Topiary is the
horticultural practice of training live
perennial plants by clipping the
foliage and
twigs of
trees,
shrubs and
subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants which have been shaped in this way. As an art form it is a type of
living sculpture. The word derives from the
Latin word for an ornamental
landscape gardener,
topiarius, a creator of
topia or "places", a Greek word that Romans also applied to fictive indoor landscapes executed in
fresco.