BBC Entertainment commissioned Agrumi at short notice to make the company name in topiary for a special promotional event abroad. We are often approached by clients who need good-looking topiary in a hurry, but who prefer not to use artificial coverings. We have several tried and tested solutions for these situations, the BBC decided to go for fragrant, fast-growing Star Jasmine. Every one of our living topiary designs goes through 3 creative steps:
Watch the film below of the BBC Entertainment commission piece to see the process in action. At Agrumi we believe in putting all our know-how and skills into delivering a product that is perfectly tailored to the customer’s wishes.
Radley is a British company that values good design and quality. Its beautiful handbags, purses and accessories have become world famous, as has its little Scottie dog logo. ‘Radley’ the dog embodies the company’s respect for British humour and eccentricity and features on all its products.
To celebrate the re-launch of their flagship store in Covent Garden, Radley asked Agrumi to make their adorable logo larger than life in a giant topiary ‘pop-up’ to feature in the Piazza.
Although the piece could have been made with living plants, Radley chose to use artificial boxwood matting. The product Agrumi uses has deep ‘foliage’ and tonal shades of green, which replicate the real thing very well.
This light, sturdy, UV fade-protected and weather-resistant material requires no on-going care and is the perfect choice for clients wanting items they can transport and use over and over again for indoor and outdoor events and exhibitions. After appearing in Covent Garden, Radley took their topiary dog on a countrywide promotional tour.
The Notcutts garden center chain has been helping gardeners since 1897. Looking to create a unifying topiary feature, to be used outside every one of their outlets, that would set them apart from other garden centers they came to Agrumi for design and fabrication advice.
For this commission we suggested a tableau of British wildlife and created eighteen identical sets of figures including stags, foxes, hares and other common countryside animals - one tableau for every Notcutts centre.
For this project we used Ligustrum delavayanum (box leaf privet) which is ideally suited to topiary work; so long as the client is prepared to wait a growing season for the greening-up process to fill any gaps. We also used this plant at Paultons Park and Peppa Pig World and whenever the sculptures are to be planted in the ground.
The small leaf size in this Buxus lookalike means that we can sculpt fine definition into the wire armature frames that doesn't get lost among the foliage.
Notcutts’ Senior Plant Buyer said “We chose Agrumi for the quality, consistency and fine craftsmanship of their topiary sculptures, as well as their keen pricing. This British wildlife theme will have wide appeal both across generations in families and around the country”.
We were asked by a local pub to have one of our standard wire topiary deer frames covered in 1000 sparkling LED lights to help raise funds for charity.
The work took no more than a morning and the results were fantastic, using LED lights as an alternative wire frame covering creates a unique figure that truly brightens up the evening. ‘Rudolf’ was stationed outside our local pub in the New Forest, ‘The White Buck’ to help raise funds for Greenfingers, the organization that creates magical gardens for children’s hospices.
Last summer Agrumi was commissioned by ITV’s hugely successful, long-running show ‘Love Your Garden’ to create a topiary giraffe for client Joan Myers. Every week while the show is on its fantastic team of expert gardeners is challenged to build a new garden for deserving people like Joan.
Joan has devoted her life to paediatric nursing in the NHS and helping children in Africa. In 2013 she was awarded the OBE for Outstanding Services to Nursing and named as one of this country’s top 50 Inspirational Leaders in Healthcare. Her commitment to nursing meant however that her garden was sadly neglected.
When the ‘Love Your Garden’ team offered to help, Joan said she would like a beautiful, tranquil space in which to reflect, pray and entertain; requesting a topiary giraffe to remind her of Africa.
ITV came to Agrumi for the topiary and we were only too pleased to oblige.
Namgrass, a near neighbor to Agrumi in the New Forest, just so happen to be Britain’s premier supplier of artificial grass; making it the perfect partner for Agrumi's topiary skills to provide light weight, portable, low maintenance topiary figures. With Namgrass you can have great looking topiary that looks great and doesn't require any care.
Namgrass products have a natural look and feel, and are remarkably true to life, creating some stunning topiary designs; including the Dalek, Pudsey bear, a Velociraptor and T-Rex, we can use Namgrass to make most of our bespoke topiary designs.
This year, for the fourth year running, we were proud to be present at the HTA National Plant Show, 23/24th June 2015, in Stoneleigh park, Coventry, with a selection of our topiary on display! Each year it's a fantastic show with plenty of inspirational displays and plants to admire; it is always an honour and joy to be there!
You can see the events and features that were on at the show by clicking here!
