HARFORD COUNTY, Md. (WHTM) – A little over an hour from Pennsylvania’s state capital is the Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, Maryland, the only public topiary garden in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

World Topiary Day, which is May 12, celebrates the history of topiary and those who create the “green scenes.” Ladew Gardens Horticulturist Abby Evans is one of these individuals.

“I love to educate people about the science of gardening and the art of topiary because it’s definitely an art form,” said Evans. “It’s sculpture. It’s living sculpture.”

Evans from Forest Hill, Maryland grew up around gardening. Her family owns a flower farm and her first ever job, which she got even before she had her driver’s license, was at Longwood Gardens with her sister.

She worked in multiple different areas at Longwood before going to Babikow Greenhouses. When she turned 18 she started volunteering at Ladew.

Close

Thanks for signing up!

Watch for us in your inbox.

Subscribe Now

WHTM Daily Digest

“From there, I just worked my way up,” Evans said. “I had already been doing some topiary and then as I gained confidence and gained knowledge they said ‘Why don’t you start taking over more?’ Now I’m the chief person for training and for trimming.”

Evans is helping keep a legacy alive.

Ladew Gardens was started by Harvey Smith Ladew. Ladew purchased the property in 1929 because he wanted to be close to the Elkridge Harford Hunt Club, which is right next door.

Ladew used some of the property as a garden and kept the rest for a horse and dairy cattle farm. Evans said the property was self-sufficient, featuring an orchard and vegetable gardens.

“As his ideas expanded, so did his gardens,” Evans said. “He would travel all over the world and he brought back ideas (including for) topiaries. I would say for this area he brought it – he brought this hedging. . . to this area.”

Now, Evans and her crew of five other full-time staff members and six assistant horticulturists are continuing his vision for the land by maintaining existing topiaries and creating new ones.

“Some of them, they’re almost 100 years old,” Evans said.

It can take a very long time for topiaries to be considered “finished”, depending on the plant material used and the complexity of the scene. Evans noted that while some take only a couple of years to be complete, others can take 10 to 12 years.

Hershey Gardens growing children’s knowledge of sustainable and functional gardening

Evans’s favorite topiary in the garden is the hunt scene, which is in honor of Ladew’s hobby. One of the young hounds in that scene has been there for six years and has just gotten to the point where the frame is barely visible.

A lot of work goes into shaping and maintaining these topiaries. There are over 100 “larger than life” designs spread across the 22 acres of Ladew Gardens.

“It takes a lot of time and a lot of training,” Evans said. “It takes a good eye. You have to be relatively artistic and (have) a strong attention to detail.”

Evans attributed her keen attention to detail to her six-month internship in Jerusalem at the Botanic Garden. There, she worked with rare plants.

“I’m relatively detailed, but collecting seeds from a plant there’s only two of in existence has given me a lot of attention to detail that I never knew existed,” Evans said.

Besides the actual trimming, there is also the process of keeping the topiaries healthy. The staff have to deadwood many of the large topiaries, crawling inside the biggest ones, to clean out debris. They also have to keep pests like red spider mites and fungus at bay.

“Because topiary is trimmed so often and so hard they are more stressed so they do collect more insects,” Evans said.

The hardest thing about the job physically though Evans said is timing the obelisks. There, she has to climb a 16-foot ladder and use big, long battery-operated shears.

Tips on how to garden for wildlife from a master gardener

Despite the difficulties, Evans truly loves her job creating and caring for topiaries.

“I love doing topiary, I love trimming, I love weeding, I love watering, I love my job,” Evans said. “Trimming topiary, it gives me a chance to be creative, to do sculpture.”

Evans’s favorite part however is the people she meets and the opportunity she has to educate them.

“There was this one young kid, three years ago, I think he was 13,” Evans said. “He said, ‘I want to do this when I grow up’. He just loved it. It’s just those little interactions that I love.”

Evans said that in recent years the garden has had record numbers of visitors. They have even had to put in more paths to accommodate the increase.

Evans recommends visitors come out to Ladew Gardens’ Twilight Tuesdays to see the topiary.

“Seeing the gardens during the day is lovely. . . but seeing them in the evening with a soft evening light it’s just magical,” Evans said.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC27.