[L. adj. ‘of or belonging to ornamental gardening’; sb. ‘an ornamental gardener’: see TOPIA and -ARY1.] One skilled in fanciful landscape-gardening.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Topiarius, a Gardener that orders Arbours or Bowers; or that makes divers Kinds of Knots and Devices in Plants, as they grow.
1895. Edin. Rev., July, 162. The zeal of the topiarius … tortured the bushes into extravagant forms. Ibid. (1907), Jan., 150. The shrubs clipped and pruned by the ‘topiarius.’
