Levens Hall – World Topiary Day

Levens Hall and Gardens is preparing for its own celebration, World Topiary Day, on Thursday May 12, and is ready to thrill visitors with special tours and activities to mark this very special global event.

On the day, head gardener, Chris Crowder, will be leading three tours – at 11am, 1pm and 3pm – taking visitors around the world’s oldest topiary garden (dating from 1694) and thrilling them with insights they cannot normally acquire.

On Sunday May 15, Levens Hall and Gardens will have a variety of topiary-themed activities for visitors to enjoy, as it extends the celebration a little further. Using Levens Hall’s new audio guides, visitors will be able to gain other insights into the topiary garden, founded by the French gardener, Monsieur Guillaume Beaumont.

For those who cannot get to Levens Hall and Gardens, there will also be an online quiz at www.levenshall.co.uk with a very special dimension. This will mark the fact that Levens Hall and Gardens is this year being joined in its celebration by topiary gardens around the world, all of whom have been ignited by the example the Cumbrian visitor attraction set last year.

Despite having had to celebrate the inaugural World Topiary Day under partial 2021 pandemic restrictions, Levens Hall and Gardens started something compelling, for all those gardens who love the art of clipped trees and independent gardeners who have also grown fond of reaching for the clippers and training their yew or box shrubs.

This year, Levens Hall and Gardens will be sharing media posts from over 60 other gardens around the world, who are all taking part and coming together under the hashtag of #WorldTopiaryDay. Many – like the Palace of Versailles – are in France, where the European Boxwood and Topiary Society (EBTS) has truly embraced this occasion and seen it as a platform from which to promote and grow the love of topiary worldwide – just as Levens Hall and Gardens intended.

Other gardens taking part include Longwood Gardens, Jardins de Buis and Ladew Gardens in the USA, Palheiro Gardens in Madeira, Pazo Pegullal in Spain and Kragenhof in Belgium.

Levens Hall and Gardens’ online quiz will be live as from May 4, 2022 and comprise questions about these participating gardens, some of which are also found in the UK. On home soil, participants include Dalemain near Penrith, Clipsham Yew Tree Avenue, Grimsthorpe Castle, Hever Castle, Kentwell, Mapperton Gardens, The Manor House Garden, and Elton Hall.

The prize will be a family season ticket to Levens Hall and Gardens, a £25 gift voucher for use in Levens Kitchen and a signed copy of head gardener, Chris Crowder’s, book ‘The Garden at Levens’.

Levens Hall and Gardens’ owner, Richard Bagot, says: “We are delighted to have provided the spark that has ignited interest in topiary across the world. As a Guinness World Record holder, as the oldest garden in the world, we felt it only right to be the founder of World Topiary Day, and it’s absolutely brilliant to see the global topiary community coming together behind this banner.

“We look forward to welcoming people who are wishing to know more about our ancient topiary, on the day, but also hope that many more will take part in our online quiz and share their own topiary pictures online, using our hashtag.”

More information about World Topiary Day can be found at www.levenshall.co.uk