Elements of topiary art of reserved man-made parks of the second half of the XX century

Abstract

Elements of topiary art were studied in eleven park-monuments of landscape art (PMLA) and five complex monuments of nature (CMN), created in the second half of the twentieth century. To the elements of topiary art belong: shaped plants, plant-borders, hedges, living walls, pylons, berso, bosquets, and parterres. In PMsLA “Bondaretsky” and “Vysokivsky” were found no elements of topiary art. In nine PMsLA and five CMsN of Ukrainian Polissya were present five elements of topiary art (plant-borders, hedges (low, medium, high), living walls, pylons and shaped plants (ball, pyramid, cone, cube, complex geometric figures). The most common are plant-borders formed from Buxus sempervirens L., trimmed hedges from Picea abies Karst. and Thuja occidentalis L., untrimmed hedges from Juniperus sabina L., Physocarpus opulifolius Maxim., and Sorbaria sorbifolia (L.) A.Br., pylons and shaped plants in the form of a sphere, cube, complex geometric shapes - from Thuja occidentalis L. 12 families, 24 genera, 24 species, and 3 cultivars represent the systematic structure of woody plants in the elements of topiary art. Deciduous species of woody plants, namely the family Rosaceae Juss, prevail. In the elements of topiary art of PMLA and CMN there are species that are protected by the IUCN Red List (58 %), belonging to two categories of rarity NT (4 %), LC (54 %). In terms of the height of woody plants in the elements of topiary art, trees and shrubs are represented in equal numbers. By height, among tree plants prevail trees of the first magnitude 26 % and medium bushes 29 %, whereas there are slightly fewer trees of the fourth magnitude (15%) and high bushes (22 %). The condition of woody plants of 24 species and three cultivars is good, except for woody plants where timely and proper care was not carried out (formation of longitudinal and transverse profiles and annual pruning). Some plants should be replaced because of loss of aesthetics due to age.