A dibble . PHOTO BY ABBY RICHARDSON
Cast Member Cindy plugs the plant material with a dibble . PHOTO BY ABBY RICHARDSON
ABOVE : Meet the family Madrigal . PHOTO BY LAURIE SAPP RIGHT : For new characters , Debbie ’ s team considers lots of plants to figure out what works best , such as this one for Antonio ’ s hair . PHOTO BY ABBY RICHARDSON
a dibble , and installs the internal irrigation system . The fastgrowing vining plants , succulents , and flowers then bring the characters to life . The gardeners also use seeds , dried mosses , and palm fibers to design the characters ’ faces .
“ We try to keep all of our topiaries 80 / 20 , which means 80 % real plant material to 20 % non-plant . We try to still use organic materials ,” Chris told me . To wit : Although the team paints Donald ’ s nephews ’ shirts , the material they paint on is made of coconut fiber .
Each topiary has unique traits to bring the character to life . For instance , Debbie and her team make Antonio ’ s hair from air plants , which grow without soil .
STAYING IN SHAPE The magical thing to remember about the topiaries at Walt Disney World is that they ’ re living , breathing things . They need a little TLC to stay healthy and beautiful for the duration of the festival .
“ At the nursery , there are about 10 people ,” Debbie explained . “ Once they ’ re trained in the art of topiary — because it really takes a special artist to trim and manicure the topiary to keep them in character form — they move to EPCOT during the Flower & Garden Festival .”
Trimming and irrigation are the main concerns of this team during the festival . They ’ ll monitor the topiaries to trim and irrigate them as needed . Over the years , Disney ’ s horticulture team has gotten more sophisticated in how it tackles this work , particularly irrigation .
“ We have internal irrigation systems in our topiaries ,” Debbie said . Today ’ s more advanced systems allow Disney ’ s irrigation specialists to get more targeted in how they care for the topiaries . For instance , they can shut off water to one part of a topiary that ’ s getting too much water , like the legs , and then water another that could use a little more water , like arms . Gravity means that the bottoms of the topiaries tend to get more water than the tops . “ We didn ’ t have that in the beginning ,” Debbie added .
And don ’ t worry : Should a topiary take a turn for the worse , Debbie has plenty of backups .
“ Our greenhouses at the nursery hold hundreds and hundreds of flats of plants for each topiary ,” she explained . “ There ’ s always backup if needed . We have actually changed out whole topiaries overnight , and guests would never even know .”
MORE TO EXPLORE The topiaries are stunning , and Debbie ’ s team works hard each year to grow and maintain them . But her team is responsible for more magic at EPCOT during Flower & Garden . Last year , the team added more than 200,000 bedding plants to EPCOT ’ s gardens , and Debbie ’ s team also helps with decorating the Outdoor Kitchens .
“ When they put food kiosks in , we put containers around and try to coordinate our theme with whatever the menu items are ,” Debbie said . “ So if it ’ s Italy and they have tomatoes , we plant tomatoes in the container . Or maybe we put a pineapple in a pot — people may never otherwise see how a pineapple grows . Whatever it is , we incorporate those in the pots , with flowers , so guests can see how that food grows .”
Flower & Garden is also famous for its floating gardens ; the festival includes more than 200 of these on the waters in EPCOT . Although these bright circular gardens bloom in the spring , the work starts in the late fall ( the team was planning to plant them the day after our visit in early December ). Search the waters during your visit to the festival to see these gardens , some with sweet potato vines . You won ’ t ever see Cast Members out on the ponds watering these gardens , though ; Debbie ’ s team has a much easier way of caring for these plants .