Topiary question.

What will work in CA weather near Pasadena, Eagle Rock to be exact, Want to do a topiary of a dog we had. I have the frame but have failed using succelents. What would be an easy plant to use? The dog is standing with 4 separate legs not a sitting position. Woul I need to use 4 plants?

A few plants come to mind that are typically used for topiary designs:
Myrsine africanus aka African Boxwood
Myrtus communis "Compacta" aka Myrtle
Italian Cypress "Twin Towers" (It's a dwarf variety )
Syzigium paniculatum aka Brush Cherry aka Eugenia
Euonymous microphylla aka Boxleaf Euonymous

These should do fine in Pasadena where you are.

The Brush Cherry does tend to get huge and require more constant trimming, though...and they get a leaf deformity caused by a psyllid wasp.

Here in Houston, many Exxon stations have a tiger - wire frame filled with moss - covered in grape ivy.

I dont know if you can get it in your area, but a good one to try is the very small tight leaved Privet, called Ligustrum, I have that on and it has yellow foliage, any shrub that has very small tight compact growing habit will do for topiary, in your area there are many gardens that use the box hedging plants you think Disney and look at all the shapes and sizes of topiary they produce. The way to go is you need a good few plants, set them into the ground with plenty of animal manure added as these grow and are shaped over the years so they need regular feeding, lots of water and twice a year pruning to get them really thick bushy specimens, I would not start with plants taller than say 6 or 8 inches high as you want to train and snip them from a very early age, set them into your frame and make sure you just snip off the growing tips of each little branch, that's the side branches, dont snip the top growing tips as you want them for the height, start to tug gently some side branches through the frame so that the shrubs can learn to grow in the direction you want, as the middle gets taller, you can use horticultural plastic covered wires to bend or tie the taller branches to the frame to start forming the outline of the dog, I have to tell you, this frame you have will take a good few years to grow into anything like the shape of a dog, even in a frame, but if you are prepared to be patient, you will end up with a good solid shape/dog that the wind, sun or even snow wont move or damage, but if you try to rush it, you end up with a hollow half empty lump of greenery that will always disappoint you, the reason topiary is so expensive to buy, is exactly because it takes a good lot of years to grow, shape and get to the thick lush shrubs it should be. if you are at all worried about it looking like an accident till it gets into a shape, then you could always start it off in a large container, then transplant it, always give it a top dressing of fresh compost/manure mix each spring and water well with good drainage if in a container. you can borrow books on topiary from your library for good references. Good luck. WeeNel.

There is an amazing topiary farm in Rhode Island. Some of the plants are 60 years old. It was fun to watch how the employees work on them.