Growing herbs indoors is a great way to keep your garden growing all winter long. The herbs taste good, they smell good, and with a few clips and twists, you can turn them into terrific topiaries. It may look a little complicated, but you'll be surprised to find out just how easy these are to make.
Stop by a garden center, and you'll see a wide variety of herbs in all different shapes and sizes. Some of the best herbs for topiaries include rosemary, lavender, trailing thyme, myrtle and santolina.
Rosemary works well because it has a woody stem. To get started, you need some stakes, pruners and something to tie the plant with, such as raffia. First, take the stake and insert it into the center of the plant. If the rosemary seems a little bushy, trim off the outer stems.
To create a single-stem standard, you need to remove all the stems except one. Or you can leave four and wind the stems around the stake to get a braided look. In either case, figure out where you want the topiary ball to start developing. The leaves below the base of that ball need to be removed to the bare stem. Carefully pinch off the excess foliage, so that you won't strip the stem, or use your pruners.
Now you're ready to wind. Begin by braiding the stems around the stake. Then, use raffia to tie off the top right below the topiary ball. Finally, snip off the excess stake with your pruners. It may take about six months to a year for the topiary to take full shape. To get a nice, round ball, be very prudent with the pruning. Hold the top part together and just snip it off, which sends energy back down through the plant, so it will become nice and bushy. If you get any new growth along the stem, simply remove the foliage. If you want to leave rosemary down at the bottom, you can. Otherwise, slowly prune that out, as well.
This technique works great for creating a standard with woody stems. But a plant like thyme, which has trailing stems, isn’t strong enough to make a standard, so you need a form. Making a topiary with a form is really quite simple. All you need to do is wind the thyme around the form and use 12-gauge floral wire to very lightly secure it to the form. If your thyme doesn't quite make it around the entire form, don't worry; eventually, it will grow into the form. Just keep winding the thyme as it grows. Remove all the extra stems from the base, and add a little moss for a nice finishing touch. This is just one way of doing a topiary with a form. You can also use a classic globe form, and eventually your plant will take shape.
The best part about herb topiaries is that you can use the trimmings in your cooking.
