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October 19, 2013 by tomdalzell

Topiary

1712 Franklin

1712 Franklin

Topiary is generally a garden art form of the staid, the establishment.  For that reason, when I started my Quirky Berkeley walking in 2012 I was determined to inventory, photograph, and present all topiary in Berkeley.  My thought was that the conventional is unconventional-slash-quirky in Berkeley.  The world upside-down.

World upside

As was the case with some of my other Original Intentions, such as non-Doric columns and prickly pear cactus and banana trees, I cut my losses and ran.  Too many.  Not as quirky as I thought.  A good run beats a bad stand.

But then there are the truly quirky topiaries.  I couldn’t really ignore them, could I?  Such as this, on Arlington (and – please – pay attention – it is not The Arlington – it is just Arlington):

515 Arlington

515 Arlington

Quirky, no?  On top of this, I have found and/or been shown six other undeniably quirky topiaries.   What to do?  Are six enough?   I was stuck.  I didn’t know.  I asked for a legal opinion.  I got it.  I agree.  Six are enough.  An then I found more.  So here are what I have so far.

First, close to my house, just below Live Oak Park, near the Hog Farm compound, is this giraffe:

2033 Berryman

2033 Berryman

On Milvia just north of Rose:

Quirky_092013_0084-XL

Quirky_092013_0087-XL

1322 Milvia

The very famous bunny hedge on Ward Street near San Pablo Park:

1231 Ward

1231 Ward

And the Carleton Street squirrel:

2200 Carleton

2200 Carleton

And the most recently discovered – this tired horse right in front of my nose, on Sacramento near North Berkeley BART:

1821 Sacramento

1821 Sacramento

1821 Sacramento

1821 Sacramento

Even more bedraggled are two topiaries on Glen just north of Eunice, what appear to be a Scotty and a teddy bear.  Past their prime, but wonderful.

1171 Glen

1171 Glenn

1171 Glen

I missed two great topiaries on Peralta.  As you see in the comment section below, Nina Z. steered me to 1326 Peralta where Len Kamp has made a great giraffe and even trickier elephant.

Quirky Berkeley 03-26-2016

1326 Peralta

1326 Peralta

1326 Peralta

 

And, finally – on campus.  On the front lawn of University House, the official residence of the Berkeley chancellor, there is a topiary clock, gifted to the University from the University of Geneva.

topiary clock 2

Kinda quirky, no?  Let’s add a little tear gas:

Berkeley Tribe, April 17-24, 1970

Berkeley Tribe, April 17-24, 1970

When I asked my friend about these photos, he recoiled.  This is what he thought of:

ScissorhandsThis movie really freaked him out.  I assured him that no scissorhands were involved in any shape or fashion or form in these topiaries.  With that assurance, he looked at the photos and opined:

IMG_3677

 

Posted in All Posts, Uncategorized. RSS 2.0 feed.
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2 Responses to Topiary

  1. Nina Z says:
    March 13, 2016 at 11:20 pm

    You are seriously omitting my neighbor’s two topiary, a beautiful elephant and also a giraffe at 1326 Peralta Ave.

    Reply
    • tomdalzell says:
      March 14, 2016 at 7:31 pm

      This situation cannot continue. It will be rectified by the end of the month. Don’t know how I could have possibly missed them. Thanks

      Reply

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