Tagged “T” is for Topiary in Zarcero.

Frizztext’s Tuesday A-Z Challenge this week is ‘T’, and I remembered the topiary at the Parque Francisco Alvarado in Zarcero, Costa Rica. We were there at the end of last year, and were enchanted by the famous and whimsical topiary garden which was created in 1964 by Evangelista Blanco Brenes, who has been tending it ever since.

There are sixteen beautiful living double green arches leading through the park to the local church Iglesia de San Rafael.

 

Here are some of the more than 100 topiaries, which include a dinosaur, an octopus, a peacock and many other weird and wonderful creatures. As you will see in my gallery,  some of them are quite abstract and even bizarre. I really felt I was being watched, as I wandered around there. (click on an image to be taken on a walk through the garden.)

Hola! Welcome to my crazy world.

Why does everybody call me Big Ears?

May I have the next waltz?

Mr. Peacock in his pen.

James Bond’s Octopussy has a rival here.

Any ideas what this is? Looks like it needs a haircut.

Family of five.

Help! I’m having an identity crisis.

I was already beginning to suffer from maskophobia.

Another puzzling face.

No mistaking this Dinosaur.

Looks like a cross between Shrek and the Incredible Hulk.

Could this be a herd of elephants?

Even topiary people can suffer from obesity.

He’s not having a good day.

Ah, here’s a nice place to sit down and recover.

The garden’s creator, Evangelista, said that it takes a whole month to get around to tending to all of his creations, and by that time, it’s time to start again at the beginning. Some of these really looked in need of the snippers. It’s an awful lot of work for one man to keep up, and he’s not young anymore. I wonder who will care for his weird and wonderful creatures when he can no longer do it himself?

To see more entries for Frizz’s challenge, just click here.