J Schwanke’s Life In Bloom

>> "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following.

>> At home... ...at work... ...or anytime.

CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom", where flowers and wellness go hand in hand.

>> We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

>> With additional support from the following.

>> Passion Roses.

Suntory Flowers.

>> We're climbing into the world of topiary in this episode, including a bit of history, a visit to a garden with butterfly and flower forms, and ways to create personal topiaries to enjoy them at home.

I'm J Schwanke.

Welcome to "Life in Bloom".

Today, I'm at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park admiring their topiary installation.

It's quite impressive, as you can see, and includes different topiary structures created specifically for the gardens.

Thus, here is the perfect place for a show that's all about topiaries.

What is a topiary?

A simple definition is of, relating to, or being the practice or art of training, cutting, and trimming trees or shrubs into unusual or ornamental shapes.

Many topiaries today are created using structures that support the plants.

We'll learn more about those shortly.

As an art form, topiary is a type of living sculpture.

I have translated the topiary concept of flower arranging a few times in "Life in Bloom", sometimes using stems as the main form, and others have been more complex and utilize flower form.

The history of topiary dates back to Roman times.

Gaius Matius Calvinus, from the circle of Julius Caesar, is credited with introducing the first topiary to Roman gardens, which were described as elaborate figures of animals, inscriptions, cyphers, and obelisks in clipped greens.

Topiary was revived in the 16th century, with traditional topiary forms of foliage pruned and or trained into geometric shapes such as balls or cubes, obelisks, pyramids, cones, or tiered plates, and tapering spirals.

Topiary at Versailles and its imitators was never complicated.

Low hedges punctuated by potted trees trimmed balls on standards, interrupted by obelisks at corners, provided the vertical features of flat, patterned parterre gardens.

The mid to late 1800's saw another topiary revival in the gardens of England, sometimes characterized by roses and mixed herbaceous borders, sometimes known as the old fashioned garden or the Dutch Garden.

Topiary then came into favor with the Colonial Revival gardens and the Grand Manner of American Renaissance, 1880 to 1920.

Interest in the revival and maintenance of historic gardens in the 20th century led to the replanting of Topiary Maze at the Governor's Palace, Colonial Williamsburg, in the 1930's.

American portable style topiary was introduced to Disneyland around 1962.

Walt Disney helped bring this new medium into being, wishing to recreate his cartoon characters throughout his theme park in the form of landscape shrubbery.

This style of topiary, which became popular in many venues, including botanical gardens, is based on a suitably shaped steel wire frame through which the plants eventually extend as they grow.

The frame, which acts as a trimming guide, may be either stuffed with sphagnum moss and then planted or placed around the shrubbery.

The sculpture may transform into a permanent topiary as the plants fill in the frame, or it may be reworked seasonally with new plantings as desired.

Frames are also available to the scale of potted plants for growing and shaping your own topiaries at home.

So, Ian, you are the senior lead horticulturist here at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.

>> Yep.

>> How long have you been here?

>> It'll be 30 years in November.

>> Wow.

>> Yeah, I started when I was 12 years old.

[ Both laugh ] >> Right, right.

Well, we're here to see these topiaries.

>> Yeah, the hibiscus.

Living sculptures, we call them.

>> So this isn't the first time that you've done topiary.

You've been doing topiary a long time here.

>> For a long, long time.

Yeah, for -- for about 22 years in the children's garden.

>> Wow.

>> And even longer before that.

>> Okay.

Who said, "Oh, we're gonna -- we need some bigger topiaries here?

We're gonna do this project."

>> I've been saying that for years.

There's a -- There's a company in Canada, and they do a lot of these sculptures around the country.

And so we came up with this idea of having, uh, giant flowers.

>> Right.

And so they fabricated these in Montreal.

>> In Montreal.

Yep.

>> Okay.

>> And made out of steel.

There's a big base underneath.

It's about six feet square.

So it's got to be something heavy to support the weight on top here.

>> Wow.

>> And basically it's like a big onion bag, you know, just a mesh bag.

>> Okay.

>> And it's been clipped to the frame.

And then they fill it with -- with a soilless mix.

