Topiary animals are made from plants in three steps: a steel wire form gives the animal its shape, sphagnum moss packed inside gives roots somewhere to live, and the plants — or moss alone — become the coat. It is the same sequence we follow in our own workshop for every animal we build, from a tabletop rabbit to a life-size elephant, and this guide walks you through doing it yourself.
Where to Start
You can start off with our famous animal topiaries or make your own using our topiaries as a guide. Below are examples of animal form topiaries:
Our moss animal topiary forms add a touch of adventure and fun that is sure to bring a smile to all who visit your garden creation or create your own following the guidance below. Each topiary wire form comes with Sphagnum moss. Sphagnum moss is generally regarded as the best-performing substrate due to its homogeneity and ability to absorb air and water with great efficiency.
2) Framed Animal Topiaries or Wired Framed Topiaries
Our frames are hand-woven of durable steel and double-coated with epoxy to discourage rust. In our Pleasanton workshop the larger armatures are welded from ¼–⅜ inch rod, anything over six feet carries internal steel tubing, and outdoor pieces are galvanised or powder-coated before any moss goes near them. Many of the larger forms are designed in two pieces to allow easy access to the interior. Add Sphagnum moss to make your own moss topiary using the frame as your base.
These guys are popular during the holidays and come alive when the lights are turned on. Add plants around them for a garden look.
What you will need before you start
- Work gloves
- Chicken wire
- Wire cutters
- Floral wire
- Pliers
- Wear a pair of work gloves while working with chicken wire to avoid incurring inadvertent pokes, cuts, and scrapes.
Planting Tutorial
Spring green frogs, majestic elephants, purring cats, fluffy rabbits. Animals have always lifted our spirits and brought joy to our lives.
What fun, then, to introduce ‘botanical animals’ to your garden! A ‘Creeping Jenny’ cat on your windowsill, ‘Hens & Chicks’ tyrannosaurus in the forest, ‘Woolly thyme’ poodle on the patio, ‘Periwinkle’ alligator by the pool, or ‘Bugleweed’ dachshund guarding the back door. Choose an animal that is meaningful to you, or to someone you love.
1. PLANT TEXTURE: Take a few moments to look at your animal. Then look for plants that best represent it. Fur, feathers, mane; smooth, fluffy, scaly. Picture your animal dressed in plants. Don’t forget details: whiskers in kittens, stripes for bees, and eyes for personality! Plant color can create a pattern in your animal.
2. SCALE: Smaller leaf plants work best on smaller animals. The idea is to compliment, not overwhelm the form.
3. CULTURE: It is best to use plants that like the same conditions. We tend to use drought-tolerant succulents. Rockery-type plants that are invasive and low-growing make great topiaries.
4. OVERWINTERING
1) Water well before frost
2) Mulch and /or move to a protected area or unheated garage near a window (water here about once a month)
Suggestions to Create a Topiary Art Form
A. PLACE FORM OVER A LIVING PLANT:
Let the plant (boxwood, euonymus, ivy) grow into the form. Trim the plant until it fills the form.
B. PLANT FROM THE OUTSIDE OF THE FORM:
Soak the moss-filled form in water and let drain. If you have ‘cell pack’ sized plants (3/4”-1 ½” sq.) you can poke a hole into the damp moss from the outside of the form and insert the plant.
C. PLANT FROM INSIDE OF THE FORM:
Soak the moss-filled form in water and let drain. Snip the plastic connecting ties and open the form into its parts. (This is exclusive to Green Piece Garden Art) Pull out some of the moss. Remove a little of the soil from around the root ball and insert your plant into the form. Wiggle the leaves up through the wires. Repack the moss around the roots. When planted, reattach the form with the cable ties provided.
If using B or C above, water with starter fertilizer 10-52-10 & keep in a shaded area, out of the wind for several days before moving to the selected area in your garden. Check for water daily, as you would a hanging basket. Fertilize every other week with a 20-20-20.
Planting a topiary, taking care of it, determining its development, and watching it grow is a rewarding and fulfilling craft and art.
Below is an example of how we plan to make a topiary!
