Gardens: Topiary
One of the first basic impressions you get on visiting Japanese gardens is that the plants are all green
(unless the azaleas are out) and that they are all carefully manicured. Avoiding the gaudy vibrancy
of cultivated blooms there is a desire to impose an idealised structure to the limited palette.


 
 





 





Certain trees, notably the black pine, are treated with styling techniques designed to emphasis their character. The techniques used are similar to those applied in the creation of bonsai.




Tokyo Museum


Ritsurin Park
 Shaping trees

Bonsai
Such shaping is probably best known in relation to the ancient and now popular art of bonsai. Trees, and suitable shrubs, are styled to represent their full grown parents where they are subjected to the forces of nature.
The adverse elements of climate and location bring out the character of a tree. Bonsai techniques impart and enhance these characteristics.
Subjective Styling
Often referred to as 'cloud pruning', alternate branches are removed whilst others are pruned to encourage horizontal platforms of dense growth.

The black pine is the tree which
gets most attention and require many gardeners to spend many days clipping the new growth.
Japanese holly, Illex crenata
is another plant that can be seen beautifully pruned in the fronts of Japanese homes all over the country.

Korakuen Okayama

The style of clipping shrubs is called karikomi the art was perfected by Kobori Enshu (1579-1647)
Compact, small leafed azalea satsuki are the shrubs most often used.
The variety is not widely available in the UK, but there are many alternatives to consider.

My choice of evergreen shrubs suitable for shaping
Box
Hebe
Lonicera
Escallonia
Freely available, box is ideal for all karikomi shaping. The supvirens is the one to go for. An excellent plant especially as many have a natural compact globe habit, hence less clipping required. The small leafed 'nitilda' is another easy, grow anywhere plant. Any shape can be achieved. This glossy leafed shrub is useful for larger mass shapes. The foliage provides a contrast to other evergreens.

A frequently used technique creates box shapes, this is called hako-zukuri.

My example here shows the small leafed
lonicera variety 'Bagens gold'

Ritsurin Park