World Topiary Day Attracts Garden Lovers from Far-flung Locations

Visitors from across the UK flocked to Levens Hall and Gardens on Sunday May 14, to learn more about the world’s oldest topiary garden, pick up topiary tips and see a special topiary-inspired dress that helped mark the celebration.

The Cumbrian visitor attraction also hosted a delegation from the European Boxwood and Topiary Society UK and welcomed the President of the French EBTS, Patrick Salembier, whose passion for topiary and World Topiary Day is phenomenal and who designed the topiary gardens to be found in Le Touquet, in northern France.

Levens Hall and Gardens’ head gardener, Chris Crowder, hosted three tours of the topiary garden during the day, providing lots of insight into the history of the garden and what it takes to maintain it.  Each hour-long tour also gave visitors the opportunity to ask questions and also learn more about other areas within the gardens, beyond the world-famous topiary garden.

A student, in her final year of a BA Hons in Textile Design at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), played her role within the world celebration too. Hex Gregson unveiled a topiary-inspired dress, carrying motifs she had designed following a trip to Levens Hall and Gardens.  

A display of her dress, sketch books and paintings was set up at the entrance to the world’s oldest topiary garden, so that it was immediately in view of visitors entering or exiting the garden on one of its busiest days of the year.  

With family members with her, it was a very proud moment for a young woman who battles with pain and exhaustion around the clock, due to suffering from ME and fibromyalgia.  Finding it hard to work from a desk, she embraced textiles because sewing was something she could do whilst sitting in bed.

The display engaged many visitors, some of whom took lots of time examining all of the sketches and work that formed the background to the dress.  Others simply admired the design and quizzed Hex as to the choice of topiary trees she had made, from amongst over 100 possible choices in the Levens Hall topiary garden.

The dress was the largest-scale project that Hex has tackled and drew on all of her skills and her long-held interest in crafting, painting and crocheting.  

Beyond Levens Hall and Gardens, World Topiary Day was celebrated by gardens around the world, in locations as far-flung as Australia and the United States.  Nearer to home, historic house and gardens, Dalemain, near Penrith, also joined in the online celebration, as did various other UK gardens, including Plas Cadnant, Mount Ephraim Gardens, Greene Knowe at the Manor, Dorney Court, Doddington Place and Gardens, Wightwick Manor, Hever Castle and Hinton Ampner.

Levens Hall and Gardens’ PR outreach also managed to enlist the first Italian garden to participate – the Monumental Gardens of Valsanzibio, located near Padua.

Levens Hall and Gardens will offer plenty of opportunity for other visitors to see its fascinating topiary, being open this year for six days a week (closed Saturdays), until early October.

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Editors notes

Levens Hall & Gardens is a historic house in the South Lakes, Cumbria, close to Kendal and home to the world's oldest topiary gardens, dating from 1694, created by French garden designer, Guillaume Beaumont. The Hall is a stunning Elizabethan house built around a 13th century pele tower and has close links to the Duke of Wellington, as well as various items which once belonged to him and Napoleon Bonaparte. Levens Park is home to the rare Bagot goats gifted to the Bagot family and a place in which to stroll and enjoy nature. Levens Kitchen is the contemporary new cafe, full of delights for cake lovers and foodies alike.