Green Animals Topiary Garden

Portsmouth, Rhode Island

The Green Animals Topiary Garden is in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and it contains an extraordinary collection of topiaries, marvelous living sculptures. The art of topiary and formal gardening had its heyday in a bygone time but it's lovely to see it preserved here.

The estate on which the garden was developed was purchased in 1872 by Thomas Brayton. It has been meticulously maintained ever since, first by Mr Brayton and Joseph Carreiro, his horticultural superintendent. After Mr Brayton died in 1939, the garden was maintained by his daughter Alice with the assistance of Mr Carreiro's son-in-law, George Mendonca. It is now maintained by the Preservation Society of Newport County.

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Let your eyes wander over the image and find a surprise in the distance. There is a delightful variety of flowers here in addition to the charm of topiary.

Can you imagine how long it must have taken to train the shrub to take this shape! The giraffe stands at least ten feet tall and it must have taken phenomenal patience to develop it. This is somewhat similar to the building of sand castles in that the artist knows full-well that the tide will wash away the castle and the gardener knows equally well that the plant will ultimately die. It's a form of music in that every musician knows that each note, once played, is lost to everything but memory until it is played again. So too is the creation of sand castles or topiaries.

Don Quixote, perhaps?

Yes, indeed it is a unicorn! Here we have clear photographic proof of their existence!

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Location of the Green Animals Topiary Garden

For the location of this and many other Rhode Island attractions, visit the Duck Soup Rhode Island Map. It's a highly-interactive map and can be used to explore the state fairly easily.