Living plants have been trimmed and trained into ornamental shapes since ancient Rome, but topiary has developed a new sense of whimsy over the past few years.
No longer limited to living shrubs and bushes that have been clipped into shapes, the term "topiary" now is used more broadly to describe sculptures that resemble ornamental plants or that make use of living materials to form their shape and decoration.
Many of the fanciful forms turning up on dining room tables and sideboards this holiday season suggest living topiary in shape, color, or texture but are constructed with materials ranging from cut branches and cinnamon sticks to costume jewelry. Many are easy to make and can be redecorated as the seasons change.
Eleanor Oster, of Whitin & Oster floral stylists in Roland Park, describes topiary these days as both "funky and absurd or serious and technically correct." She recently designed a ball topiary (a representation of a miniature tree formed by a ball atop a stem in a little pot) and decorated it with tin Christmas-ornament fish and a bait can complete with plastic worms. "If the customer gets tired of the ornaments," she jokes, "he can put them on his [Christmas] tree!"
Susan Kershaw, a Glencoe-based floral designer, branched out into topiary constructions a few years ago when she noticed her friends' enthusiasm for a dried starflower cake she'd made for her sideboard and "frosted" with bleached hydrangeas, roses and blue mint flowers. "People would walk into the house and ask, 'Can I buy that?' " she says. She used Kenneth Turner's book, "The Floral Decorator" (Random House, $35), for inspiration and how-tos, and now she finds her own designs, which often incorporate found natural materials, adapted by enthusiasts.
Her velvety moss fox jumping a rosebud hedge will accent the manor-house drawing room during "Christmas at an English Country House" this weekend at Ladew Topiary Gardens, where examples of topiary -- the traditional, living kind as well as the contemporary variety -- will be on display, all decorated for the holidays.
Among the popular holiday topiary designs at Willow Oak Flower and Herb Farm in Severn is a ball formed from gilded, dried pomegranates, star anise, whole nutmegs, miniature cones and pepper berries and set atop a rosemary stem, says owner Maria Price-Nowakowski. She urges do-it-yourselfers to scavenge materials from yards and gardens -- and from basements, where castoff containers that can be transformed with moss might be found.
