56 THE BOOK OF TOPIARY 



Where the garden has been planted with mixed 

 trees such as yew, holly, boxwood and horn-beam, 

 the clipping should all be done in the autumn so as 

 to give the garden a tidy and uniform appearance. 

 Autumn is not generally considered the right season of 

 the year for holly clipping, but if there are some, more 

 or less, planted among the yews in the Topiary garden, 

 it is necessary that they should be clipped at the same 

 time as the other subjects, for the sake of appearance. 

 But if hollies are planted by themselves in some isolated 

 part of the garden, whether in hedges or bushes, the 

 work of clipping them should be carried out towards 

 the latter end of May or beginning of June ; then hard 

 clipping every other year will suffice for them. At 

 Levens we clip the holly hedges which are not actually 

 in the Topiary garden hard back to the old wood every 

 alternate year, and other years we merely go over them 

 with a pair of shears and cut away the long shoots. I 

 am rather of the opinion that hard clipping of hollies 

 every year is more injurious than beneficial to the trees. 



It is evident to anyone who has seen an old Dutch or 

 Topiary garden, that, in the formation and laying out of 

 the grounds, boxwood has always been considered one 

 of the principal features, and in most of them it remains 

 so to this day. 



Where box succeeds well and remains in perfect 

 health, no care or attention should be spared to keep it 

 so, for there is no edging that can be used in the garden 

 to be compared with it for beauty. It has, however, 

 some drawbacks, the principal one of which is the 

 excellent accommodation it affords to snails and other 

 garden pests ; but its advantages more than counter- 

 balance its defects. Like the hollies, every other year 

 is sufficient for clipping it, and there is no more suitable 

 month for the work than June. There should be no 

 clipping done to boxwood until all danger of frost is 