It's got to be light.

It's got to be kind of porous, you know?

And then they take a dibber.

So it's a sharp, pointy stick, basically.

And they poke holes in it.

And as they poke holes in the bag, they plant plants.

So it's like, uh, small plugs of -- this is Alternanthera, or Joseph's Coat.

>> Okay.

>> And there's a lot of different varieties.

And then the leaves are made out of a sedum.

>> Wow.

>> It's a ground cover -- sedum.

>> Do people want to touch them?

>> Oh, definitely, yeah.

It's very touchy-feely, especially the leaves, you know?

>> Sure.

Sure.

>> And, uh, it's -- it's kind of good fun.

>> Yeah.

>> And if they fall off, they land in the ground, they root in ground, and I can find them and poke them back in the -- in the leaf again.

>> What about watering?

What about taking care of them?

How do you do all that?

>> There's an interior water system inside.

So it's all hooked up to our -- our pump system.

It's all electronics, which is kind of above my head, sort of.

But, uh, we've got that all set up.

And so it goes off on a timer and we water it for about five minutes, um, every few hours.

All right?

So it's not a constant, you know.

>> Okay.

>> And, uh, I also come out whenever I'm watering the bed and give it a spray over as well.

>> Right, right.

>> We do have automatic irrigation in the bed, but we figured that was gonna be too much water, especially on the leaves, and we'd probably drown them.

And so everything is kind of hand-watered in here.

>> Oh, wow.

>> Except for those three, four times a day.

>> What will happen to these at the end of the season?

>> End of the season, we'll come in, we'll bring in a small crane or a sky lift, and we'll bring everything out and then take them out back of beyond, and then we'll send them back and we'll -- they'll take them apart and clean up the frames.

And then hopefully next year, we'll get them back.

>> Okay, got it.

Well, Ian, I love these, but let's go see the butterfly.

>> Yeah.

>> All right, perfect.

So, let's make a simple topiary.

I think about the fact that there are certain flowers that lend themselves very well to being a topiary.

A carnation is one because it has a skinny stem and a big pom-pom-shaped flower at the top.

Another one that works well is a chrysanthemum, especially a spray pom pom chrysanthemum.

They call this that because I guess the flowers look a little bit like pom poms, but a spray chrysanthemum has the middle flowers taken out so all the other laterals bloom up.

And, again, notice how the flowers cluster at the top and we have a nice, long stem.

Another one that's great is a spray rose.

Now, we're used to seeing the rose that has one big giant bloom on it.

That could make a topiary, too.

So much more value with a spray rose because instead of one bloom, we have one, two, three, four, five.

And using those together can make a topiary as well.

Let me show you how we do it with a carnation first.

So we're gonna take our carnation flowers, and we're gonna gather them with the heads together at the top.

And I'm just gonna gather them around in a circle in my hand... so that we start to form a top for our topiary.

Carnations are really durable, and they're really easy to work with because they allow you to touch them a little bit.

They're gonna last a long period of time.

They might even have a fragrance, which is wonderful, too.

So we've got this, and see how we're forming a ball and pulling these center ones up a little bit so that we have nice good formation?

So that's 15 carnations that are all there together.

Then we're gonna take our craft covered wire.

We're just gonna use that and tie it around the center where we were holding our hand.

And I'm gonna tie it nice and snug.

I don't want to bind it off completely, but I want to give it a good banding.

Cut that.

Then we've tied it.

Now, we have flower foam inside here.

And it's a soaked flower foam.

I'm gonna bevel the edges... ...so we can make placements all the way around.

This is one where we've added chrysanthemums and one where we've added the spray roses.

We're gonna decide how tall we want it.

And we're gonna cut it off at an angle, just like we would if it was a single stem.

Then we're gonna take this, and we're gonna push it into the center of this bouquet.

Then we can fill in with other carnations.

We can use the same colors or I like to mix it up.

There.

So now we have a simple little topiary.

Let me show you what it would look like if we used chrysanthemums and our spray roses.

Chrysanthemums bound off.

Again, we're gonna cut that at an angle, and we're gonna go right in the center where I left room.

There we go.

