Shaping Topiary Balls, Cones & Creating A New Spiral 🌳🌳🌳

Good morning everyone. Janette here, enthusiastic gardener. And it's a day of haircuts today. I've had a a chop and it's time for my toers to have the chop, too. And I have quite a few and they're rather unruly. So, I thought today's the day. I'm just getting my um secret hair sharpened and also my shears ready to go. But I just wanted to quickly first of all show you a few things that are looking good in the garden while they're looking good in the garden. So quickly run round and then I'll show you all the topies that I'm going to cut. And at the end I might even be brave enough to do something with my Albert Alberta spruce over there which I've been thinking about for a while. Um I might make it into a spiral. So we'll see how we get on with everything else. Should be very quick job. The clearing up probably takes longer than the cutting. And apparently topiary is anything that you actually trim to shape that you don't let it grow to its naturalness that is defined as a topy. So even if you trim a big hedge that is still a topy. So, let's have a quick look at what's looking nice in the garden. Well, I'm very pleased with the pond. The pond's been a joy that it's now nice and clear, which I cleared last week. So, that's wonderful. Here's a view from the other side. Oh, and did you see my frog? The frog I found the other day. I put on a short and I did put it on Facebook and Instagram. I put it everywhere because I was so excited. But I was watering these plants around here and something jumped out. I saw the frog. I ran to get my camera. So, I'll slot in this little footage just in case you didn't see my frog. I have a little frog. Look at that. A little frog. Without a doubt, we grew a frog. Oh my goodness. Bless. I'm scared. Oh my goodness. I haven't seen him since and I have looked. Mark Border, my friend who's my mentor, garden mentor, he doesn't think that's a frog from this year's tadpoles. He thinks it's too big. But Pauline, my friend Pauline Crispen, who gave me the tadpoles and she's had them, too. She thinks it will could well be. So, we don't actually know. But regardless of that, we have a frog. I did tidy up the star jasmine which was rather unruly and now it's all lovely and tidy again. That noise is the sharpening of the blades ready. This area along here is needs a good old tidy up which is not a job for today but this is the first topiary I'm going to do which is a U and it's one of the oldest things or the longest standing things in my garden. Had it for probably 10 years. So that's one of the earliest things that still here that I haven't killed. So that's going to get a lovely shape. This is another tapery. Van go tuscan totem pole cyprus. It's supposed to be three balls. So that hasn't been trimmed all year. It's the perfect time to cut topies. Now that was a ball on top. I'm wondering if I can just that might be interesting if I do let the top one do this shape. So, I might do that actually. And back over here, the verbinas are looking nice. But this one here is a euronymous. Eonymous. I can't say it. Yeah, that needs a nice little haircut as you can see. And next to it, the cherry tree. The cherry tree, which I don't know if I've told you, I didn't actually eat the cherries in the end. I kept checking them and they were always bitter and then they started dropping on the floor anyway. So, they were ripe, but they were always bitter. In past years, they've tasted gorgeous. So, yeah, might as well have let the birds have them in the first place. Fern is fantastic. The crocosmia is beginning to fade and dropping everywhere, but that's been good. And I did remember to stake it this year, so that's helped a lot. But look at these roses. They're just stunners. And this is their second bloom. And there's two different roses here. This one on the left. You can see I think different color leaves. Not those. That's a piris. these leaves a little bit lighter. Looks like a needs a bit of iron actually. That one on the left is called Fabot 60. And this one on the right is called the Ruby Wedding Rose. And that's beautiful. So, I've taken up a lot of time just chatting. And now we need to get to the main event. So, I'll speed the camera up. All I'm doing is literally eyeballing it. cutting hopefully to a good shape. Let's go. Little haircut for the U. Next I think we'll do the Cyprus. The Tuskin Vang Go Tuskcen totem pole cypress. Oh, the lemon cyprus. I forgot about that, but that's had a little haircut, too. And here is the Tuscan totem pole to the best of my abilities. And I've decided, let's see what happens up here cuz perhaps it will thicken out. And if it doesn't look nice, well, I could just make that into a ball as well. So, that's that one. So much better. And now we've got a helper, Richard. Richard hasn't hasn't done any gardening properly since the fatsia. >> And do you know your fats your fats still gets comments? >> In fact, your fatsia got comments a couple of days ago, >> right? She's been trusting me. >> This is from a man's point of view. So >> it's looking better already. >> It is actually. >> So I would have used the shears. >> Yeah, but you would have gone. >> Yes, but that's what you do. No, >> you take it gentle. >> Gentle apparently. You saw her on the faxes. Nice and gentle. Just a little trim. Nice and casual in the sun. >> It's a nice day today. It's quite It's a lot cooler. It's cooling down, isn't it? >> It is. Yes. >> Yeah. >> This is quite therapeutic. >> It is. So, the It's taking shape shapes being treated. >> Wonderful. >> I'd much rather do that one. >> Actually, you could leave it like that. I mean, it it's not as sheered as I would do it, but your your way is a good way. >> Of course, my way is gentle. It's a short back in the sides as opposed to a skin head. >> Thanks, Rich. >> That's it. >> That'll do. That'll do. >> Oh my god. >> Do you know what this is, Rich? I think you do. What is it? >> It is a cherry. It's a nice little snip here. There's no rush. No effort. This one's going to annoy me. It's just nice snip. I'm going to put you on time lapse, Rich, cuz you're going so slow and gentle. Everyone's going to click off. >> It looks good. >> You did need to attack it with the shears a little bit. Actually, you've done a very, very good job. >> Thank you. >> To stick. >> Yeah. Creation. Thank you. >> And the little spider still there. >> A wrapping something up for later. So, this that's how you trim a cherry tree. You don't go at it hammer and tongs. It's nice and gentle. So, I hope this has been educational for Janette. >> I think he enjoyed that, didn't he? He did. You could tell. So, a couple of you have said that you think Richard is getting a little bit more into gardening. I think you may be right. So, shall we have a go at a spiral toper, which it used to be a couple of years ago I think you can probably see the remnants of the shape. And then I just let it grow back again. Well, we need to take this out because this is a salvia that I moved from over there to here unsuccessfully as you can see. Shall we give it a go, Lotty? Now, this is no in no way a tutorial how to and uh it could easily go very wrong, but well, what's the worst that can happen is it looks dreadful. Yes, that's that could happen. And we have to get something new. Well, that's not the end of the world, is it? Let's give it a go. Wish me luck. I'm just going to go around and around. Yeah, let's just do it. What's the worst that could happen? That's it. I need to put these away because you can fuss with it forever and I'm going to show you the end result. Here we go. I'm thinking it's okay. I like it. Yeah. I won't win any awards anyway. Let's show you this side. There you are. It's definitely a spiral. I wasn't quite sure what to do at the top. And actually, there were two branches. You can see there were two leaders. So, that's what happened. Yeah. It's all right, isn't it? I can refine it. But I don't think we need to dig it out. I think it's okay, isn't it? It's not too bad. It's not going to win any awards whatsoever. But it doesn't have to be thrown away, which is uh the main thing. It smells Oh, delicious. A spruce. And that's enough haircuts for everything for one day. And thank you to Richard for helping out as well, which was rather unexpected. I think he enjoyed himself. So, hope you're having fun in your gardens. The next time I see you, believe it or not, it's going to be September and we can officially call it late summer in September. Do you want to come and say goodbye? Ly is very lucky. She didn't stand still for too long. She would have got a haircut as well. Take care everyone. Hope you're all wherever you are in the world having a great time in your gardens. Bye.