MANAGEMENT OF TOPIARY GARDEN 71 



The planting of the beds and their various contents 

 is in the Topiary garden a very important part of the 

 work, and one that requires both a great amount of skill 

 and forethought, as to a great extent on the arranging 

 of the various kinds of flowering plants in the different 

 beds will depend the future beauty of the garden. 

 Of course I do not mean to imply that the arrangement 

 of the various beds is of as much importance as the 

 planting of the trees, as they differ in this respect so 

 far, that once the trees in a Topiary garden are planted, 

 they should under no circumstances whatever be 

 altered-, but in the case of the beds, they may be 

 subject to many alterations, as circumstances may occur. 

 The yew by itself is not a very bright or attractive tree, 

 but when you see it planted in the Topiary garden and 

 clipped into all kinds of unique shapes and figures, and 

 all the available space in the beds is utilised for the 

 purpose of massing either herbaceous or bedding plants, 

 the effect is extremely beautiful ; it is then that one 

 sees a garden with a charm and beauty about it that is 

 very seldom if ever met with in the more modern 

 garden. 



It is quite evident that, in most of the old formal 

 gardens, glass accommodation has never to any great 

 extent been considered necessary. Yet there is nothing 

 of more importance to the gardener in charge of a large 

 Topiary garden than plenty of glass accommodation for 

 storing the various bedding plants during winter and 

 spring. In former years both the persons who owned 

 the Topiary gardens, and the gardeners as well, seem 

 to have depended to a great extent on the different 

 varieties of annuals for the embellishment of their 

 gardens. But annuals in a garden such as the one I am 

 speaking of, never have the same effect among the yews 

 as the more bright and showy bedding plants. I quite 

 agree with a great many people in their contention that 



