Topiary is a late 16th-century English term originating from the Greek work topos, place, and the Latin word topiarius, ornamental gardener. The earliest documented case of topiary is found in letters by Pliny the Younger. He described the cypress animals, figures, inscriptions, and obelisks in his Tuscan villa and credited Gaius Matius Calvinus for introducing the art to Julius Caesar, who in turn popularized it across the Roman Empire. Pleasure gardening fell out of practice with the collapse of Rome and remained largely dormant for nine centuries.

Constant fighting pushed cities behind walls; there was no room for gardens. Topiary’s ornamental nature shifted to a practical one; fruit trees were pruned flat to save space, which later became its own style known as espaliers. Monks preserved the art by growing herbs and manicuring hedges within courtyards.

With the Renaissance came a resurgence in gardening and topiary. Italian gardens were designed around pleasurable views; hedges enforced axes and framed neighboring pastoral fields. Verdant orbs, pyramids, and obelisks anchored corners, just as in the Roman times.

The French expanded on Italy’s geometric garden planning to massive scales. They stressed control over proportions and symmetry as far as the eye could see, most notably in the gardens of Versailles. While the French favored perfect cones, globes, and obelisks, the Dutch became adept at complicated figures, including animals, furniture, and pavilions, but at more intimate scales.

Franco-Dutch gardening traditions made their way to England, and by the 17th century the ideas reached their peak of extravagance and bordered on the absurd. Topiary could be found in the most exorbitant manors to the humblest cottages. Bushy beasts grazed in fields, ships drifted through roses, and Adams and Eves shared fruit. Shears left their mark on every aspect of the English garden.

Topiary’s ubiquity among English gardens eventually led to their demise in the 18th century. Alexander Pope’s satirical essay “Verdant Sculpture” criticized topiary, favoring the picturesque. By the 1720s and 30s, topiary had quickly grown out of fashion and had been cleared from all prominent English gardens. Levens Hall is the oldest and only surviving topiary garden from that era. Topiary lived on as a folkcraft in modest villages apathetic to trends.

One hundred years later, England rediscovered the charm of cottage gardens and a fascination for creating outdoor, hedge-lined rooms. By the 1870s, sculptural topiary’s popularity caught up and remained in style until the end of the century.

Coupled with a houseplant boom in the 50s and 60s, Disney World brought topiary to America’s main stage with their trademarked shrubby characters. Disney developed portable topiaries by fastening moss and shrubs to steel wires, which served as supports and permanent cutting guides. Portable and indoor topiary became a staple American art form ever since.

Topiary continues to thrive today, from grand displays at the 2008 Summer Olympics in China to rudimentary lawn maintenance in Staten Island. Topiary is an expression of our primitive need for control. From planting hedges around crops in the Neolithic age to table-toppers of today, topiary with stand the tests of time and always be with us.