Mike Rowe Learns How to Make a Dog Plant | Somebody’s Gotta Do It

On this episode of Somebody’s Gotta Do It, Mike Rowe goes to the Ladew Topiary Gardens to see how they [la]do…topiary in their gardens. By the time you’re done watching, you’ll understand quite well why Mike Rowe la-doesn’t dabble in topiaries.

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0:00 Intro
2:00 Meet the Masters
6:00 The Slowest Performing Art
10:00 Everything You Need

They may not be the reciprocal lies of the field I saw what you did but can I cut it in the world of Hardcore Horticulture H probably not gron always Helps there aren’t many American Homes more impressive than that of Harvey Leo a guy who was born rich and lived well enter aining such figures as Cole Porter nll coward Charlie Chaplain Clark Gable and Somerset mom which begs the question what am I doing here don’t say l don’t when you can Leo

Anybody ever put that on a shirt or anything hi Mike welcome nice to have you a to do look it’s nice to be had what’s your name Emily Emily Mike row mik row nice to meet you come on in wow this is an old house and I’m sure it’s

Not my grandmother’s house Mr Leo bought this property in 1929 he lived up in New York and he was a big horse person and you will see hunt and horse paintings all over the house but he wanted to be able to have free area to ride in and

Long Island was getting too crowded so he came down here and bought this 250 Acre Farm and this is fox hunting country which is what brought him down here great clearly Leo was a guy who could do it whenever the spirit moved him oh it’s a hidden door it’s a hidden

Door Mr Plum did it in the library with a Candlestick I’m certain but he left behind more than a cool house and a great Rolodex he left Behind These turns out this man of leisure was obsessed with work specifically with topiary a fancy term that describes the process whereby a Shrubbery is turned

Into a dog or a giraffe he was out here every day shears in hand trans transforming his estate into a Living Museum this was his life’s work which brings us to these guys technically I guess they’re gardeners but something tells me there’s more to It what’s your official title here I’m the senior Gardener the senior Gardener senior Gardener are you a junior Gardener or Gardener would uh uh head of horiculture or head of gardens well wait a minute who’s in charge then the senior Gardener or the head of horiculture we

Kind of take turns sometimes depends on what we’re doing division of power what do you think of the chipet as an invention I kind of like him regardless of who’s in charge it’s nice to know there’s no disagreement about the chipet where are you taking me Phil down

To the bottom of the iris Garden the iris Garden the iris Garden was one of Mr Leo’s favorite flowers so he created a whole garden full of them how long did he live he died in 1976 he was 89 years old the late Mr Leo was was a socialite

And Avid Fox Hunter who traveled extensively throughout Europe where he first came to admire topiary Gardens so after buying 250 acres in Maryland on which to chase foxes hary began the task of building the ideal Garden almost entirely by himself how long have you been here Tyler I just celebrated 15 years this

Year congratulations Phil I’ve been here 34 years 34 34 so is it pretty much year round yeah there plenty to do here all right well what what can I do to help out well I want to start on the topiary junk the topiary what topiary junk junk junk a

Chinese ship oh junk okay first we got to get over to it part of my job as a serious journalist is to ask my subjects a series of hard-hitting probing questions what kind of tree is this that is a double file VI burum huh look at

What kind of grass is this it’s a mixture of tall fesu and blue grass interesting one are these that is catnip or cat mint huh that’s nice what kind of trees are those those are crab apples uh-huh how about this here Rendon oh oh what are these hostas oh and here’s

Where we’ll Bridge from we set this down oh what’s this purple thing that’s a weeping cherry tree uh cus cers okay red bug excuse me uhoh it’s new you got me but I appreciate the uh certainty with which you plowed ahead well if you don’t know be positive I have always said

That I have always said that that’s right smileing go what you got right there is a sarus all right let’s look at the junk okay so we’re going to extend the plank and head out and Sally Forth lift it up and then we’ll get on each side and give

It a little heave ho right on three really we’re going to heave it yep all right one two three you’re a genius man you’re a genius so how much are you looking to take off uh just enough to keep it just even it up yeah the most important part