And with our spray roses, again, we gathered those up at the top.

And, again, we'll cut it at an angle and go right in there.

We can even fill in with a couple of chrysanthemums down at the bottom to mix and match.

It's a really easy way to fill in at the bottom.

I've used flowers, but you could also use foliage or moss at the bottom, too.

But these are three cute little topiaries that are super easy to make.

Kawaii Catharanthus.

This is a wonderful bedding plant that you can have in your gardens.

I love it because it's a wonderful little round shape that gets covered with blossoms.

"Kawaii" means "cute" in Japanese, and it comes in many different colors.

There's white, pink, red, and then there's these -- Blueberry Kiss and Lavender.

Those are unexpected colors for us to see in the garden, and they're heat-tolerant and drought-tolerant.

These tight little round shapes, all covered with blossoms, is the perfect way to celebrate summer.

I think we should use this in our next topiary project.

Now let's make an advanced topiary.

We're going to use our Blueberry Kiss Kawaii as part of the base, and we'll use a topiary form.

This one's great 'cause you can build it as tall as you want it.

And we're gonna take that, and we're gonna stick it inside the pot of our Kawaii plant, and we'll push it down into the soil.

Now we're gonna add a sphere of foam on top of the topiary form.

But before we do that, I've soaked it in flower food water.

And then we're going to use waterproof anchor tape.

This is a tape that florists use to hold things together in a water environment because it's waterproof.

And we're just gonna wrap it around a couple times, turn it, and go this way.

So now we've created strength in that sphere.

So when we make insertions with our flowers, it won't fall apart.

We're gonna line it up right up here and push it down on that top.

Now see how it displaces water as we put it on there?

That means that there's gonna be plenty of water up there for our flowers that we're gonna arrange.

Next we'll add some greenery.

And this defines the shape of our bouquet.

so we'll bring it down.

Have another piece on the other side that comes down.

So I chose flowers that match our Lavender Kawaii so that it all goes together.

We'll add some carnations.

So you'll notice how we've defined our shape with this, but then I need something to fill in.

So I have some hydrangea blossoms I picked out of the garden, and then we'll add some spray roses and some chrysanthemums as top.

And now we'll finish by filling it in with a little more foliage from the garden.

So this is a great topiary for the garden, but we can even kick it up another notch by adding another piece.

I have this little stand that holds one of our Kawaii down below, and then this one can go on top.

So it makes a real statement in the garden.

So, Ian, this is a big butterfly.

>> Probably the biggest you'll ever see.

>> [ Laughs ] >> It's huge.

It's about nine feet tall.

>> Wow.

It's incredible.

>> It is.

It really is.

>> I see why this causes fascination with people.

I mean, you know, we -- we joke about the best-selling arrangement in a -- in a flower shop is the one that looks like a soda.

>> Yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

>> Because it's turning it into food or something.

So here we're turning plants into a butterfly or turning plants into flowers.

And I think that that's a wonderful way.

>> Yeah.

And the kids love that type of thing as well.

When something looks out of scale.

They love that type.

>> Right, right.

This is the children's garden here.

>> Lena Meijer Children's Garden.

>> Wow.

And it's just lovely.

And so many kids in it when you're here.

>> Oh, hundreds sometimes.

>> [ Laughs ] That's a great thing.

>> So there's, I think, 7 or 8 different varieties of Alternanthera, or Joseph's Coat in here.

So you can see the different shades, the different colors.

Broad leaves, the dark, coarse leaf, the very fine sort of filiform leaf on the top, and then sort of everything in between.

So part of my job is gonna be to keep the definition.

And so I'll be in here later on and give everything a bit of a trim.

>> So you're trimming them.

>> Yeah.

>> How often do you trim them?

>> Uh, it's probably every couple of weeks.

>> So is this watered the same way?

Again, there's a water system inside.

>> Yeah, we have a sneaky water system out the back there.

And the pump clicks on, waters it, like I said, about five minutes at a time.

So I just have to be careful not to overwater it.

That's the main thing 'cause at the top, you know, gravity can be your friend, but it's gonna get dry at the top.

We got a lot -- more moist at the bottom.

