Spring has finally arrived and an avid gardener’s imagination turns to… pruning.
None more so than at Highgrove, the King and Queen’s country home in Gloucestershire.
Here, a team of gardeners are carefully clearing boxwood and golden yew bushes, which have been cut over the years into eccentric shapes, including proud peacocks, majestic crowns and graceful globes.
Work continued yesterday in the run-up to World Topiary Day tomorrow, which celebrates the horticultural art of training and pruning shrubs and trees into clearly defined shapes.
A team of gardeners carefully clear the box and yew bushes, which have been cut into eccentric shapes over the years, including proud peacocks
The King has commented that ‘one of my greatest joys is to see what pleasure the garden can bring’
The gardens have been landscaped to be ‘a feast for the eyes and in harmony with nature’
In line with the king’s sustainability interests, gardeners do not use insecticides and make their own compost
Visitors to Highgrove can enjoy an impressive avenue of hedges and topiary, which draws the eye to the house and terrace. The gardens welcome tens of thousands of visitors every year between April and October.
Tours of the grounds help fund The King’s Foundation, a charity set up by King Charles to provide workshops and short courses in traditional skills and crafts.
The King has commented that ‘one of my greatest joys is to see the pleasure that the garden can bring’. The 15 hectares of land was little more than pasture when Charles acquired the property in 1980.
Since then, the gardens have been landscaped to ‘caress the eye and be in harmony with nature’.
In line with the king’s sustainability interests, gardeners do not use insecticides and make their own compost.