Topiary Tourism

‘Topiary tourism’ will be spreading its way across the world in May 2024, as gardens from Peterborough to Pennsylvania follow the lead of Cumbrian garden, Levens Hall and Gardens, in helping visitors better appreciate the art-form of topiary and enjoy experiences around it.

This type of tourism has been growing over the past four years, as gardens make topiary the centre of their thinking, thanks to the increase in attention on topiary created by Levens Hall and Gardens’ annual May 12 event, World Topiary Day.

First established during lockdown in 2020, to help celebrate Levens Hall being home to the world’s oldest topiary garden, and taking part on the day on which the historic property’s notorious ‘Radish Feast’ was held in the 17th and 18th centuries, this annual event has lit up the topiary world and spread the love of this type of garden feature.

This year, a ‘Topiary Message in a Bottle’ has been making its way from Levens Hall and Gardens, to Italy (Monumental Gardens of Valsanzibio at Padua), France (Les Jardins Suspendus de Marqueyssac and La Ballue) and several UK gardens, before finishing the relay back at the Cumbrian garden.

Levens Hall and Gardens will be enticing tourists into its Topiary Garden on Sunday May 12 but has this year also created the very first Topiary Tourism Guide. This allows travellers to engage in topiary tourism at any other time of year too, by detailing the topiary offering at 33 other gardens, in the UK, Italy, France, Belgium and the USA.

Gardens highlighted in the Topiary Tourism guide, which will be downloadable from www.levenshall.co.uk just before World Topiary Day, offer topiary tourism experiences either all-year-round or within their own opening season. All are also taking part in World Topiary Day 2024. Many of these have planned special openings, activities and pricing, either on May 12 alone or over the entire weekend.

Levens Hall and Gardens WTD event

At Levens Hall and Gardens, early-bird visitors who arrive between 10am and 11am on Sunday May 12 will pay just £3.30 to enter the gardens. This helps mark 330 years of its Topiary Garden, founded in 1694 and the world’s oldest. After 11am, admission will revert to the standard price.

Special topiary tours (included in admission) will take place at 11am, 1pm and 3pm, led by head gardener, Chris Crowder, who has tended the garden since 1986. These tours, unavailable at any other time of year, will provide a deep understanding of the history of the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ wow-factor garden and the remarkably shaped trees within it, whether that is the Great Umbrella tree, the Top Hat, the Toppling Wedding Cake, Homer Simpson, or Queen Elizabeth and her Maids of Honour. With over 100 trees in the Topiary Garden, there are a wide variety of shapes – pyramids, cones, balls, tiers, spheres and character pieces.

Visitors will also be able to play a game of art hide and seek, exploring the full 10-acre gardens to find 11 paintings hidden away by charity artist, Bob Sutcliffe OBE, as part of his season-long ‘Tree Therapy’ exhibition at Levens Hall. Bob will also be giving an art workshop on May 12, whilst Levens Kitchen will have topiary-themed edible treats.

Plas Cadnant

Elsewhere in the UK, Plas Cadnant Hidden Gardens, at Menai, Anglesey, is offering a free Gardener’s Guide Walk on May 12. Visitors will be able to explore the topiary through the eyes of a gardener and access areas not yet open to the general public.

Elton Hall

At Elton Hall, near Peterborough, the topiary tourism celebration takes place on Thursday May 9, ahead of World Topiary Day. The property is opening its Wilderness Garden for one afternoon only, allowing visitors to enter an area not usually available to visitors and see many different species of shaped box. Back in the formal gardens, they can also admire neatly clipped hedges and the artistic shapes on the topiary lawn, with Bertie the Dog always being a firm favourite.

Events in France and the USA

In France, a plethora of gardens are staging special topiary tourism events. At Jardins du Mont des Recollets, at Mont Cassel between Lille and Dunkirk, voted France’s favourite garden in the past, there will be guided tours and demonstrations of clipping.

Head to the Dordogne and there are a variety of ways to celebrate World Topiary Day. At Marqueyssace, the most visited garden in SW France and known for its fabulous topiary and 3-star MichelinVert Guide View, tourists can enjoy demonstrations of the art of shaping boxwood, over the entire World Topiary Day weekend.

At Jardins du Château de Losse at Thonac, there are two guided tours each day of the World Topiary Day weekend, whilst at Eyrignac et Ses Jardins near Sarlat, there will be the chance to meet with the gardeners and hear their expert advice on clipping and shearing.

Free entry and wine tasting will be the order of the day in New Aquitaine at Les Jardins du Pierrail, at Marguéron, whilst topiary art for children will be the focus at Les Jardins du Manoir de Favry, in the Pays de Loire. Events even stretch down to the Nice area and over to the USA, at Longwood in Pennsylvania.

Many more events will be taking part, with these listed at the European Boxwood and Topiary Society website at www.france.ebts.org

In a podcast, the President of that Society, Patrick Salembier, explains how World Topiary Day has added a focus for his member gardens across Europe and the USA and how it has simultaneously helped increase the knowledge of topiary gardens across the world, including Levens Hall and Gardens. The podcast can be heard here - https://bit.ly/4ay4fL7

Levens Hall and Gardens’ owner, Richard Bagot, says,“We are thrilled at having been the inspiration for topiary tourism on this scale and for creating an event that has helped make the art of topiary a specific reason to visit gardens across the world. It is rewarding to receive feedback that confirms how much we have managed to spread the love of topiary and help other visitor attraction gardens attract and wow visitors with their topiary creations and features, which can vary greatly between gardens.

“By backing this with our Topiary Tourism downloadable guide, which will help visitors plan a topiary experience at any time of year, we hope to build on our achievements to date and get more people interested in creating their own topiary too. We believe that our Topiary Garden’s founder, Monsieur Guillaume Beaumont, who first created topiary here in 1694, would be immensely proud of us.”

(Image: Geometric shaped topiary in the world’s oldest topiary gardens at Levens Hall and Gardens, near Kendal, Cumbria UK)