Creative pruning – The shape of your life
With a smidge of imagination, you can transform ordinary woody plants and trees into the most amazing art forms
As with any artistic discipline, the only limit upon the beautiful shapes and striking forms that can be achieved is in the gardener’s own imagination. From simple domes to pleasing cones, intricate rose-stem latticework, and even yew-shorn golden retrievers, I’ve seen countless garden shrubs and trees transformed into spectacular sculptural features. And while it can take a little time and practice to perfect the craft of creative pruning and training, it really can be done by anyone, in any size of space.
Get fanciful with fruit trees
This Prunus cerasus ‘Montmorency’, fantrained on a wall, is as attractive in winter as it is abundant with cherries in late summer
Other gardens provide excellent inspiration too: there are some wonderful examples of U palmettes at The Newt in Somerset, where both single and double U-shaped trees have been trained against walls, pairs of parallel stems emerging at right-angles from the trunk before arching skywards. When not in leaf, the shape alone is spectacular; when adorned with fruit, it’s divine. Elsewhere in the Kitchen Garden at The Newt, shin-high stepover cordons transform a simple border boundary into a playful and productive feature. Now, that would look fabulous in any home veg patch or allotment.
This urn-shaped Pyrus communis ‘Doyenné du Comice’ lends form to March and pears in autumn
To create an espalier lattice, in this case using three apple cultivars, trees must be trained from a young age
Get inventive with evergreens
With careful planning and a good dose of patience, there’s no limit to the topiarised shapes that can be created
Evergreen plants provide much-needed colour and structure, especially during winter. The impact of that structural drama is magnified by artistic pruning. Evergreen shrubs such as Ilex or Ligustrum, along with their muchloved coniferous counterparts, including Cedrus, Pinus, Taxus and some Cryptomeria, always create strong outlines, especially when seen from a distance. Buxus too, of course, has historically been a favourite of the creative pruner, though it’s no longer considered to be a sustainable choice thanks to box tree caterpillar and box blight.
For inspiration, look to Levens Hall in Cumbria, which is arguably one of the most famous topiary gardens in the country, if not the world. Here you’ll find predominantly yew topiary shapes including wacky mammoth mushrooms, spirals and giant chess pieces, with some creations having graced the garden for 300 years. The yew characters in the garden are as much a part of the history at Levens Hall as the residents who have occupied the house.
Clouds of soft, green, pillow-like growth can symbolise the presence of a master pruner in a garden. Pines, yews, cedars, olives, hollies and even camellias can be shaped into sculptures reminiscent of a fantasy world. But an otherworldly power is not necessary to create such wonders in a garden – all you need is a vision, a little patience and some regular tweaking.
Dare to dream with deciduous shrubs
The artful twirling of stems on this Rosa ‘Albéric Barbier’ turns the rambling rose into a plant with year-round appeal
One of the areas of this style of pruning that has caught my imagination in recent years, and is accessible to us all, is rose training. Rose stems are incredibly malleable and can be manipulated into countless fascinating shapes. Jenny Barnes, Head Gardener at Cottesbrooke Hall in Northampton, has deservedly forged a reputation as one of the most artistic gardeners in the country with her elaborate rose-training techniques. The things she can achieve armed only with a pair of secateurs and a ball of jute string have to be seen to be believed.
Don’t be put off by her artistry; rather, be encouraged. Roses, whether climbers, ramblers, or even vigorous shrubs, are surprisingly easy to train into elaborate and colourful characters. It’s not all about roses, either. Other deciduous climbers can also be artfully sculpted to deliver a relatively fast-growing and ever-changing character within our gardens. Take wisteria – while not generally associated with small gardens, they can be grown in a tighter space if you get creative.
Try training a young plant up a pole in a corkscrew of lattice work until it reaches the top. Here, a cartwheel-like support can be erected, allowing the plant to follow a circular framework from which to flower and be maintained. Once at the top, that growth can be continually manipulated by tying it down, therefore reducing vigour, promoting more flowers and creating a more manageable moment of magic in spring.
As with all creative aspects of gardening, take the time to look around for inspiration and be bold with your experiments. Indulge your sense of playfulness. You don’t need to know a lot about gardening to create something magnificent; good timing and techniques help, but don’t underestimate the power of creativity.
