Clipping the Box

When we bought this house topiary came with the territory. We inherited five clipped box bushes years before their popularity underwent a revival. I came to the whole task of keeping these bushes trimmed as a complete novice apart from some practice in keeping a privet hedge tidy. I had the shears but not the know-how.

My mother was staying with us when we moved here and while we busied ourselves with carpets and curtains she began to take the garden in hand. She coaxed  5 distinctive shapes from what had been rather scruffy blobs and I began to see the quirky charm that these soft, green sculptures would bring to the garden. They were smaller then; I could probably have put my arms around each one and still touched finger tips. Twelve months (and another baby) later, I realized that it was now up to me, it was time to learn how to do topiary. No instructions, no demonstrations or workshops, I walked out across the lawn with shears in hand, asked the spirit of the garden to be forgiving and set about learning. Over thirty years later, this is what I probably should have known then.

1.  No matter how much you trim the box shapes they inevitably grow bigger, even by just a little, each year.
2.  The twigs that will produce green leaves are close to the outer surface - inside it is all just grey brown twigs. Cut back to this at your peril. It will eventually grow back but it might take years.

3.  While you are busy creating the most amazing green sculptures or a perfectly spherical orb, around your feet you will be accumulating mounds of the most difficult debris to clear up. Lay a sheet down and move it around as you work to make the least fun bit decidedly easier.
4.  Box, left to its own devices, will grow into a leafy open shrub. If you want it to become a dense ball then you will need to start clipping it into shape even when it is much smaller than you want it to become. If you wait until it is the height you want then you will just have large, spaced out branches and not the mass of little leafy twigs you want.
5.  Before starting to wield the shears, it is  good manners to let the shrub know you are about to begin; give it a thorough patting and gentle shaking to alert any resident wildlife and to dislodge any build up of dead leaves. These block the airflow and harbour moisture, ideal conditions for undesirable fungus growth.
6.  Birds love the idea of a shrub with a roomy interior and screened outer walls. Ideal for nests, they think. The fact that they might be rearing young just when it is the optimum time for the shrub to be trimmed will not enter into their criteria for an ideal nesting site. Tradition has it that box should be clipped on Derby Day, the first Saturday in June. As the birds start to nest in the garden, I like to keep an eye on their comings and goings so that I know where nests are and can leave them to get on with  brooding and chick rearing in peace.

To take this picture, I held back a small branch which was keeping this nest from last year completely hidden. How close any unfledged chicks would have been to the sharpened blades of the shears had I not been aware of the nest - doesn't bear thinking about does it?

 7.  A thick covering of snow looks delightful but the weight will often break the shapes open so it is a good idea after snow has fallen, to head out with a camera take all the pictures you like then brush or gently shake the snow off. If there are gaps in the outline when you come to do the clipping, you will often find that if you reach into the gap, there will be some greenery that has dropped back inside and with a bit of pulling out and trimming it can be persuaded to fill the gaps.
8.  Sometimes there will be some little dead branches, especially near the base of the shape. Much as it might spoil the outline, these are dead, they are not going to green up and so they need to be cut out and got rid of. Hopefully the air and light that can get in through the gap will encourage new growth and eventually it will fill in. The shape may not be the same but the shrub will be healthier and if the die-back was caused by a fungus like the dreaded box blight it is best that infected branches are not left to jeopardise the rest.

9.  Keep moving around the shape as you clip. It is quite possible to achieve a very pleasing profile and then move a step or two to the side and see that the profile from that perspective is, well, not quite so perfect. Admire the work of topiary artists in grand gardens but accept that even in places like Levens Hall, the  wonderful shapes are not always completely symmetrical from all sides.
10.  It is a good upper body workout; it is hard work but fun; it is a very effective stress buster.

Even if you have no place for any kind of topiary,  what clipping box has taught me probably  has metaphorical parallels with life in general and perhaps there are life lessons in there somewhere.

Right, where are the shears?  It will be days before I am finished and even then I will be going back to just fix the odd little bits I think should be better.