The fifth World Topiary Day will be celebrated not just in the gardens of its founder, Levens Hall and Gardens, in Cumbria, on Sunday May 11, but in gardens around the world. However, it is in the home of the world’s oldest topiary garden that a glass will be raised to its founder, Monsieur Guillaume Beaumont, as another attempt to unravel his secret life is launched.
This year, the global celebration founded by Levens Hall and Gardens, has acquired even more admirers, with even Highgrove House, the residence and topiary-loving garden of King Charles, taking part.
The King’s property will be just one of over 40 gardens around the world celebrating with Levens Hall and Gardens, whose vision for the event was created during lockdown, in 2020, and was unveiled, for the first time, in 2021.
Gardens in Italy, France and Portugal, including the world-famous Marqueyssac and Eyrignac, are staging activities to mark the love of the ancient garden artform of topiary, which first developed in Roman times.
Meanwhile, in the USA, the world-renowned gardens of Longwood, in Pennysylvania, has expressed its delight in being able to come together with other world gardens, thanks to Levens Hall and Gardens’ ambassadorial spirit and leadership. A podcast with Longwood Gardens horticulturist, Brianna Reid, explains just what this celebration means to Longwood, particularly as topiary is a much rarer feature in American gardens.
World Topiary Day activities at Levens Hall and Gardens
At Levens Hall and Gardens, World Topiary Day will be inspiring more people to love the art of shaping trees and will be reaching out to young and old alike. The secret hope is that someone who comes through the door may have information on Monsieur Beaumont, the founder of the world’s oldest topiary garden in 1694, but a figure shrouded in mystery.
To try to inspire genealogical input, Levens Hall and Gardens will be releasing a ‘secret’. This is that Beaumont was known for signing for many plants and shrubs, as the garden began to take shape after 1694, but there are also many entries in which he was signing for vintage French wines!
This love of one of France’s greatest exports, convinces the gardens that Guillaume Beaumont had strong roots in France, unless the imports were a way to further another possibility – a little espionage in an era of heightened political tension between England and France. Many gardeners of his, and previous epochs, were spies, able to come and go at will, without falling under suspicion.
To attract those who might have information to impart, Levens Hall and Gardens is laying on a host of enticing activities on World Topiary Day.
Topiary tours and topiary art and craft children’s workshop
Head gardener, Chris Crowder, will lead two special topiary tours around the world’s oldest topiary garden. At both 11am and 2pm, these tours – unavailable to the public at any other time of year, and included with standard admission on the day – will expose the back-story to the gardens. It is an opportunity for visitors to pose all those questions they have longed to have answered, when it comes to the garden in general, and topiary in particular.
Children can gain an early understanding of why topiary is so special, in a creative workshop, available at an additional charge of £20 per child, with an accompanying adult for free. Children will have fun painting and creating crafts-based topiary creations, in activities designed by Laura Bolton, Head of Art at Sedbergh School. Under Laura’s guidance, young minds will be able to appreciate why their adult counterparts find topiary so engaging. Two workshops will run. The first is from 10am to 12.30pm and the second from 1pm to 3.30pm.
Any youngster can also put their mind to a special story-writing competition, if they pen an entry on the theme of the ‘The Secret Life of Topiary, to try to win a special trophy. This competition is open to anyone aged 8-11 and entries can be sent to jane@catapultpr.co.uk by June 1, 2025.
Music and fizz
As fizz pops and the Sedbergh Town Band play, filling the topiary garden and Cedar Lawn with music and joie de vivre, all will be able to raise a toast to Guillaume Beaumont but also to a celebration that has put topiary well and truly back on the gardening map and Levens Hall and Gardens at the top of the world topiary tree. The hope is that some genealogical nugget about Beaumont may then emerge.
Admission to Levens Hall and Gardens on World Topiary Day will cost £12.45 for an adult, £4.50 for a child and £31 for a family of two adults and up to three children. The garden opens at 10am and closes at 5pm. Entrance to the Hall and Gardens together costs £16.45, £5.50 and £41 respectively, with Hall entrance starting at 11am and closure at 3.30pm. Last entrance to the gardens is at 4pm and to the Hall it’s at 3pm.
