# Famous Topiary Gardens
Topiary is the gardening practice of training live plants into specific shapes. This is most often done by clipping the foliage and branches of evergreen plants. Hedges trimmed to make walls or boundaries are a form of topiary. Skilled gardeners create more intricate forms, clipping bushes and trees into simple or complex geometric patterns. Some clip plants into animals, people and man-made objects. Entire gardens have been made into topiary, and some of the most famous are worthy of being called art.
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Villa Lante
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The hedges at Villa Lante are shaped into decorative patterns like these. Created in the 16th century, the topiary garden of Villa Lante is located in central Italy. Today this garden is thought to be the best example of topiary from the Italian Renaissance. The garden is laid out in geometric units on several levels. Water runs through the garden in a series of fountains and ponds. The topiary itself is shaped in patterns and designs that accent these garden features, creating sections that surround one grand fountain.
Levens Hall
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Topiary is often considered an art, and the gardener a sculptor. Cumbria, England, is home to Levens Hall, a manor house dating from the Elizabethan Era. The topiary gardens here were laid out in 1694, and are some of the oldest in the world. They were the design of Monsieur Guillaume Beaumont, who spent the last 40 years of his life working the garden. The more than 90 topiary works include abstract shapes, pyramids and columns. They are mostly formed from yew. Today the gardeners at Levens Hall spend four months of every year trimming the topiary.
Ladew Topiary Gardens
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Animals are popular subjects found in many topiary gardens. Monkton, Maryland’s, Ladew Topiary Gardens are known worldwide. The topiary there was created in the first half of the 20th century by self-taught gardener, Harvey S. Ladew. Ladew crafted 15 different “garden rooms” on 22 acres of his property. Topiaries at Ladew include a pyramid, a staircase and animals. The best-known feature of Ladew is the fox hunting scene complete with dogs and a hunter on horseback.The Garden Club of America has described Ladew as “the most outstanding topiary garden in America.”
Zarcero
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The limits of topiary are only bound by the limits of the imagination as this field of Teddy bears show. Just north of San Ramon, Costa Rica, is the town of Zarcero. It is known for it spring-like air and high altitude temperatures. It is also known for Francisco Alvarado Park where Evangelisto Blanco created a topiary garden that is sometimes described as whimsical. Among fantasy creatures, faces and wavy arches, there is a sculpture of a monkey riding a motorcycle and another of elephants waltzing. In addition, Blanco has created a bullfighting scene from cypress complete with a spectator-filled stadium.
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