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Horticultural menagerie Photo by Jim Craven Anna Tucker gives her topiary elephant a trim Monday morning. He's one in a menagerie Tucker has created in her front yard from bushes grown in wire frames. Woman creates topiary critters in front yard of Medford home By DANI DODGE Anna Tucker's house on Medford's Rossanley Drive stands out from its surroundings. Not because it's one of the few residences in an area that is largely agricultural and industrial -- but because of the animals in her front yard. An elephant. A giraffe. A dead camel. Topiaries all. Tucker has been growing her whimsical menagerie since 1993. Each animal was created by training and trimming shrubs within wire frames. The camel, though, died in a harsh 1998 freeze. He's now only a wire frame with some stumpy pyracantha growing up through his spindly legs. "If I'd have covered him," Tucker said sorrowfully, "he might have made it," At Christmastime, she strings their hides with twinkling lights. Although creatures like these are common in places like Beverly Hills, they are endangered species around these parts. A short growing season and freezing winters make raising the beasts a difficult proposition. "You have to have patience," said Dieter Trost, owner of Southern Oregon Nursery. "It can take anywhere from two to three to five years to get a nice topiary here. "In California, they have a longer growing season and they can plant a vine that grows quickly and get one within a year or two.'' Tucker, though, is a green thumb with more patience than most. Within two years of moving into her home in 1988, she had tamed the blackberries that covered her property. And she's continued to feed and nurture her zoo, even when it seems like they'll never achieve their full potential. The giraffe's head still hasn't filled with leaves. But, employees at Marathon Media radio stations -- across the street and down the road a bit from the place where the wild things are -- say Tucker's animals make them smile. "It brightens the drive," said Ashley Hart, the program director for Light 102 FM. "It's great for kids. And anything that helps expand the imagination of people of any age is a good thing." For her part, though, Tucker wasn't seeking a way to create wonder in the world when she started growing her zoo. She was in the middle of a crisis. Her Venezuelan father died in 1991. She and other family members had to take trips down to the South American country to try to settle his estate. When her Southern California aunt didn't have the money to make one of the trips, Tucker traded a plane ticket for wire animal frames her aunt had created. A woman who considers growing different varieties of peppers her hobby, she thought it would be a wonderful challenge to raise them. "I just like them because they're different," Tucker said. "I'm partial to anything that grows." So she's worked at it. And worked at it. And worked at it. Tucker figures, though, she still got a good trade. They are still filing legal papers over the inheritance. "I got the better of the deal," she said, trimming her elephant. "I got something permanent. "And they are just fun." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA