Behind the scenes of an ITV production....
Agrumi helped by providing a topiary New Forest Pony for the filming of a children's comedy arts and crafts show called 'Makeaway Takeaway'.
Bec Hill, who presents the show, always takes on a big creation at the end of each show. This time she was taking on a pony, a familiar sight in our area of the New Forest.
Firstly, we created a pony shaped framework and planted up several trees and bushes inside, to hide the frame from view.
Then this was taken to the filming location, just down the road in Sway. A local arts charity, spudWORKS, provided their premises for the day’s filming.
Our topiary artist started work turning the plants into the form of the pony (while the cameras were off) , and Bec copied his technique for the filming shots.
Slowly, but surely, the Pony shape came to life...
Lots of the local community came to help out, including children from the local school who helped create the floral necklace that embellished the pony at the end of filming.
It was a joy to be part of such a great project!
You can watch this epsode of Makeaway Takeaway called 'Unbe-Leaf-Able' on ITVX.
The Wild Rabbit and The Fox are both part of the Daylesford estate – one of the most sustainable organic farms in the UK.
Agrumi has a close relationship with Daylesford and was more than happy to create a few custom topiary pieces to adorn their Inns.
Firstly, a threesome of living topiary foxes were created - each with a unique pose: alert, leaping and sitting.
They are displayed in 3 different areas around 'The Fox' Inn, to create interest at the front entrance, garden steps and bar window.
The inns were both restored using locally sourced natural materials and centuries old techniques, creating a long-lasting environment with minimum impact to the surroundings. They used reclaimed timber, with roof insulation made with sheep’s wool from their organic farm and turned their own cattle hides into leather for the pub’s seating. The aim is to leave the lightest imprint on our planet while creating unique spaces filled with warmth and character.
Sustainability is a key value for Daylesford, which is why they choose to use living plant topiary in their designs. This approach not only adds natural beauty and life to the Inns, but it is also environmentally friendly as the plants continue to grow and thrive over time. By using living topiary, Agrumi and Daylesford are showing their commitment to preserving the environment and promoting sustainable practices in their work.
More recently, a pair of living topiary rabbits was created for another inn: 'The Wild Rabbit'.
The name is a nod to its original title: Conygree Farm – an Anglo Saxon word meaning rabbit enclosure. More recently it was the Tollgate Inn; a building constructed in Cotswolds stone with beautiful proportions, known for its convivial atmosphere and unusual double fireplace.
“Sitting Spiritually” is a Dorset based manufacturer of quality wooden swing seats. They are the only bespoke swing seat maker endorsed by the Royal Horticultural Society.
Their headquarters are located down a country road and they wanted a statement piece of topiary out front, so that customers could easily find them.
We designed a topiary version of their favourite swing seat design: the Kyokusen , which is Japanese for “Curves in the air”. The seat’s design draws upon the curves and flow of the Torii, a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of a shrine.
The stand’s shape was adapted to fit into their custom made planter, and covered in star Jasmine plants. In the summer the stand will be covered in white flowers, which will create a wonderful scent.
The seat was covered in Ligustrum plants, which is traditionally our favourite topiary plant. It’s evergreen and has little leaves, perfect for design details.
We installed the topiary into their planter at their Lyme Regis HQ, ensuring that the planter and compost had sufficient drainage.
Sitting Spiritually said about the topiary sculpture:
“TA-DAA
Check out our latest installation at Sitting Spiritually HQ!
There's no missing us now!”
Could your business benefit from some topiary sculptures? Just get in touch!
Sunday 27th October 2019 marked one year since the helicopter accident that claimed the lives of the late Leicester City Chairman (Khun Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha), staff members Kaveporn Punpare and Nusara Suknamai, and pilots Eric Swaffer and Izabela Lechowicz outside King Power Stadium.
We were asked to produce three topiary sculptures for the memorial garden built on the crash site – one fox, one elephant and one horse.
The fox was chosen as the club logo is a fox and it was covered in ligustrum. The elephant was chosen to give a nod to Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha's Thai heritage and that, as well as the prancing horse, was covered in star jasmine.
The club hosted a private multi-faith ceremony on 27th October 2019, at the garden, exactly one year after the helicopter crash that killed Khun Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and 4 others.
We worked flat out to produce and deliver all the animals so that they could be planted before opening day.
After the opening day, the present CEO requested for the elephant’s pose to be changed. We happily accepted the elephant back at our workshop for alteration. We adapted the elephant’s head to be facing upwards, so that it had a more lively appearance.
Leicester City Chief Executive Susan Whelan said about the garden: “…something peaceful, something poignant and something beautiful, where supporters of today and of future generations can remember what one man’s vision did for this Club, this community.
“The Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha Memorial Garden will be the latest in a series of lasting tributes that will form part of Khun Vichai’s legacy.”
