Animal or vegetable?

Have you ever seen a French poodle in its horticultural form? Well, here it is: pruned, trimmed and tortured to within an inch of its life.


This tightly shaped shrub has no merit. It is as charmless as a Victorian corseted waist or a bound Chinese female foot.
I feel no pleasure in looking at it, only dismay that successive gardeners have spent years forcing it into this ugly, humiliating shape. It reveals no love of the natural world, simply a desire to dominate, tame and bend to the human will.

Feast your eyes on the Best of Breed parade on permanent display at Versailles.