Walt Disney World character topiaries bring Epcot's Flower and Garden
Festival to life
It’s easy being green if you’re a Mickey Mouse topiary in
the hands of an expert Disney pruner. Disney’s chlorophyll zoo
of more than 200 characters is an example of creative gardening at its
finest all around Walt Disney World Resort.
Examples of this gardening whimsy include a sea serpent of Japanese
yew that guards the moat around Cinderella Castle and a Japanese Privet
elephant “conga line” at Magic Kingdom. A creative selection
of topiary materials also has produced some fun special effects -- there’s
Simba, the lion hero of “The Lion King,” with a furry mane
of tufted mondo grass, and the film’s famous warthog, Pumbaa, sporting
a hairy plume of Evergreen Giant liriope atop his head.
Each spring, during the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival,
gardeners create new twists on topiary, including leafy characters that
move and turn. Traditional hedges and trees stylized geometrically complete
the Vacation Kingdom’s topiary picture.
Topiary gardening first became popular more than 2,000 years ago, and
it took off like a flying elephant during 17th century Europe. Today,
precision pruners at Walt Disney World Resort carry on the topiary tradition
with a fanciful twist, fashioning Disney’s popular characters --
Dumbo included -- of shrub or sphagnum moss and vine with plenty of
floral splash.
It was Walt Disney himself who first planted the seed to create topiaries
in Disney parks and resorts. Combining the talents of his film animators
with those of park gardeners, Disney helped grow the topiary techniques
to fit the whimsical theming of his first park, Disneyland. Walt Disney
World Resort followed suit, beginning its topiary nursery three years
before the resort’s 1971 grand opening.
A menagerie of green or blossoming hippos, panda bears and other critters
joins Disney character stars such as Mickey Mouse in the backstage growing
areas at Walt Disney World Nursery. Disney artists create the shapes
to become blueprints for the wire framework that supports each topiary
figure. Gardeners prune the plant material weekly during the growing
season. Quick-growing figures are fashioned of sphagnum with creeping
fig and English ivy -- even wax-leaf begonia flowers are used.
The topiary figures of Walt Disney World Resort are a major guest attraction,
and Disney gardeners are kept busy year-round with the planting and
pruning of these popular ornamental shrubs.
