Collection Cloud trees
Grown Tuscany, Italy
Sold as Matched pairs
From £725 the pair
Cloud Trees — Matched Pairs
Sculpted to float. Sold as twins.
Cloud trees carry the Japanese niwaki tradition: a tree's branch structure deliberately exposed, each tip finished with a sculpted pad — the whole reading as clouds on dark limbs. Every listing is a true matched pair, raised together in Tuscany and photographed side by side at our UK depot before dispatch.
Matched pairs from £725 · delivered kerbside UK-wide
How to chooseThe tree as sky.Three questions.
Answer these and you'll know exactly which cloud pair is yours.
What is a cloud tree, actually?
The form descends from Japanese niwaki — "garden trees" — where a tree's branch structure is deliberately exposed rather than hidden, and each branch tip carries a single sculpted pad of foliage. Read together, the pads float like clouds on dark limbs: the tree becomes a piece of sky you can plant. It is the most sculptural thing evergreen pruning can do.
Cloud vs bonsai vs pom pom?
Three cousins, one family. A cloud tree reveals a tree's natural character — the branches it grew are kept, cleaned and finished with pads. A topiary bonsai has its character authored — trunk line and pad placement composed deliberately, which is why bonsai sits a tier above. A pom pom is the playful sibling: clustered spheres on branchwork, formality with a wink.
Why £725, not several thousand?
Species choice. Slow classics take decades to build convincing pads — and price accordingly. Delavay privet's small, dense leaves close into crisp pads in years, not decades, which is how a genuine matched cloud pair starts at £725. The Otto Luyken laurel clouds at £1,730 are the luxuriant upgrade: broader leaves, fuller pads, more presence per branch.
Where a cloud pairearns its keep.
Three deployments. One pinned frame. Scroll.
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The courtyard soloist
Cloud trees are soloists: one pair per sightline, given room and a calm backdrop, so the eye reads every pad and every gap. Courtyards are their natural theatre — enclosed, architectural, viewed at close range from a seat or a window. The courtyard collection is built around exactly this discipline.
Beside water & against render
The form is really two compositions: the pads, and the silhouette. Still water doubles the first by reflection; a pale rendered wall or clean fence stages the second, drawing the dark branch lines like ink strokes. Gravel gardens do both at once. This is statement topiary in its purest sense — sculpture that happens to be alive.
Lit at night
The form's best trick costs one uplight per tree. Ground-level lighting throws the exposed branch structure into shadow-play across walls and paving, and the pads glow as floating shapes — a second garden that only exists after dark. No other topiary form repays lighting like a cloud tree does.
Two pairs.Every price, honest.
Drag through the range — matched-pair prices including VAT, banded by size.
N° 01
Delavay privet clouds, 1.3–1.5m — the entry to the form: small dense leaves, crisp pads, fast to hold their line.
The pair £725
N° 02
Delavay privet clouds, 1.5–1.7m — the middle size: eye-level pads, presence without bulk.
The pair £935
N° 03
Delavay privet clouds, 1.7–2m — the tall grade: architecture-scale silhouettes for larger courtyards.
The pair £1,200
N° 04
Otto Luyken laurel clouds, 1.5–1.7m — the upgrade: broader, luxuriant pads with deep-green gloss.
The pair £1,730
Drag · Scroll
Where clouds sit in the wider market — and why comparable specimens elsewhere run to several thousand — is mapped in the topiary prices guide. The rest of the canon, balls to bonsai, lives in the full topiary collection.
Privet or laurel.One decision.
Two species carry the form here — pick by budget, backdrop and appetite for the shears.
N° 01
The way in — small, dense leaves that close into crisp, tight pads and recover fast from every trim. Three sizes, 1.3m to 2m. For first cloud buyers, tighter budgets, and anyone who enjoys the pad-by-pad ritual.
N° 02
The upgrade — broader leaves building fuller, more luxuriant pads with a deep gloss that reads richly at distance. For established gardens, generous courtyards, and buyers who want maximum presence per branch.
Maintenance, honestly: privet asks two or three short pad-by-pad sessions a year and forgives every mistake by growing through it; laurel asks fewer, slower cuts with secateurs rather than shears. Both are covered — species habits, timings, feeding — in the privet topiary guide and the complete care guide.
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Selected together · raised side by side · photographed before dispatch
Buying cloud trees.Quick answers.
The questions cloud buyers actually ask, answered by the growers.
What is a cloud tree?
A tree pruned in the Japanese niwaki tradition: the branch structure is deliberately exposed rather than clipped over, and each branch tip carries a sculpted pad of evergreen foliage — the whole reading as clouds floating on dark limbs. The full story of the form is in our journal piece, cloud trees explained.
What's the difference between a cloud tree and a topiary bonsai?
Direction of travel. A cloud tree reveals character the tree already has — its natural branches are kept, cleaned and finished with pads. A topiary bonsai has its character authored: trunk line and pad placement are composed deliberately over years, which is why bonsai occupies the tier above, from £725 to £4,500.
What species are your cloud trees?
Two, chosen for pad quality: Delavay privet (Ligustrum), whose small dense leaves close into crisp, tight pads and regrow quickly; and Otto Luyken laurel, whose broader glossy leaves build fuller, more luxuriant pads. Both are hardy evergreens proven in British gardens.
How much does a cloud tree cost?
Our matched cloud pairs run £725 to £1,730 including VAT: privet clouds at £725 (1.3–1.5m), £935 (1.5–1.7m) and £1,200 (1.7–2m), and Otto Luyken laurel clouds at £1,730 (1.5–1.7m). Privet's fast, dense growth builds convincing pads in years rather than decades — that's the entire reason these cost hundreds where slow-species specimens cost thousands.
How do I maintain the cloud pads?
Pad by pad, two or three times a year for privet: work around each cloud with shears, keeping the underside of every pad crisp so the gaps between them stay open — the negative space is the composition, so resist letting pads merge. Add first-year establishment watering and one spring feed, and the shape holds indefinitely. The privet guide covers technique and timing.
Can cloud trees live in pots?
Yes — both privet and laurel take well to generous containers, and a fine pot suits the form's gallery character. Use a frost-proof planter with real drainage holes, pot feet from October, and water attentively in the first year. The full container manual is in the pots guide.
Where is the best place to position a cloud tree?
One pair per sightline, against a calm backdrop — render, a clean wall, gravel or still water — so both the pads and the silhouette read clearly. Courtyards and patios are the natural theatre, and a single uplight per tree buys the night-time shadow-play that is the form's best trick.
How are cloud trees delivered, and what's guaranteed?
Kerbside on a pallet by specialist haulier, anywhere in the UK, 14–21 working days from order, with the driver telephoning about an hour ahead. Every pair is photographed side by side before dispatch and backed by the 7-day Matching Guarantee, the 6-month Thrive Guarantee and Lifetime Care Support — details at delivery & returns.
Matched beforeyou ever see it.
Two clouds, selected together in Tuscany, raised as twins — so the symmetry in your courtyard is grown, not approximate.
Your actual pair, side by side at our UK depot, before the pallet is built.
7-day Matching Guarantee, then the 6-month Thrive Guarantee through establishment.
Lifetime Care Support — a photo gets grower answers for as long as you own the plants.
