Garden City tops in topiary

Garden City tops in topiary
Deccan herald

It is well over 200 years ago that the famous Lalbagh Gardens were laid by Hyder Ali.

The fame of Bangalore as “Garden City” may be fading away, but the fine art of topiary is still found in many part of the City. It is well over 200 years ago that the famous Lalbagh Gardens were laid by Hyder Ali. The Lalbagh inspired many smaller gardens throughout the City. With the gardens came the gardeners, many of them coming from North Arcot district. When the British came to Bangalore, they brought along with them the aesthetic art of topiary and it has remained in Bangalore since then. There is ample evidence that topiary is quite popular in Bangalore.

Topiary is the skilled art of training, cutting, clipping and trimming of shrubs, foliage, plants and trees so that they take on geometric shapes, ornamental shapes or shape of animals, lettering or numbers. The title character in Tim Burton's movie ‘Edward Scissorhands’ is lauded for his skill in the art. Topiary was a favourite hobby of the Romans, who made plants grow in geometrical forms such as cubes cones and pyramids. The term originates from the Latin word for an ornamental landscape gardener, toparius.

Thickly leaved evergreen trees and shrubs are used in topiary. The best subjects are the box tree, cypress, yew, rosemary, holly and honeysuckle. The climate of Bangalore is favourable to such trees and shrubs.

Plants with small foliage and are of slow growth are good for topiary. The results required takes years to attain and one careless clipping will spoil the entire design. Starting with a ready-grown plant, stems are bent and held in position with wire if they do not naturally grow at the required angle.

Topiary is also executed on lawns. The best example in Bangalore is in front of the Karnataka High Court. On a grass background there is an outline of the map of India using bright green shrubs and the scales of justice in the middle using red shrubbery.

Gardeners working in Vidhana Soudha have fashioned a wall out of thick shrubs which serves as a fencing to the garden blocks. Lalbagh has a topiary clock, using red and shades of green foliage to mark the dial and hours. The topiary is incorporated with a clock mechanism. Apart from this, animals have been sculpted out of trees in one part of the garden.

In Coles Park in Frazer Town, there are interesting specimens of topiary shaped with great skill and craft, including animals and birds, a mandpam and even a girl. In the traffic island in front of the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike building near Hudson Circle, there is a row of trees, the tops of which are shaped like large discs suspended on poles.

The defence establishments maintain beautiful gardens and lawns in various parts of the City and some of them have good specimen of topiary although they may not be always accessible to the citizens. However, there is one majestic specimen at the entrance of the supply depot of Army Service Corps on Cubbon Road in the shape of a life-sized elephant shaped out of a tree. The existence of gardens are very essential for this art to flourish. If gardens in the City decline than there is a treat to this beautiful art of topiary. Gardens of multinational companies can encourage the art of topiary and thus sustain an art which has become a Bangalore tradition.