Topiary trees, living or faux, can be a great accent both indoors and outdoors, providing a dash of greenery, sculptural beauty, and visual interest. While real topiaries require a lot of grooming and care, faux ones are a great alternative, but they can cost as much as hundreds of dollars, depending on size and retailer. But that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. YouTube user @GlueGunsRoses showed off how they made their own dupe for the $300 dollar Pottery Barn topiary for under $10 through an easy DIY project employing foam pool noodles, a broom handle from Dollar Tree, and a planter pot. By wrapping the foam pieces around the broom handle, you can create the same look and feel for a fraction of the cost.
Pool noodles can be readily found via retailers like Michaels and Dollar Tree, for around a dollar each. They make excellent bases for covering in greenery or moss, presenting a cheaper alternative to floral foam. When finished, the foam topiaries are also safe for outdoors as well as indoors.
How to create a pool noodle topiary
@GlueGunsRoses creates their topiary tree by first cutting up a single foam, green pool noodle into three segments of roughly equal size. She then slices each noodle segment vertically along its length, creating six larger and smaller strips. From there, she duct tapes a section of the thinnest pool noodle strip to the base of the broom handle, and then wraps the foam down the broom shaft in a spiral. Next, she repeats the process with another strip, increasing the size of a spiral the further down she gets. Continue the spiral downward, allowing additional room at the bottom of the stick to accommodate the depth of your planter.
(You can also use additional pieces of foam to bulk up those bottom spirals.)
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Next, to make your topiary look like a plant, hot glue segments of packaged moss (also available from the Dollar Tree) to all sides of the exposed foam. In the video, @GlueGunRoses does this by placing the moss on the ground, covering her foam noodle stick with glue, and rolling it in it.
Once you have completely covered all visible areas of the foam, glue a separate pool noodle segment to the inside of your planter box. GlueGunsRoses recommends adding extra weight, using objects you have, like bricks to keep it from toppling over. Stick the broom handle into the center of the pool noodle opening, and fill the rest of the pot with extra foam pieces and more moss.
Customizing your spiral topiary
With their unique shape, topiary trees are a great for welcoming guests on a porch, surrounding a hearth, or provide vertical elements to any spot in your garden. Best of all, they can easily be adjusted for size by adding more or less foam and or using a larger planter. If you haven’t much outdoor space, you can also make smaller versions of them using wooden dowels for a table centerpiece. And, because the base is foam, it is super easy to add additional decorative elements like small florals or ornamental accents during the holiday season. You can also cover the pieces in additional greenery to get the leafier boxwood look of the Pottery Barn version.
Because pool noodles are waterproof, they will withstand most outdoor weather conditions. @GlueGunsRoses suggests adding a clear coat of polyacrylic to the moss to keep it in place and resistant to water and wind. While fading from sun exposure may occur, it is easy to add additional moss to the topiaries as needed for a fresh new look.
