Category: California Photos

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I was going to hold off showing you the amazing topiary I discovered at the San Diego Botanic Garden, but when I saw that the WordPress weekly photo challenge is “unique”, I figured these photos would be perfect. I had never seen anything like it anywhere else, so to me, these are very unique indeed.

First let me say I’ve seen lots of topiary and I always admire the art of being able to create shapes out of trees. In a way, what the San Diego Botanic Garden has done is a little different, as you’ll see below. The most amazing thing about these plant “sculptures” is that you could literally walk right past them and not notice them – they blend in with their surroundings very well. In fact, I walked past the first one, saw the second, then walked back to the first one to take pictures from the beginning. Most people didn’t notice most of them either until they saw me taking pictures of them.

I took these first few photos in the Mexican Garden area of the San Diego Botanic Garden. The light was very bright and most of the garden was in the shade, so it was tricky to take photos, with such contrast on most pictures. And I didn’t use a flash either. I need to plan half a day to go up there by myself and spend the time to take the right pictures, the right way, at the right time.

I invite you to click on some of these photos to see all the details of each topiary in a larger format.

This is the first topiary you see as you enter the Mexican Garden, that is if you don’t walk right by it as I did.

The second topiary is just as pretty. You can see each plant is exactly where it’s supposed to be.

The next two topiary items are opposite of each other. It’s a couple dancing to the music of a mariachi band.

Check out the musicians’ mustaches!

I’m not sure what this topiary is supposed to be. A gardener? You tell me what you think it is.

The next topiary is a man sitting down and looking at something in his hand.

This is what he’s looking at: a butterfly (made with a plant, of course). Nice!

These last few photos are from topiary art I found in the children’s garden of the San Diego Botanic Garden.

This one is technically not a topiary but rather a sculpture made out of planting pots… Pretty neat, huh?

The next one is a poor rhinoceros topiary that has a shedding problem. It looks quite naked in some areas.

The last one is a reading rabbit, perfect addition to a children’s garden.

I hope you enjoyed these photos of unique topiary. Thanks for stopping by!