Trees Gallery - Levens Hall

Levens Hall

Levens Hall is the oldest topiary garden in the world, dating from the 1690s, with many specimens over 300 years old. Ten acres of Gardens retain many original features including a surreal and unique collection of ancient box and yew trees, in abstract or geometric shape, rising up from a beautiful display of underplanting, populated with an ever-changing array of over 30,000 bedding plants, all grown in the greenhouses onsite.

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Buxus sempervirens buxis - Latin name for box tree; semper ever virens green, reflecting the evergreen nature of box.

Box topiary

The large topiary at Levens is mainly yew, but there are lots of box specimens as well. Box blight has taken its toll in recent years, and much of the low edging box has been replaced with ilex crenata or lonicera nitida, to some extent as a trial. This area is in reasonably good shape, with only a few patches affected by blight visible.

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Catalpa catalpa - from a North American name, possibly meaning winged head; Bignoni - a separate genus with similar flower structure; oides - Latin for resembling. So this tree resembles Bignoni. bignonioides

Indian bean tree

A.k.a. southern catalpa, cigartree. a deciduous tree growing to 12 m, with brown to grey bark, maturing into hard plates or ridges. The short thick trunk supports long, straggling branches which form a broad and irregular head. The fruit resembles bean pods, long and thin, with numerous flat light brown seeds with two papery wings.

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Taxus baccata taxua - probably from the Greek word taxon, meaning bow, referring to the us of yew for bow making; bacca - from Latin, meaning berry, referring to the tree's distinctive berry-like arils

Yew

A.k.a. common yew, European yew, or English yew. An evergreen tree native to Europe, NW Africa, and parts of SW Asia. It is a popular choice for topiary, and the full range of possibilities is on display at Levens Hall, with over 100 geometrical shapes and abstract shapes in evidence.