So I usually have to, you know, water a bit more at the top to stop everything from -- from browning out.

>> Wow.

>> So it's a wee bit more involved than just sort of flicking the switch and letting it go, you know?

>> Sure, sure, sure.

I'm noticing now and I see the other ones over there -- we have flowers, we have a butterfly.

Both things very colorful, but they're all done with foliage.

>> Yep.

>> So why no flowers?

>> I think sometimes there's certain plants that might do well on there with flowers, and the flowers die off.

>> Got it.

>> And they fall off or they discolor, and I think you're safer and it does a whole lot better if you're just using, like, single colors or a single type of plant, especially foliage.

Uh, and some of the topiary that I've done over the years, I'll use ivy, uh, and a lot of different types of ivy, you know, very fine leaf or coarse leaf, and you get a lot of texture through using that type of foliage as well.

>> So, Ian, people will want to know, where are you from.

>> I'm originally from a small seaside town in Scotland called Gourock.

>> Okay.

>> I go back there several times, you know, and I just love it to bits.

I miss it as well.

But Michigan's my home, though, and I love it here in Grand Rapids.

>> Awesome.

Well, thank you for showing these to us.

I appreciate it so much.

>> Oh, you're welcome.

>> Yeah, and we can't wait to see what you dream up next.

>> Uh, you just never know.

[ Both laugh ] >> And now it's time for my favorite part of the show -- Flowers from You, the viewers.

Joyce Edelen from Port Tobacco, Maryland, watches the show on Maryland Public Television Create TV, and she shared these pictures from her Garden Club spring luncheon.

Joyce writes, "This design was the focal point at our luncheon in the registration area.

It incorporates lemons, daffodils, and monarch butterflies."

This is a perfect addition to our topiary-themed show, Joyce.

I love the daffodils, hydrangeas, and lemons, and pairing them with monarch butterflies is beautiful.

Please send me your pictures of flower arrangements inspired by "Life in Bloom."

We call them Schwankes" after a viewer's nickname.

Send them to [email protected].

That's the letter [email protected], and watch for more Schwankes" on upcoming shows.

I hope you've enjoyed our foray into topiary, both on a grand scale, like those featured at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, as well as ideas that you can translate into your dinner buffet or kitchen table.

I hope you'll give it a try and enjoy the special magic of topiary in your home.

For "Life in Bloom", I'm J Schwanke.

I have to tell you that I am completely smitten with the Craspedia and the eyeball plant.

It is my favorite.

>> I love that, yeah.

>> I love it.

>> Have you eaten it?

>> I have!

I have.

>> I usually get my students to do that.

That's kind of the hazing sort of thing.

And even some of the visitors will say, "Are you brave?"

And I say, yeah, so I'll give them a leaf and they chew on the leaf, you know.

So I tell them, I says it's called eyeball plant, or peek-a-boo plant.

And by the time I get to that point, they're going, "My tongue's numb."

And I said, "Yeah, well, in the old days, it used to be called toothache plant.

So if you had a toothache, you would get a bunch of the leaves, chew them up, and put them down in the gum where it was sore."

And they go, "Oh, I see."

>> [ Laughs ] "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is filmed in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

>> J's flower-arranging tips, helpful hints, and arrangement recipes are available in J's two books -- "Fun with Flowers" for $25 and "Bloom 365" for $20 plus shipping.

To purchase these books and any of our additional products, visit uBloom.com/Store.

To learn more about flower arranging and J, access to videos, and to get recipes, tips, techniques, and much more, visit us online at uBloom.com.

Follow J on Facebook and Instagram @j schwankes life in bloom.

"J Schwanke's Life in Bloom" is brought to you by the following.

>> At home... ...at work... ...or anytime.

CalFlowers is a proud sponsor of "J Schwanke's Life in Bloom", where flowers and wellness go hand in hand.

>> We have fresh in all our stores, from soups and steaks and all things flour to all things flowering.

Custom fresh arrangements designed by our in-store florists at Albertsons Companies.

>> With additional support from the following... Passion Roses.

Suntory Flowers.

Closed-caption funding provided by fabulousflorals.com.