18-05-2025
The expert's guide to topiary for your garden
'I've seen a man playing a piano in honeysuckle and full-scale racehorses,' says Michael Buck, head of horticulture at Creepers wholesale nursery in Surrey, and a judge for the Henchman Topiary Awards. One of his all-time favourite pieces was cut from 40 yew trees and stands four metres high. 'It looks like my grandma's blancmange mould. You walk inside and it's [like] a room. You could put beanbags in there and chill out.'
Meanwhile, David Hawson, the winner in the home gardener category of the inaugural Henchman awards last year, had transformed his giant yew hedge into scenes from the novel Moby-Dick as well as various British birds. With topiary, the only limit is your imagination.
Topiary is an ancient art but it is booming