1) Plant Texture
2) Pattern
3) Color & Scale
4) Culture
5) # of Plants Needed
Let’s pick an animal to dress: the “horse” for example. (Horse aficionados ‘bear’ with me.) Whether you are thinking Pinto or Arabian, horses have a short-haired coat and long mane and tail. (Perhaps a carousel horse comes to mind. But that’s a ‘horse of a different color’.)
With the horse in mind, let’s go through our five steps.
1) Plant Texture
A plant that is long and slim would represent the mane and tail. Grasses tend to be our choice. (But I won’t get on my ‘high horse’)
The body can be any low-growing plant to give a smooth look. We tend to use sedums as they are drought-tolerant. (Pick something colorful for your carousel horse eg. Tri-color sedum.). And eyes. Eyes of hens and chicks, colored stones, and cacti, give personality.
Don’t ‘hold your horses’; look around your garden or local garden center and think “horse” while contemplating plants.
2) Pattern
Going back to your original horse, does it have a pattern? The painted horse could have a plant that comes in two colors eg sedum acre in green and gold. Can’t you just picture it?
3) Color and Scale
The use of color is always fun. Color can create patterns for your animal. It can also be an unexpected bonus when you plant flowers. For contrast, the horse could have a dark mane and tail, and a light body (or visa versa) Scale is simple: the smaller the animal the smaller leaf plants work best. The idea is to complement not overwhelm the form.
4) Culture
Again, this is simple. Whatever plants you choose to represent your animal, they all should like the same conditions. Having said this there are exceptions. If you are going to plant in the ears, legs, or any of the smaller portions of the animal, these tend to dry out faster than the body. For this reason, we tend to leave these parts unplanted as they look great just left moss. We use plants to highlight the rest of the form. This is just a personal decision.
5) # of Plants Needed
Are you having a garden party and need spectacular, instantly? Plant every 2 inches. If you plan to watch the season’s growth unfold, plant every 4 to 6 inches.
By now you have the situation reined in. Choose an animal that is meaningful to you or someone you love. Then, well, just ‘horse around’!
And if you would rather start from a finished piece, the topiary animals we make in the workshop ship ready to place, from $57 — or browse the wire frame animal topiary range and build on one of ours.
How an animal topiary is actually made.
Six stages, in this order, whatever the animal is. The illustrations are drawn rather than photographed — a drawing shows what is happening inside the piece, which a photograph of a finished topiary cannot.
01It starts on paperThe animal is drawn before anything is cut — the set of the head, the weight on the legs, the line of the back. At any size above a tabletop the proportions have to be decided on the drawing, because there is no adjusting a welded figure afterwards. Larger commissions get a dimensioned CAD sheet that the metal is then cut to, piece by piece.
02Steel rod, bent and weldedSteel rod is bent by hand and welded into a cage that carries the pose. This armature is the sculpture; everything after it is surface. Anything over six feet also gets steel tubing run inside the frame, so the piece will not fold if somebody leans or climbs on it — many frames on the market carry no internal support at all.
03Galvanized, welds includedThe bare frame is galvanized over every surface, including the welds — which is exactly where outdoor steel fails first. It is the least visible step and the one that decides whether the piece lasts a season or a decade. It is also why a tired topiary can be stripped and re-covered years later instead of thrown away.
04Sphagnum packed by handLong-fibre sphagnum moss is packed into the cage by hand and bound down. It is slow work and it is what makes a piece green the day it arrives rather than a season later. The moss also holds a root run, so a mossed animal can be planted into afterwards.
05Planted, or coveredFrom here a piece goes one of three ways: planted with creeping fig, ivy or another small-leaved climber that grows through the moss; covered in UV-rated artificial foliage or turf where nobody will be maintaining it; or left as bare galvanized steel, which is a finished object in its own right and how many customers prefer to buy it.
06Based, anchored, deliveredSmall pieces ship by UPS. Anything large travels by freight, built in sections with a marked break point so it can be crated and re-assembled on site, and set on a base pad for bolting or a cement footing rather than a spike in a lawn. Lighting, where it is specified, is built in rather than added over the top.
Bare galvanized armatures are sold on their own in wire frame topiary; finished mossed pieces are in mossed animal topiary. The galvanizing step is written up on its own.