Of trimming a hedge is this angle right here if you can get that sharp the rest of it looks good all right so is this the Pinnacle of what a gardener can do and be pretty much there’s so much here that you need a lot of skills you also need a lot of

Patience I’ve heard people refer to gardening as the slowest of the Performing Arts and that is really why we’re here anybody can trim a hedge or PL a rose bush but true gardening that’s been an art form since Roman times created to amaze and amuse and admiring public in this tradition Harvey Leo

Created his own master work 15 separate Gardens each one with a different name and theme and so Phil and Tyler aren’t really gardeners at all they’re professional art restorers and Harvey’s Legacy is now in their hands where you think Mike well now yeah now now it’s

Junk is that a giraffe that is a giraffe so this giraffe has been here longer than me and it’s just now starting to fill in we’re going to try and pull some folage up the the tip of his nose to give him a head so this is a pretty good

Example of the patients you were talking about mhm and the uh name of the uh the plant plant material it’s a lustrum a Golden Privet a Golden Privet now that was some other kind of privet before on the junk right yeah that was um more of

A common priv this is this is yellow or golden we’re kind of getting out of reach aren’t we yeah we are so looking at this there’s not a whole lot L there but we can tuck all these pieces in all that through there yeah we don’t

Want to lose a what a little brains he’s got right so in a couple years the ears are going to fill out and then the you know the brain stem the medulla oblongata hypothalamus and then the uh the face the countenance the vage that’s French beautiful I think we’re good yeah

Yeah like a matis or a rembrand a Leo doesn’t live forever it’s part of Phil and Tyler’s job to decide when to replace an older topiary so this is the hunt scene when he first moved here he was inspired by this topiary that he saw

In England which was the Fox Chase on AE one of the hounds died so we need to create a new topiary Hound great let’s go release the hounds the extent of topiary Gardens in monton Maryland are Harvey Leo’s cine Chapel his last supper his Magic Flute and the staff here does everything they

Can to maintain this magnum opus exactly as Harvey envisioned it so if a topiary starts to fail it’ll be replaced by another in the exact same shape and from the exact same plant type so this is what a Hound frame looks like right it’s almost art in itself almost almost

Except if you were to just put this in the ground like this I believe people would demand some sort of refund so the challenge now is to put that plant in here so you can kind of see there’s a lot of plant material and a little room I’m going to be honest

With you I I feel like we’re trying to build a ship in a bottle might be a little like That all right explain to me how your mind’s working when you’re just deciding what stays and what goes flyable is probably the main thing make sure that you can actually bend it down and get it into the frame got it and we’re going to start can I hold this for you you can

Hold that all right so he’s going to go like that man you ever have just dreams that these things just spring to life and just go running yeah about Midway through the season after you cut so many topiaries you start dreaming about it that’s exactly what I would dream about

Those things coming to life and chasing me down I’d be the fox for sure running for my life we’re we’re stuffing this dog gron always helps never hurt so you getting this we have to jam every basic but you but it’s got to come down the whole thing it’s got to come

Not much more rebar is on the ground where’s the rebar oh so it’s right there is the support so you get you’re kind of close we’re close close that’s good and then what you can do and I can show you here is this tail there’s actually some

I got started you can kind of pull his tail out well that sounds like a real treat Phil you can just ease it out M you’re just joining us on making a dog even if you’re not just joining us Cicero said if you have a garden and a

Library you have everything you need well Harvey Leo had both and if you find yourself and monin Maryland you can see them firsthand you can also see a shrub in the shape of a heart or a fish or a fox or perhaps most importantly you can

See the fruits of my labor I made a dog and right now it doesn’t look like much but he will slowly grow into the into the running beasts yeah 5 Years it’ll really be presentable that’s 35 years in dog years that’s a while do you name the

Dogs the hounds no no that’s too bad we’ll name that one Mike if it lives if it lives in my industry if he’s not cancelled he’ll be running here at Lut opary Gardens in this basic posture for the rest of his long and long and happy life yes this has been extraordinary

Weird and educational I appreciate it you so much Phil thank you so much M fantastic Emily come over here and shake my hand you know where it’s been thanks you were awesome thank you all right thanks that was delightfully Odd