How to Make a Topiary

Learn how to make a topiary with wire for your vining houseplants to create a beautiful decorative element in a tight space for your home.

Topiary plants are always so pretty. Often, they are somewhat like a bonsai where the plants like boxwoods are pruned to grow into a standard with the main trunk bare and the branches and leaves shaped into a ball topiary.

Not to be confused with outdoor landscape topiaries you'd find in English gardens with hedges shaped into spiral and other ornamental shapes, this DIY project uses a topiary frame to create a beautiful piece of home decor.

You also may have tried or seen these faux topiary trees made from foam balls, moss, and a dowel rod.

However, you can also make a wire topiary by wrapping and training real plants onto a wire form. Above is an image of my Peperomia, Ruby Cascade plant. It's growing well, and the vines are getting very long, so I thought it would be a good candidate for this DIY project.

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Crafting a Wire Topiary

1. Start with an ordinary wire coat/shirt hanger.
2. Open it up and create a loop at one end.

3. Straighten out the rest of the wire and cut off the excess. Just make sure that the straight part is the right length for the pot that you are using.

4. Place the wire frame into the soil carefully, making sure to keep the vines in front of the wire.

5. Gently separate the vine stems into two groups. One is on the left, and one is on the right.

6. Start on one side and gently take one of the vines and wrap it along the wire, starting on the bottom until you run out of vine.

7. Continue with the rest of the vine stems in that group.

8. Repeat the same process on the other side.

Water the plant well and set it in a spot where the plant will thrive. Indirect bright light is best for ruby cascade.

As you see new growth, you can gently wrap it into the other vines or prune them and propagate the cuttings into new plants.

It looks really pretty on our mantel.

However, I'll probably keep it in here by the window and supplemental lighting where it was growing so well originally.

So far, this Peperomia Ruby Cascade plant seems very happy as a topiary. I like to see plants' long, growing vines, but this neater version is pretty sweet too.