Landscape Plant Shaping Art and Techniques

Author: Baitong Technology Press
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: This book's copyright is imported from the UK. It is divided into four parts: Plant Sculpture, Plant Architecture, Plant Patterns, and Plant Directory. The book is supplemented with illustrated examples of pruning and shaping, providing readers with detailed demonstrations of various methods and styles for pruning and shaping garden plants. The initial inspiration for plant shaping may come from herbivores' influence on shrubs. For example, on dry slopes in southern Europe, goats continuously browse on evergreen oak shrubs; in wastelands, herds of rabbits constantly eat black locust. As a result, these plants form various symmetrical or whimsical shapes. What's even more fascinating is that branches that animals cannot reach continue to grow. Ancient Egypt and the Middle East already described symmetrical trees and shrubs. Therefore, plant shaping may imitate trees with relatively regular growth, such as the Mediterranean cypress (Cupressus sempervirens). After visiting the Giardino dei Giusti in Verona, Italy, and seeing "tall cypresses that pierced the sky like sharp spears," German poet Goethe wrote in his "Italian Journey" (September 1786): "The yews, usually trimmed into spire shapes in northern gardens, may have been inspired by this miraculous product of nature." This pruning style, though geometrically regular, often has a sense of randomness in shape. In stark contrast is another plant shaping method with a long history in the East. In Japanese bonsai art, trees are reduced to ideal proportions using specialized techniques, creating a rigorous aesthetic style. In the 1st century, Roman gardeners first applied regular shaping forms, developing tree shaping into a garden art. When Renaissance gardeners revived the plant shaping techniques of ancient Rome and Greece, shaping plants became the mainstream of European gardens. Plant shaping is only one part of the garden legacy left by classical gardens worldwide. Renaissance gardeners incorporated shaped plants into formal gardens. The gardens were divided into several sections, platforms were built, the sound of flowing water filled the gardens with life, and mythological pagan statues adorned them, with various trees arranged in an orderly manner. Among these lifelike sculptures and buildings, various patterns were sometimes, forming different themes. The formal gardens of the Renaissance played a pivotal role in the history of European gardens, even enabling dreams to come true. They were self-contained, including shrub pruning, hedges, and pattern layout. An important purpose of this book is to show gardeners the role of plant shaping: whether in large gardens or small gardens; whether in overall planning or single features, it can excel, and it is a combination of tradition and modernity.