Hyundai recently introduced the world’s first production model Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicle, the ix35. Powered by renewable energy and zero-emissions technology it offers the first viable alternative to the internal combustion engine.
Looking for ‘green’ ways to promote their new product, Hyundai came to Agrumi to make a 1:2 topiary version of the hydrogen-powered original. We were all too pleased to help promote green energy in the greenest way we know; using dyed dried moss to create a dense , soft to the touch, detailed model.
We made our topiary car with the boot open to reveal bottles of water – symbols of the green, clean and renewable future that inspired Hyundai’s new model.
Conde Nast, publisher of Tatler magazine, asked us to create a life-size horse and hounds for their ‘Best of British’ edition and clients Jaeger. The animals were created in natural moss that was dried and coloured a vibrant green.
To see our Horse and Hounds in the studio, watch this video:
After the shoot, we modified the horse to fit a window display at Jaeger’s flagship store on London’s Regent Street. The display encourages shoppers to take a ‘selfie’ with our horse and share it to Instagram and Twitter to enter a competition.
Dobbies chain of garden centres wanted a giant topiary Easter bunny to mark the official start of spring and the gardening season.
Positioned in Greenwich Park, the bunny was used by Dobbies PR to encourage budding gardeners and al fresco aficionados to get outdoors and enjoy the predicted spell of great weather. Andy King, Managing Director at Dobbies said the bunny was an iconic symbol of Easter and would make people think about their outdoor spaces.
For a relatively small financial outlay the bunny helped Dobbies create a story that featured in print - including ‘The Times’ - and social media.
The bunny now lives outside Dobbie’s store in Shrewsbury where it acts as a beacon to customers for the green treats inside.
The Lady Gaga shoe was commissioned to launch a week-long event of floral and fashion themed festivities. This two metre high stiletto was positioned in St Christopher’s Place in London, just a stone’s throw away from the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street.
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. The local traders wanted to commemorate the celebrity visit, and what better way than through the art of topiary!
St Christopher’s Place wanted the shoe covered in living plants and we used fast-growing Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), which offers the added bonus of seasonal, fragrant white flowers.
It took just a week to create this piece from scratch. The success of the project inspired St Christopher’s Place to commission another shoe from Agrumi, but this time covered in twinkly LED lights.
Paultons Park, the family theme park in Hampshire, first asked Agrumi to supply bespoke topiary in 2010. Since then we’ve made yearly additions to the park’s rides and gardens. Our sculptures have been a big hit with Paultons’ visitors – appreciated by adults and children alike for their sense of fun.
Paultons’ Jungle Falls gardens are now home to a magnificent topiary rhino, a family of gorillas, a pair of African cranes, a life-size giraffe, an elephant with her baby, and a two and a half meter crocodile.
By the Cobra Ride is a towering topiary snake head, just along from a pair of stalking topiary Velociraptors, and minutes away from a pair of windsurfers accompanying the Raging River Ride.
The Forest Friends area is home to a lifelike family of deer and numerous rabbits, hares, badgers and foxes.
Peppa Pig World offers younger children entry into a magical land based on the muchloved television characters and Agrumi has supplied many of the sculptures in this area.
Paultons’ most recent themed ride features a spectacular Victorian carousel, for which Agrumi supplied a huge range of circus characters in living topiary.
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.
