Imagineering Shares Topiary Innovations

Disney Imagineering shared a behind-the-scenes look at Flower & Garden Festival’s beautiful topiaries. Imagineers and the Disney Horticulture team have cultivated these plant-based characters for 30 years. As you can imagine, their techniques have changed over time.

The Belle and Beast topiaries are a perfect example of how things have evolved. Beast’s face is made of organic dried plant material. It works for him, but not so much for Belle’s detailed facial features. So Imagineers opted to sculpt her out of clay.

Now, many of the topiary’s intricate heads are 3D printed. Tiana was the first to be “grown” that way. Teams then applied natural horticultural elements to give her an organic look. “The charming part about sculpting within the horticultural medium is that the topiaries are allowed to be beautifully textured and uniquely irregular, just as plants are in nature, making them unlike any other icons across the property,” Art Director Brittany Smith said.

Imagineers built Maui’s topiary using the same techniques, but on a much larger scale. His head is the largest 3D cranium Imagineering has ever printed. And Maui’s accessories had to match the character’s size. His fishhook is the largest 3D printed element ever incorporated into an EPCOT topiary.

The innovation didn’t stop there. Imagineers added LED lighting to the Moana topiaries. Maui’s hook and Moana’s oar both light up at night. Smith hopes guests appreciate the new creations:

“I hope the guests are enjoying these advancements because sometimes it is experimental. But that’s a good thing. That’s what EPCOT was meant for.”

You can enjoy EPCOT’s topiaries during EPCOT’s Flower & Garden Festival now through June 2.