Charles Coburn, topiary designer, dies

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Charles Coburn, a California horticulturist who created topiary works for Disneyland and for movie stars, has died at 62.

Coburn suffered from cancer, the Los Angeles Times reported. His wife and partner, Jennifer Coburn, said that he died Jan. 25 at their home in Elfin Forest.

The couple operated Coburn Topiary & Garden Art in San Diego County.

Coburn began his career as a gardener at the San Diego Zoo. By the time he retired in 1997 after 35 years he was chief horticulturist.

At the zoo, Coburn's responsibilities ranged from designing exhibits like the Tiger River rain forest and scouting for exotic plants to locating food for animals, including fig leaves for a depressed Sumatran rhinoceros.

The Coburns' business specializes in topiary, plants trained and cut into sculptured shapes, and sculptures that mixed other elements with the plant.

Jennifer Coburn, an artist, did most of the design, while her husband used his knowledge of plants and metal working to execute them. They did a bear for Elizabeth Taylor, bigger than life-size baseball players for a California stadium and a 17-foot-high duckbilled dinosaur for a Japanese park that was Coburn's personal favorite.