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Clip it, trim it, shape it

Photo: D. Radhakrishnan

Top it with topiaries They create lively atmosphere to a place

The peacock seems to strut about in the open courtyard; the elephant gets ready to make its ponderous move. In the midst of the garden, a figure of sinewy curves and nimble limbs tramp.

They are animals and figures made of different stuff--- plants, shrubs and trees trimmed, cropped and beautified into these shapes. Topiary, the art of cutting and trimming trees into beautiful shapes of animals or humans, is slowly becoming a passion among select urban Indians.

“I saw a gardener in the park making the grass into a sort of sofa,” says Sanjeev Kulkarni, a topiary enthusiast, “what he did basically was set up a frame onto which he grew grass, thick and neatly cropped. The experience of sitting on something so natural made me feel really good.”

Topiaries depend on the imagination of the people in the craft. Though it is not so prevalent here, it’s big in U.S. and Europe, especially in Italy and Britain.

“We don’t see many such pieces of art here,” says Surya Rao, a small nursery owner adding: “It requires time, money, and care.” Moreover, it demands an aesthetic of higher proportions. “Unless somebody asks me for a particular shape,” he lays out his work plan, “I don’t do it simply because there are not that many takers.”

Excellent, beguiling, funny topiaries appear in parks, studios and film cities.

“After seeing them in movies, I was interested,” says Suguna, a gardener who is so solicitous about plants, as she would have been about her children. “I love plants and art,” she continues, “and what better way to combine them.” Homes, she says, can be made into miniature nature reserves.

Sculpted hedges make for wonderful shapes--- horses, giraffes, swans, squirrels, rabbits and birds. Arches with initials fashioned on them have also begun to appear. “For children, making shapes out of plants is an excellent creative exercise,” says Gayatri, a housewife who works with her daughter in rigging tiny cute shapes out of her potted plants. “The pleasantness you feel in your home,” she adds, “increases manifold with the topiaries.” What they need is our care. It is also an activity that keeps you healthy.

Sitting in the corners of rooms or out on the porches, they make steady companions.

In many corporate offices in the west and, now, in India, topiaries are used to increase the wellness factor.

Apart from the art pieces on the walls, plants and creepers give the ambience a natural feel.

The small business people who have taste in this are experimenting with topiaries. “From childhood on,” says Bhargav who has a CD café, “I loved music, songs and nature.” When he visited different places, he says, he found many homes and tiny shops decorating their places in whatever little way they could. “It’s win-win situation, customers feel good in this atmosphere and I love these fancy shapes out there in my place.”

Topiary can be a business opportunity. If one likes to work with hands, making frames of intriguing shapes for plants and shrubs to grow in, then it presents a business opportunity.

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