How to Create a Double Ball Topiary out of a Two Gallon Shrub

okay guys this is what you've been waiting for I haven't done one in a while so I am going to transform a boxwood just an old lanky boxwood into a topiary form I'm going to show you how I do it how I support it and how I'm planting it so number one I've got a large enough container here for this pot it will be just slightly larger than the circumference and the root ball of this pot I think it's maybe a two two and a half gallon and I'm just putting it into a terra cotta pot now in my zone I'm in zone 7 yes I can leave my terracotta pots out year-round they may not last as long if we have a really harsh winter or something and there are sprays that you can use on them to make them a little bit more long-lasting but I have had pretty good success with it and if it ages over time then I just replace the pot so this is a beautiful Bowl rolled rim pot and you can see I've already gotten some dirt in it and a little bit of gravel at the bottom so this is going to have really good drainage now I just picked up this it's a golden dream boxwood and you may note that I don't have a lot of variegated boxwood in my landscape and I don't think I had any in topiary form so that's why I selected this one now if you look closely ideally I this may not have been my perfect candidate for the garden because you can see that the roots are kind of exposed but in my experience that doesn't necessarily mean the plant is in any way damaged when I buy them in potted form like this I think probably this was just subject to some high winds and that's why it's kind of leaning a little bit towards the east but you can also see down at the bottom you can see that it's got what looks to be a strong central stem so this is how I identify plants for topiary it also has a pretty tall leader and what I mean by leader is the ultimate height that I want the plant to grow so this one will have almost instant maturity now you can find these at all different price points this one happened to be about 1998 or around $20.00 and I think that's not too bad for something that can instantaneously make into a topiary that will mature into a specimen that I would pay far more for in its finished state so I have moistened growth the soil in the pot and the root ball of this boxwood and I'm not gonna have to loosen the roots too much you guys because this isn't to pot bound and that's something also that I check for when I am buying a potted plant I kind of tug at it to see if it can be extricated pretty easily from the pot because that means that there's not a lot of roots growing out of the bottom and that it's going to be happy to acclimate to my container okay so you see I've got it there now this one is going to need a little bit more support again because it's kind of Leaning but I am going to help that with my steak so I sometimes kind of hoard really good sticks and steaks I keep them in my compost pile until I'm ready to use them or on my wood pile you guys can head over to the YouTube segment that I did on my compost pile but this one is straight and it's very tall so it will be a wonderful candidate for this boxwood now I'm putting that in again when a store soil and the dirt is very moist so because I don't want to traumatize the plant anymore than I have to but almost immediately you can see that I've helped this plant stand up and fly right so I'm going to take off that tag now and you can see why this plant was an inspiration for me because it already is going to have a pretty good double ball form I could try to establish maybe a columnar form and I could train these guys to grow up in that direction with some judicious clipping but I think I really want that double form which is probably the bald forms the lollipops those the poodle shapes those tend to be my favorite forms so I am going to get this potted and I've got just a good quality potting mix you guys a lot of times ask me what my favorite variety is and my answer is typically whatever good quality organic potting soil I can find wherever I am I'm not that particular I do though want to give a shout out to this stuff that I was sent to try and I really like this you guys I'm sent a lot that people want me to test but I only show you the ones that I am really excited about and I'm really excited about this stuff it's called pittmoss it's an organic potting mix and it promotes beneficial biological growth and nutrition that uses two-thirds less water and I just love the way it's made it uses tree fibers it's very organic I think it's something you should look into I'm planning on getting more of it so I'm gonna put the remainder of this bag in this pot excuse me for my little commercial but you guys always ask what I use so I want to be out there with what products I like to use ok so now I'm going to finish filling this with potting mix and because you guys know I practically always top dress I should move this over so you can kind of see my face I practically always top dress my topiaries with gravel so I've left room for the gravel on top and I have my steak in place so I needed something to secure this leader to the steak to the stick and so I have some here now normally I'll be honest normally I would use something that is a little bit more subtle that would blend in a little bit more but I want to make sure that you guys can see what I'm doing and by the way when I get finished I'm gonna put a white board in front of it so you can exactly see the profile of the plant because I know sometimes in my garden with all the other topiaries and greenery it's kind of hard to see the form of the topiary I'm working on so okay so now take off my gloves and I'm going to position this in a couple of places it's important to position it towards about the first where the first ball is going to be because it's really thick down here and I want it to start growing in accordance with the steak so I'm going to do that about right here and this trunk of the boxwood is a little bit thicker so I'm just and I can always go back late later you guys and tighten these more or move the steak around a little bit it's important not to be overly I don't think overly fastidious about this because if you are it makes you afraid and you shouldn't be afraid because it will grow out and and all of gardening is an experience is so I'm gonna take another piece of this and this is just resin coated wire and I'm going to secure this Stuart can you see that it's starting to look like you guys always ask his Stuart is Stuart is my man Friday he's my buddy he's my photographer he keeps me