World Topiary Day: 5 Topiary Parks in India with Spectacular Green Sculptures
In celebration of World Topiary Day, here’s a romp through five of India’s most charming topiary parks.
Published : May 12, 2025 at 10:59 AM IST
If trees could dream, they would probably dream of becoming dragons or elephants, or a pair of neatly trimmed poodles. This is the imaginative essence of topiary: the delightful art of shaping living plants into sculptures.
World Topiary Day is observed each year on the 12th of May as a nod to this peculiar yet elegant pastime. It was established in 2021 by Levens Hall and Gardens in Cumbria, England, home to the world’s oldest topiary garden dating back to 1694. The word topiary itself comes from the Latin topiarius, meaning ornamental gardener. In practice, it’s a sort of horticultural performance art that involves enormous patience, a good pair of shears, and a specific kind of imagination... the kind that looks at a hedge and sees a hippopotamus waiting to emerge!
While India may not be the first place you associate with this leafy indulgence, the subcontinent does hide a few gloriously oddball pockets where plants have been coerced and cajoled into taking other forms. In celebration of World Topiary Day, here’s a romp through five of India’s most charming topiary parks, where the bushes are living their best lives.
1. Topiary Park in Chandigarh
If you're looking for the Disneyland of India's topiary scene, this is it. Tucked away in Chandigarh’s Sector 35, this is India’s only dedicated topiary park. You’ll find an entire menagerie of green elephants, deer, bears, and even human figures, each one lovingly carved out of Ficus and Duranta shrubs. It’s like wandering into a Dr. Seuss dream sequence if Dr. Seuss had grown up in Punjab and majored in botany. Created in 1987, this park is a family favourite. Kids stare wide-eyed at the plant-shaped pachyderms while adults pretend they came for the kids but secretly take just as many photos.
Pro tip: Go just before sunset when the golden light makes the green creatures glow like storybook illustrations.
2. Vrindavan Gardens in Mysuru
The Vrindavan Gardens near Mysuru are the Versailles of southern India, with a little more humidity. Built across the Krishnaraja Sagar Dam, this garden is famous for its musical fountain (a water ballet choreographed to music), floral mosaics, and of course, topiary borders shaped into neat geometric precision.
Here, the topiary is less animal-shaped and more about order: hedges clipped to within an inch of their chloroplasts to form concentric circles, spirals, and mazes. It’s the kind of place where a shrub feels genuinely important. Possibly even smug.
3. Pherozeshah Mehta Gardens in Mumbai
Perched on Malabar Hill and overlooking the Arabian Sea, this leafy terrace in Mumbai is a green oasis in a city that usually treats greenery like an optional extra. The Hanging Gardens (as they’re affectionately known) are a 138-year-old heritage park where gardeners have taken it upon themselves to create a green Noah’s Ark.
You’ll find bushes shaped into elephants, giraffes, peacocks, and even dinosaurs (although one could argue that the dinosaur looks more like a lumpy teapot). But that's the joy of topiary: the ambiguity is part of the charm. The park sits atop a reservoir, so you’re technically walking on top of drinking water while admiring leafy lions. Now that is Mumbai multitasking for you.
4. Botanical Garden in Ooty
Nestled in the Nilgiri hills like something out of a British boarding school fantasy, Ooty’s Government Botanical Garden is 22 hectares of floral bliss. While it’s most famous for its towering conifers, rare orchids, and riotous annual flower shows, there’s also a discreetly fabulous collection of topiary that appears during the show season usually shaped into birds, arches, and geometric curiosities. During the flower show in May (coinciding nicely with World Topiary Day), the gardeners show off their skills with temporary topiary displays that are so precise they feel like vegetal origami.
5. Topiary Garden at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad
Nestled within the sprawling expanse of Ramoji Film City lies a whimsical haven that brings the art of topiary to life. This enchanting garden features meticulously sculpted greenery, where shrubs and hedges have been artistically trimmed into the shapes of elephants, deer, peacocks, and giraffes, creating a living menagerie that delights visitors of all ages. The topiary garden is part of Ramoji Film City's diverse array of thematic gardens, which also include the serene Japanese Garden, the vibrant Butterfly Park, and the intricate Puzzle Garden. These gardens not only provide picturesque backdrops for countless film productions but also offer guests a chance to immerse themselves in a world where nature and artistry intertwine seamlessly.
Topiary, like all great human oddities (from juggling flaming swords to competitive hot dog eating) is an art form that makes absolutely no sense unless you appreciate the joy of doing something slow, difficult, and beautiful for no other reason than delight. So on World Topiary Day, whether you’re in Chandigarh or just pruning your potted ficus into a resemblance of your cat, take a moment to admire the gardeners who look at a bush and see a buffalo! They are literally shaping the world one snip at a time.
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