If the trees were a good size and well grown when they were planted, the work of clipping and training them may be commenced the following year, according to the shape into which it is intended to form the tree. It is not advisable that any clipping or training be done to the trees the same autumn or winter that they are planted. It should be deferred until the following autumn, in order to allow of fresh root action taking place. Some of the trees can be clipped into certain shapes when they are quite small; but for other shapes a much larger tree is necessary to commence work upon. It is a very wise policy to go to a little extra expense on the original outlay of the trees, rather than buy small trees that will be of no use whatever for the work for which they are ultimately intended.
If the suggestion that I made in a previous chapter has been acted upon, viz., the buying in of the required number of trees some years before the work of making the garden is taken in hand, and bringing them on in the home nursery beds until they have become a suitable size, and until the time arrives when they are required for planting in their permanent places in the garden, the actual cost of the trees will be reduced to a minimum, and better and more suitable trees secured than if they had been purchased direct from some of the nurserymen.
Although no actual shaping need be done to them until they are planted in their places in the garden where they are to remain, a little pruning and regulating of the shoots may be carried out. If that is done, it will be found to be a great advantage in adapting the trees to their future work. The buying of young trees from the nurserymen and growing them on in nursery beds in the reserve garden, until they are required for planting in the garden, is a system regularly practised here, and one that is well worth a trial.
To the person desirous of having a Topiary garden there are two courses open. The first is, he can either train and shape his own trees, or else he can purchase from one or other of the nurserymen who make clipped yews a speciality, a ready-made collection. Trees that are clipped into all manner of shapes can now be purchased from some of the nurserymen either at home or imported from the Continent. The system of buying trees that are already shaped is an excellent way of getting a Topiary garden made and furnished with trees in the quickest possible time. But it is a plan that is not to be universally recommended or practised. In the first place, trees of that description generally have the very great drawback of being very expensive. Only those who have to deal with the training of yews have any idea how much labour and care is spent on a tree in shaping it into even the smallest bird; and it therefore stands to reason that the time and labour nurserymen spend on clipping and training Topiary trees, and preparing them for the market, must be paid for by the purchaser. But there is another, and perhaps an even greater objection in buying trees already trained. Surely the person who loves his garden and takes a great personal interest in Topiary work, would never think of planting it with trees that have already been cut into shapes by other hands. Although there is no question about the excellence of nursery trained trees, I would strongly recommend that the person who spends the time and money in forming and laying out a Topiary garden, should have the patience to undertake and carry through the training of his own trees. A far greater source of pleasure will be derived from watching your own trees grow, and from seeing them clipped and trained each year into the particular shape that it is intended they should represent.