If we can help you with some topiary sculptures please do get in touch!
Here at Agrumi, topiary animals are a popular item. We've made a huge range of animal topiary; from dogs to cats, woodland creatures to farm animals, and even Jurassic Dinosaurs! We can make any topiary animal bespoke, life size, miniature or exaggerated.
If you have something special in mind we'll be able to accommodate; after a particular breed, size, set of animals or even mythical creatures, just let us know what you're after and we'll bring it to life!
We're often asked approached by people who require topiary pieces made up in a hurry or for low maintenance ever lasting installations. For this kind of project, when there isn't enough time for our standard Ligustrum to fluff up, our range of artificial topiary products are ideal to achieve that instant wow factor.
In artificial products we have up to five products to choose from; artificial boxwood matting, artificial grass, dried dyed moss or bare bones/LED covered topiary frames.
Artificial boxwood matting can be very effective if you’re looking for a realistic plastic alternative to living plants. We use a variety with deep ‘foliage’ and tonal shades of green which replicate the real thing. It's suitable for long-term outdoor use, sturdy, light to carry and weather-resistant; providing an instant ever lasting wow-factor that can be used time and again.
Namgrass, a near neighbour to Agrumi in the New Forest, just so happen to be Britain’s premier supplier ofartificial grass; making it the perfect partner for Agrumi’s topiary skills to provide light weight, portable, low maintenance topiary figures. With artificial grass you can have great looking topiary instantly that doesn’t require any further care.
Dried moss topiary figures can be made as a green natural alternative to living topiary that we use to create fuller looking products in an instant; producing healthy looking, soft topiary which requires very little maintenance.
And, of course, we can supply all of our topiary figures in their most basic wire frame form; perfect if you’re thinking of trying your hand at training your own topiary plant. Or, alternatively, we offer a fantastic sculpture covering in the form of LED lights. This combination of LED lights and our wire frame sculptures creates a beautiful effect that will joyfully light up the night!
Size is no object for Agrumi topiary. Whether for an event or just advertisement, giant-topiary can be an eye-catching and unusual way to draw in the crowds.
We recently completed our first international topiary commission against formidable competition! In just 10 days we designed, constructed and delivered a 3 metre high topiary teddy bear sculpture to a municipal project in Belgium; the impressive bear now features on a prominent roundabout site and is being enjoyed by thousands of people as they drive by on their daily commutes.
This two-metre high giant topiary shoe was commissioned by Rain Communications to launch a week-long fashion and floral-themed festival in London.
The design was based on a pair of similarly formed denim stiletto shoes purchased by Lady Gaga from Lungta de Fancy in St Christopher’s Place, near Oxford Street, and was made in just two weeks.
The local traders wanted to commemorate the celebrity visit; what better way than through the art of topiary!
We can make topiary letters and numbers in any size, two or three-dimensional, in a choice of living Ligustrum, Star Jasmine, or, alternatively, using dyed dried moss or artificial materials.
Perfect for promoting a green environmentally friendly image, be it your company name in giant three-dimensional letters, planted outside your office for promotion or an event, we can make attractive signage to promote your business or welcome people to your event/property.
Or, alternatively, if it's a special occasion such as someone's birthday, anniversary, wedding or just an event in someone specials life, why not have us create a beautiful design of their name, initials, age or a special message to commemorate the occasion in beautiful living topiary that can be planted in the ground as a permanent living memento?
We recently made some topiary letters against the clock on behalf of BBC Entertainment which were displayed at the British Embassy in Oslo in honour of the Queen's Official Birthday. We were more than happy with the result; using Star Jasmine as our plant of choice we were able to produce good looking topiary in a matter of days. You can watch a video of how we did it here.
Here at Agrumi our speciality is in Bespoke Topiary, however, we also supply many classic architectural topiary shapes.
We can offer balls, cones, pyramids, spirals and standards, all at very competitive prices. We supply them in a wide range of plant species; including Common Box, Conifer, the deciduous shrubs (Euonymus and Photinia) and the evergreen shrubs Ilex (of which Holly is one variety), Ligustrum (Privet) and Taxus.
We also have some beautiful specimen Cloud and Pom Pom-trained trees at the nursery; grown in a variety of species and sizes they make fantastic feature plants, placed in a prominent place they can gracefully enhance your garden design.
If you see something you like or have a particular request, don't hesitate to ask, we make classic topiary in all manner of shapes and sizes.
Another popular use of topiary is to transform all manner of transport into a green expression of nature. We can make topiary transport models of almost any type, specification or details; such as the Hyundai Car we made, celebrating the first production model Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle, the ix35.
Be it a plane, car, bike, boat or train, our sculptor works to any specification, scale and model, to bring them as close to life as possible; from F1 cars to a full-size horse and carriage, we've made all kinds of transport in topiary!
