The Art of Making Topiaries From Start to Finish

How is it that topiaries are given such a picturesque appearance? Rajiv Surendra tours Atlock Farm with owner and topiary master Ken Selody, former Martha Stewart contributing editor, and learns just what it takes to create a thriving topiary, from propagation to tailored trimming.

By: Rajiv Surendra

Show: HGTV Handmade

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Photo By: Christine Han

A Tale of Tailored Topiaries

Whenever I’m at a farmers market, garden center or nursery, my eyes are immediately drawn to the topiaries. Their tailored forms fascinate me. I know very little about growing and caring for them, so I was delighted to finally pay a visit to one of America’s leading experts in topiaries, Ken Selody at Atlock Farm.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Topiary Expert

Ken Selody is a garden designer who is a protégé of the late Alan Haskell, a horticulturist who was famous for his topiaries. Ken's call to gardening was inspired by Paul Caponigro's sunflower photography while he studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. You might recognize him from dishing out gardening advice on The Martha Stewart Show — Ken previously worked as a contributing editor to Martha Stewart Living magazine before pursuing his love for garden design and growing plants full-time.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Homey Atlock Farm

Atlock Farm, nestled on an old dairy farm, feels more like someone’s cozy private backyard than a commercial enterprise. The seven-acre farm features ornate greenhouses filled with shrubs, flowers and succulents, plus pots and urns. When we visited, it was cool enough to warrant a fire in the giant metal bowl.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Types of Topiary

Ken says that any plant that’s grown and pruned into a shape that doesn’t follow its natural growth pattern is a topiary. Common plants for small topiaries are myrtle, coleus and rosemary, but there are many others as well. Ken is well-known for his ball topiaries, where plants are trained on a single, skinny stem with rounded foliage.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Height and Age

Topiaries can take many shapes and forms. Ken is famous for his standards: topiaries with a ball, where plants are trained on a single stem with rounded foliage on top.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

The Beginnings

Ken says that a topiary usually begins by pruning an established plant. So with standards, a taller plant doesn’t mean it’s older. The height of a standard is determined at the onset by the grower. As the topiary ages, the bushy part grows out, not up; the stem gets thicker and not taller.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Low Shrubs

For example, these tiny myrtles will always have a short stem, but the ball of foliage will grow larger, creating a sphere that appears as though it’s sitting on the soil. Taller topiaries require the grower to train a cutting to the desired height, stripping the plant of any superfluous leaves or branches as it grows. Once the stem reaches the desired height, its tip (the top set of leaves) is “pinched off,” preventing it from growing any taller. Now the plant will grow laterally.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

First, a Trim

Ken demonstrates trimming a topiary using this rosemary plant, pruning the long growth back to the shape of a sphere.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Circular Framing

A magnifying glass can be used as a guide to frame the ball of the topiary to make sure you’re trimming it into a perfect round.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Tools of the Trade

Ken uses ordinary paper scissors for trimming all his topiaries.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Offcuts

All of the offcuts can be used to propagate new topiaries. To start, most of the leaves are carefully removed using delicate scissors; tearing the leaves off will damage the delicate stem.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

A Newborn Topiary

Three sets of leaves are left at the top of the stem, and these will eventually become the ball of the topiary.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Rooting

The stem is dipped in rooting hormone powder and put into a seed-starting mix.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Time and Patience

As the cutting grows bigger, it is transferred to larger pots.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Roots

Periodically checking the roots of a small topiary will let you know when it needs to be moved to a slightly larger pot. The roots should comfortably fill the pot without being tightly compacted and overgrown (usually indicated by no soil visible). These roots indicate a happy plant, so no need to be repotted yet.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Fully Mature

This stunning double-ball myrtle is 5 years old. It was one of two that I bought for the stoop of my apartment in New York City.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

An Array of Tropics

Ken grows a variety of other exotic plants in his various greenhouses. He plucked one of these giant lemons and gave me a taste (it was incredibly sweet and juicy). An acanthus plant can be seen on the bottom left.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Epiphytes

These mounted plants require no soil; they pull nutrients and moisture from the air.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Mossy Growth

I love the look of mossy pots, usually a result of the damp and warm environment of a greenhouse. Ken’s greenhouses were full of pots like this!

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

Flowerpot Delivery

Ken ordered some special flowerpots from me for a pair of topiaries, and I was glad to trek out to the farm for the first time and deliver the pots myself. He mentioned that topiaries always look better when there are a pair of them.

See More Photos: The Art of Making Stoneware Pottery With Guy Wolff

Facepots

I make the faces on these pots using a mold that I also made. I sculpted the face originally in plasticine, made a plaster mold of that positive and then used the mold for faces made of clay.

See More Photos: The Art of Making Stoneware Pottery With Guy Wolff

A New Friend

It was my first time meeting Ken Selody, but at the end of the day I felt like I’d made a new friend. And for me, this is how it starts; Seeking out an expert in a field that intrigues me and making the effort to meet them, seeing them in their element and learning from their experience.

Watch the Video: Learn How Topiaries Are Made

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