Make a Topiary From Live Branches

The topiary above is 4-5 branches from a large boxwood shrub. We bundled them together with two large rubber bands then wrapped the stems in rush fiber which helps the water to wick upward, hydrating the stems.

The topiary above is made from blueberry branches and even had berries growing on them (until we ate them!)

Look for woody shrubs or trees with small leaves that will look dense when bundled together. Choose stems that are growing as straight as possible. You can straighten them somewhat when you lash the stems together with rubber bands.

Wash your stems thoroughly to make sure there are no pests on them. Keep your stems hydrated in large bowls or buckets of water. Now you can look for the straightest stems and begin removing sprigs to create the topiary look.

Pull off some of the lower branches and leave a good sized cluster at the top of your bundle.

Slide rubber bands over the stems and roll them into place to hold the bundles together. If you are making a large number of these, look for the premium produce bands in the materials list. Line your container with a ceramic cup or plastic bag that will hold water.

Here's an example of using a baggie for the water supply. 

Hold stems in place with marbles or chunks of florist foam.

Hide the water reservoir with something like fluffy moss.

Add a rustic bow to hide the rubber band, or …

… if you've got a thick bunch of stems like the boxwood above, you can use heavy duty rubber bands covered with natural paper ribbon. Also called "rush fibre", we've included it in our materials list to show the exact brand. You can flatten out this fibre like ribbon which makes it easy to wrap stems as shown above. Next … you can practice your topiary skills!

You can trim a dense bundle of boxwood into a Tootsie-Pop shape with a little practice. You may want to do this outside as it can be messy. These are so easy to make you'll soon be as skillful as Edward Scissorhands!

Trimmed or untrimmed. Indoors or out. If you water and mist these topiaries daily they will last for a long time and can be made in advance for special events. Add holiday decorations for special occasions. Dip the stems in a rooting hormone and fill the reservoir with damp sand instead of plain water, and you will be encouraging roots so that these can be planted in soil later. We've added a link to rooting hormone in the materials section if you'd like to try this technique. A great shortcut is to use parakeet sand from a pet store in small boxes so that you don't have to buy a huge bag of sand.

There are lots of shrubs that make good topiaries including: myrtle, boxwood, blueberry, rosemary, and barberry … which we've seen growing wild complete with bright red berries. Any sturdy wood that grows fairly straight with small leaves is a good candidate for this craft.

Here's a boxwood topiary living in water next to our faux-bronze horse which was the first craft we posted on HomeTalk in January 2019. To see how this was made from a toy, a brick, and some craft paint, click here to visit our blog. Bye for now!