Ideas for Shaping Plants

Pruning

• Pruning involves carefully trimming off branches, twigs and leaves from trees, shrubs and other woody stemmed plants. While pruning isn't always done for aesthetic purposes, it works well for creating basic shapes and ensuring a tree or bush chosen for a specific growth pattern stays in that pattern. Pruning also comes with the extra benefit of encouraging the plant to create new growth and preventing the spread of disease and damage.

Training

• Combining a basic frame or structure with the right vines creates a living garden sculpture without monthly trimming. Training vines to wrap their new growth around the structure takes a few minutes every week, but the plants do the rest of the work. Choose flowering annual vines for a trellis or arch that looks great in the summer but allows you to start over the next year, or stick to evergreen plants to ensure the structure looks good all year round.

Espalier

• The art of espalier involves training the limbs of a young fruit tree to a wire or wood trellis. Twisting the limbs into intricate patterns as they grow forms decorative, living screens or makes a wooden fence more attractive, says the Oregon State University Extension Office. The espaliered tree can stand alone or be woven with other trees to create a fence or larger design. These trees still produce fruit and may produce more than usual due to the extra care they receive.

Topiary

• While some forms of topiary use trimming or training techniques, stuffed topiary requires slightly different methods. You must stuff a metal frame with sphagnum moss, says Topiary Joe's website, then plant vines in the moss to cover the sculpture. Planting in the frame gives you a clear guideline for trimming and removes some of the work of training the plants to grow in the right shape. Chicken wire works for small topiary, but welded steel or iron is required for large sculptures.