If you’ve ever sprawled on the grass, looking up at the sky and marvelled at the undulating shapes of the clouds, this gardening trend might be for you. The Japanese art of Niwaki or ‘Cloud Pruning’ is all about pruning trees and shrubs into the shapes of clouds.
Niwaki literally translates to ‘garden tree’ and Cloud Pruning is all about showing off the ‘true essence’ of the tree. Cloud Pruned trees look a bit like bonsai; the only difference is not size, but the fact that bonsai trees are grown in pots and Niwaki trees directly in the ground.
How to start Cloud Pruning
Select your plant. Evergreens are best; perhaps a box, pine or Japanese privet.
Plan your secateur attack. With privet, box and other hedges, prune into curved, fluffy cloud shapes from their usual ‘box’ shape. With trees, you might like to ‘clear’ some branches of leaves and twigs close to the trunk so that the ‘leafed’ parts appear to float like clouds.
Use secateurs to trim the outside of a bush or shrub, and a pruning saw for thicker branches on a tree. Try to take out branches close to each other to allow the silhouette of the branches you leave to shine out a bit.
You can use weights and stakes to encourage the branches to grow in a particular direction.
Prune once or twice a year to slowly form the shape you want.
For more on Cloud Pruning, you could read Niwaki: Pruning, Training and Shaping Trees the Japanese Way by Jake Hobson.
If you’d like to know more about general topiary, turn to page 84 of our July issue, in which Julian Owen meets some practitioners of the art, in our Modern Eccentrics series. Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe
