If you want to do topiary, why don't you just buy a shrub(s) that grows where you are, that has small leaves, and just start working on it/them. It's not as though any ready-made topiary you buy is going to stay that way without your continued effort. It's a matter of thinking of the scheme you wish to employ (spiral, stacked balls, animal sculptures or whatever) and just prune-sculpting over time in order to achieve it. The ready-mades are OK, but they are not near as fun as seeing your own creation come to life ... for a whole lot less money. Where are you located? Someone may have a suggestion of what plant would work well for you to make your own topiary. I'm sure there's also got to be a GardenWeb forum that talks about topiary, so you might try looking for that.

I’m in the Raleigh NC area. Yardvark you must have missed my first sentence. I’m gardening Illiterate . I can keep the shape up on ones already started but to create one is highly unlikely!!!!

I have never seen Eugenia planted outdoors in zone 7B on the east coast. Juniper & Ligustrum topiaries are common in zone 7B.

Thank you I will look up Ligustrum. I’m not a big fan of juniper and am actually allergic to it.

I did not miss your first sentence. The process of shaping with pruners has less to do with gardening than it does with sculpting. And if you can maintain it, you can start it from scratch. The skillset is 95% overlap. If you're worried about the plant dying, it's not going to be any different with prepared topiaries ... just more expensive if you lose them. If you know little about it, the thing to do is not go out and buy 1/2 dozen expensive plants. Go buy a 3-gallon Japanese holly and get started on your first one. After you get a little confidence. you will get others. Check Youtube for topiary videos. There is all kinds of information available via Google.

i have Watched videos on making them but they are usually a small shrub in a pot. I’m really looking for something 4’ tall or higher to plant. im not sure what shrubs i can buy tall enough to make my own out of.

Is Japanese holly a fast grower? Can it be done with other varieties? I looked up the Ligustrum Doug suggested and saw it is a fast grower. Just trying to figure out if i start small how long it will take to bring these into scale with the rest of the garden. Our builder put in some awful shrubs and we are pulling everything except for 6 small shrubs. I’m going to look up the Japanese holly now.

I would hesitate to use Ligustrum for several reasons. The larger leaf size doesn’t look as nice as a finer-textured foliage like the Japanese holly. If it blooms (which it might not, depending on how the topiary is maintained) the flowers have an unpleasant odor, and the seeds spread invasively, not only in your and your neighbors’ yards but also into wilder areas via birds. The upshot is you can have nice or fast or inexpensive in time or money, but not all three. So while Ligustrum may be fast and cheap, it isn’t that nice (despite Doug’s fondness for it), and the faster growth means you will spend more time keeping it to your topiary form.

I second Yardvaark’s suggestion that as a “garden illiterate” you don’t start with a lot of topiaries, perhaps one or two. To look well done, they need to be pinched or clipped by hand, each branch. Start with one or two as features while you learn the skill as well as evaluate what kind of time it takes and how much you enjoy the process.

If you post photos of the house and the plants put in by the builder as well as some photos of inspiration gardens, you will likely get some useful suggestions that may prove to be less work and perhaps more satisfying that your topiaries.

No debate with Babs, but many find the fragrance to be pleasant.

I had topiaries in our last home and had no issue with the upkeep of them. They were purchased in their shape already. Here is a picture of the front of my home. The topiaries you see are the ones I bought but then found out wouldnt tolerate the winter. I want them on either side of the window on far left too. I love the way they look. How they frame the windows and bring some color in front of the white brick. We plan on doing some flowering shrubs between them. Sun tolerant hydrangea like Pinky Winky or limelight etc. Still researching what. The small green bushes in the very front of the bed the builder put in I do like and was told they are a dwarf holly I will keep them and add some more. Supposedly they stay low so I think they will work at the front of the bed with taller flowering shrubs behind them and between topiaries. We plan on making the area about 12" shallower by adding more sod to the front as it is very deep currently and the bark runs out when it rains onto the driveway so we will probably trim out the side of the bed with sod too and make it curved instead of straight across. . Other than keeping the dwarf holly shrubs we are Pulling out all the plants from the builder from the front and relocating the awkwardly centered tree they put in too. Moving it to the far right side of the yard. We don't know what type of tree it even is but we moved into the house in August and I sweat the thing has doubled in size already and we haven't even gone through spring and summer so I am guessing some type of Ash?

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These will be pulled out and we plan on moving them to a bed along the west side of the house

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These are awful and we are pulling them and not putting them back in

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If you want a panicled Hydrangea such as Limelight or Pinky Winky along that wall, you will need to choose the very smallest such as Bobo which grows to 4’ in all directions IME. Limelight grows to 8’+ in all directions, and my Pinky Winky is 8’ tall by close to 12’ wide. They regrow fast enough from even very hard pruning to be impossible to control size much with pruning without cutting off flowers. In much of zone 7b they likely won’t get nice pink fall blossom colors, as those develop better in areas with cool nights, and depending where you are they likely will need some shade in the hottest part of the day. Knowing your general location will help since the zone only gives info on coldest winter temperatures, and the soils and climate in SC differ from those in WA and KY and TX even though all those states have areas of 7b.

Don’t make the bed shallower front to back or you won’t have the space for your plants to grow. I like the idea of moving the tree to the right of the house corner. Be sure it is far enough forward from the building to have room to grow.

NHBabas the bed is 14" deep on the right and 12'5" deep on the left. I read that a good bed size should be between 6-8' deep.

The 6’-8’ is a minimum depth to not look a bit silly, but I see the depth of your bed as being reasonable for the height of your house. It looks beautiful proportional to me.