honest he tells me to smile he makes fun of me okay so there we go so now you can definitely see me put the pretty part towards the front so you guys can see how full it is on this side that this is going to be a nice sized topiary when I get finished so now basically I am just going to establish its form so if this is a double ball and normally I'm doing a lot of this you guys a lot of this to see where I want to make my first cut some of them are pretty obvious I want the width the ball to be I think about right here at the bottom ball now how I can determine that is because you can see right here if you're trying to decide where to make that first cut you can see right here I've got a pretty strong V right in there and that is going to be the top of my bottom globe my bottom ball so that is where I'm going to make my first cut and basically this is where it starts coming off I'm going to cut off first some of these outliers so I'm gonna save these cuttings and you guys have asked how do how do you root cuttings to turn into topiary and I'll do a video on that maybe with a guest appearance by a friend of mine who is the queen of starting cuttings for topiary she is much better than I at it so and she has a greenhouse so a lot of times I let her do the work for me okay so now I think I'm gonna take this off and these now these are the kind of the ones where you'll it'll be a little bit scary because they're bigger cuts but just think that maybe you can grow that into a topiary and you need to expose the trunk this will just keep on growing that I'm going to tip the tops I'm going to tip prune the top so it will also start filling out every place you you make a cut it will get mushy err okay so I can see these over here need to go a lot of times you'll get just singular outlier leaves that I can see right here I need to attach another secure this one is in quite wide enough again you can go back and modify later if you need to yeah I'm just turning around looking at it making it stand up straight and now once I kind of have the definition in the placement of those two balls established the work goes a little bit more quickly and I am just tip pruning everything I might come back and re-secure this with some attachments that aren't quite that bright green I'll do a little bit better job of it you want to also kind of establish a slope going down so that you start maintain or establishing that curvature to the bottom ball let me show you another little tip you guys if you're still with me hopefully you're still with me and I said it a million times I'm gonna say it again I just find this so meditative and so therapeutic I can really get in the zone with nothing but neat and the birds to keep me company okay so you can see on this side that it's pretty full and that's good on this side not so much but look what happens when I kind of move that if I moved it in the right place dirt so you can see how I can create artificial fullness there so then what I'm going to do is do something to kind of attach this branch to the others so that it's full pretty much all the way around sometimes you can also do that by strategically tucking branches where you want them to grow now here's another tip you guys when you're placing this and I think it already looks kind of pretty in a wonky topiary kind of way but when you're placing it initially even though I know our inclination is to always have the pretty part forward but whenever you leave town or whenever you're not hung out in your garden and what bother you turn that turn the part that's not as full to the Sun that way it will start filling out and it will be symmetrical on both sides it's those kind of little things that you learn over time the more you grow topiary that symmetry becomes important now this is a variegated boxwood I also said a million times I've never met a boxwood I didn't like I'm kind of a boxwood slips but this is a variegated boxwood and it can't handle quite as much intense Sun as all green boxwood can so this one can handle a little bit more shade if you need to topiary for the shade I also like the way that it's got that beautiful chartreuse color in it that I really like now later I will probably top off because this already has a pretty good height to it and I don't think I'm gonna want it to get that much taller so probably I will get my loppers and I will top off this stake so it looks even and like it's not still aspirational to just keep growing vertically that this is where I want it to grow this is where it's going to talk out I think again you can just keep clipping on it and the more you clip the tighter the ball will be on the bottom but I think for right now that is pretty good so because I already want it to look like it's in something of a finished state I'm gonna remove all of these leaves that are kind of outliers [Music] and the nice thing about topiary unlike any other kinds of flowering perennials or self seders annuals it doesn't mind all of this wind so much it is sturdy and stalwart and one of the reasons I just love to peer in everything's ok so if you guys can be patient I'll be right back with some gravel I'll top dress it and can see it in its finished State so we'll have to be a pet here do a cut but don't lollygag I'm not gonna stop it I'm gonna leave me saying don't lollygag in there are ya don't ya where'd that name come from lollygag it's weird some words you just say but you've never quenched [Music] I'll be quiet because I like okay so I've got my gravel you guys Stewart just is the boss of me today told me not to lolly bag we were wondering where that expression from Wally I don't know but I got the point hurry up okay so now it is beautifully top dressed with gravel you guys I love another tip if I ever had a garden product line I would make these scoops because they're wonderful for gravel they're wonderful for soil I haven't been able to find this similar one anywhere since okay water it I say some rain water for less than last night or so I didn't save it the bucket dish you can see that is so tacky arey did your uncle it's a topiary I can still do a little bit more clipping on it but I have a really good shape established and give you guys good how to take a shrub and turn it into a topiary form that will only improve over time

Channel: Linda Vater

Views: 91,838

Rating: 4.891942 out of 5

Keywords: potagerblog, Linda Vader, garden tour, garden life, topiary, linda vater, boxwood, gardening, container gardening, oklahoma gardening

Id: WIGda2E4fJc

Length: 20min 24sec (1224 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 23 2020