Printer & Piemaker's Topiary Identification

Pruning and shaping shrubs and trees into geometric, abstract and animal shapes was a popular landscaping technique in LA that lost favour somewhere in the 1980's when more naturalistic shapes became chic. In Southern California, topiary was especially evident thanks to the Japanese-American gardeners who pruned and shaped front yard trees into a menagerie of shapes that complimented many midcentury style dwellings throughout the 60-70's and are still alive and well in many neighborhoods like Northridge, West LA, and Torrance...

Blogger Printer & Piemaker revisits the retro-landscaping technique that is apparently alive and well even up north in California with a series of excellent photo examples of topiary that takes us back to our suburban past, with this amusing/helpful visual identification chart shown above to help you name shrubbery around the block. We're now motivated to take some photos around our own neighborhood and see if we can contribute a Silver Lake edition.

[images: Printer & Piemaker]

Comments (15)

that is a gardening tragedy! The landscapers should feel shame~

OMFG! I lived in the Bay Area for two years and was absolutely obsessed with the absurd topiary! This is great -- really funny, but also sort of educational.

This is cute and all, but actually, some of shapes are traditional in Japanese landscape architecture and are achieved through pruning. Cloud pruning was designed to be appreciated after a snowfall, for example, not that Southern California's climate agreed.

But what she calls Corndogs are a very formal way to prune Italian cypress. It would be interesting to know what the various plants and shapes are really named and how those shapes came about. History of California landscape architecture--are there any books?

That's funny - I love the one on the bottom right! I think it looks great (though not so fond of the other ones). I think this can work in moderation, in front of the right house. To each his own, I guess.

I personally think that the platter in the top right photo looks awesome. But for some reason it just makes me think of muggy hot days.

My parents live in Torrance. Whenever I visit them (I'm in the DC Metro Area now), I'm just am amazed at how both my parents (Japanese Americans in their 70s and 80s) and their neighbors (many of them Japanese Americans, within the same generation) keep their yards in tip top shape, including regular pruning of their shrubs in bonsai stye to maintain a really beautiful landscape.

Whereas my front yard is so ugly that I'm convinced that I've single handedly brought property values down on my block . . . .

I love how the first one looks like a short, tubby lady. Hee!

the one on the bottom right is featured on the cover of a new book by Chris Grampp called From Yard to Garden (Center for American Places, 2008). i highly recommend it to anyone, but especially californians and westerners interested in landscape and domesticity.
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/282393.ctl

I think that in moderation it would look great..these photos are too overpowering...too much topiary!

oops, my bad, they aren't exactly the same as the photos in the bottom right. maybe the space ships on grampp's cover are a new one to add to the classification. still, check out the book.

Cheap---Cheap----and Cheaper looking.
A far cry from what would be done in Japan!

So nostalgic and fun. A refreshing departure from the samescaping that seems to have taken over the Westside.

Ugh! I live in Northridge,and it's true, these shrubbery sculptures are ubiquitious. While I can see why others appreciate them, I find them very unattractive. Still, they're FAR preferable to my other outdoor decor least-favorites -- matching cement lions (I'm all for eclectic style, but, to me, they just don't work with a 50's Ranch) and year-round x-mas lights.