New for 2024 , the characters from Wish take center stage at EPCOT . PHOTO BY ABBY RICHARDSON
The Groot topiary also plays music . PHOTO BY ABBY RICHARDSON
PLANNING AND PLANTING THE MAGIC Debbie and the core team think several years out when working on the Flower & Garden Festival . They ’ re constantly evaluating what ’ s new in the industry — and what ’ s new and popular with Disney — to determine new topiaries for festivals in a year or two .
“ We ’ re always thinking and talking about it all the time and have ideas we bring to the table ,” Debbie said of the theoretical work .
The physical work starts early , too . The day Flower & Garden ends this year is the day her team will start working on topiaries for the festival next year .
“ We have to bring the topiaries back the day the festival ends ,” Debbie told me . “ We decide which topiaries we ’ ll use for the next year . Then we decide if we ’ re going to totally strip that topiary because they don ’ t last forever . They only last about two years with the internal structure , but the external structure is changed starting in July . It ’ s all torn off , and then the topiary is stuffed for next year .”
This work all happens in the greenhouses of the Walt Disney World Nursery , where Debbie and her team can better protect the plants against cold events in the winter .
NEW BLOOMS While Debbie and the horticulture team bring back festivalfavorite topiaries each year , they also identify other characters that could inspire new topiaries for the next festival , especially if a movie came out recently and was a big hit . Encanto ’ s success led to new Mirabel , Isabela , Luisa , and Antonio topiaries in 2023 . New for this year are Asha , Valentino , Star , Miguel , Dante , and Baby Groot .
But it ’ s not just Debbie and a pot full of sphagnum moss making the magic happen . It ’ s a large team effort that starts with Imagineers and the animators .
“ The Imagineers come to us and say , ‘ We want to create this topiary .’ My team works with the Imagineers to come up with the pose of the character ,” Debbie explained . “ We watch the movies scene by scene , and then we pick out the scene that best suits where the topiary is going to go . But we also have to be generic enough in the pose of the topiary because what if
“ But it ’ s not just Debbie and a pot full of sphagnum moss making the magic happen . It ’ s a large team effort that starts with Imagineers and the animators .”
you wanted to use the topiary somewhere else the next year ? So you pick your pose , and the Imagineer works with you along the way .”
That partnership with Imagineering allows Debbie and her team to ensure everything about the beloved characters — from the color of a dress to the shape of a face — matches how fans know them from the films .
In the past , Imagineers made miniature clay maquettes by hand to represent the agreed-upon shape and pose of the topiary , but nowadays , they can design everything on computers and then create the shape with a 3D printer .
The partnership doesn ’ t stop there . Debbie ’ s team works with architectural engineers to design the frame of the topiary and then a third-party welder to actually create the frame .
“ We have a really talented group of people in our construction end of the business ,” Debbie said . “ We meet once a week at the area where they ’ re welding the frames together to make sure it ’ s true to character … It ’ s amazing to see it go from a piece of paper or a computer drawing to having somebody who is so talented that can weld this frame off a drawing .”
Once they have the frames , Debbie ’ s team fills them with sphagnum moss , pins down planting plugs using a tool called