Circus Trees, California

A collection of thirty or so living trees which have been grafted, trained, and formed into unusual shapes, including grids, loops, and zig-zags, the work of a farmer named Alex Erlandson, who shaped over 80 trees from 1940 to 1963, resurrecting the medieval art of pleaching, or tree braiding. After Erlandson sold his property in Scotts Valley, near Santa Cruz, the trees were largely untended and neglected. In 1984 the 30 remaining trees were replanted at their present site at Gilroy Gardens.