Coleus Topiaries: I Learn somethin new every day!

Never new they did this. I love the look , but wonder how is it done? and how long does it take.

And most of all is it really difficult to achieve?



Sylvia

I have read that it takes about 1 year for a standard topiary. A standard is single 'ball' of foilage on the top of the stem.

I am trying some topiary with forms. It may be a few months before they are worth taking a good look at, but, here they are all bunched together>

This message was edited Jun 1, 2009 5:05 AM

Dale, would love to see pictures of your finished topiaries.

here's a topiary of coleus "definitely different" by Ray Rogers of Atlock Farms, NJ. He had another beautiful one of "lancelot velvet mocha" but I don't have a pic of that...

just looked I don't have it either... just the same one you do

sigh

here are a few more from the Atlock table at the sussex co show

last one

Looks like his neighbor is trying to move in!

Beautiful pictures! I know what my next project is ;)

india frills makes such an adorable topiary, doesn't it? and it grows fast.
i see a couple every year the the philadelphia flower show, and they always win. if "cutest topiary" were a category they'd definitely win.

you could try coleus bonsai too. i had one over the winter ("tiny toes" coleus) but the stems were so tiny and got so brittle with age the heavily branched sections got weight down and eventually snapped off. but i got a bunch of eventually rooted cuttings for the effort. unlike traditional bonsai plants, they achieve bonsai form rather quickly.

:)
joy

have to stake them for sure

Here are a couple of my starts. They are over a month old and I tied them up today.

that's pretty cool Dale.. can't wait to see them finished

REAL Nice . . . who-da'thunk?

stupid question 101 - how do you know which will do this topiary thing?

Glee,

Any coleus will work, they all have flexible stems at first, but, small leaved kinds are better for the round topiaries.

For the Standard type topiary large leaved kind work best because the get taller faster.

Do you think The Boss would work well as a topiary?

Progress with Inky Toes>

More progress, with .... hmm, forgot the name>

Sparkler, I think.

NICE!!!!

Thanks Alice, yes it is Sparkler.


Inky Toes>

filling out nicely

ok

im on the coleus move.
planning winter indoor activities - with them . . .

cna coleus do the topiary thing in the winter months??

which stores/websites sell the metal frames of topiaries ??

They are coming along>

wow look at that... pretty neat

Tiny Toes, cuttings from Brinda last Fall>

Wow! What a stunner!

Can you still take cuttings from the tree to start others?

At this point the 'cuttings' from it are very small....I pinch it every week. I have other stock plants.

Nameless, soon to be homeless>

love that tiny toes...

homeless makes me sad

:(

I know this is a dumb question, but can you remove the form to use for another topiary or is it possible to do it without the form? These are beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

The form is permanent.

Look at all the pretty flowers>

dale,

if sidney were here to see that she'd go into convulsions LOL.... i miss sidney:)

joy

I don't!

The Tiny Toes topiary is sooo cool!

Progress

More progress

Slow progress

Looks like a success!

so cool Dale!

Awesome job! They look great.

GardenersCorner,

Did you ever start a topiary....or did we scare you off?