PRO of bying: they are already shaped and all you do is plant and get the look you want immediately. Will have to spend a few minutes every now and then to maintain the shape.

CON: pricey. It takes time to shape so nursery charging a premium for time it takes them.

PRO of doing yourself. If you are a control freak or exacting/meticulous in the way you conduct your life, this would be satisfying as you control outcome. As a beginner, hand shearing would be best rather than going crazy with electric shears. You can probably go on youtube and look up topiary pruning videos. Not rocket science, esp. for the cone shape you are going for.

CON: a pruning mistake my take several months to correct/disguise but errors are not usually fatal, just ugly. Requires patience.

I don't do topiaries but I train shrubs into trees and I enjoy having control at every stage of growth. To me, very rewarding when the look I'm going for is achieved. Could be months or could be years, so keep that in mind.

Bossyvossy - All the Youtube videos are for shaping those spiraling topiaries. None for cones. It would be easier to just go out and buy one if I could find one I like. Do you have any suggestions of places that sell them? I'm in Los Angeles.

Good news for you. Cone would be rather straightforward-wide at bottom, narrow and pointy at the top. Other good news is you should have no trouble contacting a couple of the better or full service nurseries and asking about who carries topiaries. It should not b hard to find in LA but it will cost. I live in TX don't know LA nurseries

I'm happy you decided on the topiaries! They really will go well with the style of your house! I guess the big decision is which plant will grow the best and be easily shaped. I'd be calling the nurseries to ask which plant will work best for topiary shaping.

What if you just make a tee-pee shaped pruning template out of something light weight like sticks and wire, place it over the plant and use the shape to do your shearing? Then remove it and put it over the next one. If you do this periodically as the plant grows, it should reward you with a nice topiary.

I'm in Riverside County so no help with LA nurseries, but many of those Hollywood mansions have topiaries, so they must be available somewhere. Good luck to you!

Once again, Suzi, a brilliant suggestion. Teepee template. I'll get my crew on that!

Hey, did you know there is a GW Topiary Forum? http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/topiary

The nice thing is: if you make a mistake, it will grow away.

Some of my topiari that will shortly need a trim...the cones are straight forward decide on size and shape and use a strimmers for the big bits and hand shears for the delicate bits..for cones you can either judge by eye or use some lengths of thin bamboo in a tee pee shape tied together at the top to give you a guide to cut to...if you are ambitious enough to try a spiral then tie a ribbon or string to the top drape it around the plant in a circular descending motion to the Base..and cut into the plant just above the line of your string...I got a great buzz out of doing it myself as opposed to buying them...there are quiet a few good instructional videos on YouTube about how to do it yourself worth checking out...Happy gardening....