World Topiary Day – EBTS France Press Release

At 6pm on Friday 11 May, EBTS France held a press conference at the Cercle de l’Union Interalliée in Paris to announce their collaboration with Levens Hall in promoting the second World Topiary Day. Between May 12-15 around 150 gardens will offer events dedicated to increasing peoples awareness of topiary: guided tours, lectures, clipping demonstrations, botanical advice and exhibitions.

Levens Hall, here in the United Kingdom, has the oldest and most amazing topiary garden in the world, with more than 100 monumental specimens in a wide variety of styles, including fantastical! This garden was created by the French gardener Guillaume Beaumont in 1694. He was King James II’s gardener and the designer of the grounds at Hampton Court and had learnt his skills from André le Nôtre in Versailles. In France, the oldest topiary garden is the Jardin des Ifs at Gerberoy in the Oise region, a unique testimony to Renaissance topiary art ordered in a classical French garden. Labeled “Remarkable Garden”, its Yew Igloo, a surprising monumental plant sculpture, and other giant topiaries, are classified as “Remarkable Trees”.

EBTS UK is doing it’s bit to encourage UK gardens and its members to put on an event as well.

If you’d like to be involved or see which gardens have currently signed up, click on the button below.