes complete with fox and hounds bounding acrosslawns and horses and riders clearing fences in pursuit. In another garden area, Ladew's huge ovalswimming pool is surrounded by wavelike topiary hedges topped with green swimming swans.Ladew was able to infuse his rooted-to-the-earth sculptures with a sense of motion that is unique inthis arena of garden design.
5. LONGWOOD GARDENS
Longwood Gardens/L. Albee
Located 30 miles from Philadelphia, Longwood Gardens was deemed by Geoffrey Jellicoe, foundingpresident of the International Federation of Landscape Architects, to be "one of the trulyoutstanding American estates." Established and organized largely by Pierre du Pont in the early 20thcentury, the property originally belonged to founder of the Province of Pennsylvania William Penn.Penn sold it to a fellow Quaker named George Peirce who shared his curiosity and reverence forplants and the natural world. The Peirce family established an arboretum there and when the landcame up for sale in 1906, Du Pont purchased it largely to save the trees. After traveling the worldand visiting many famous gardens, Du Pont settled down at Longwood to begin building his ownextensive gardens. Influenced by European topiary art, he established a garden of yews clipped intogeometric forms and the shapes of animals and even a table and chair. Today the garden containsmore than 50 topiary trees.
See all 10 gardens at Architectural Digest
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