He gets the shrubbery into shape (9)
I believe the answer is:
topiarist
'he gets the shrubbery into shape' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'he gets the' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'he' could be 'ari' and 'ari' is found in the answer.
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for topiarist that I've seen before include "Bush trimmer" , "Gardener" , "One who shapes shrubs ornamentally" , "One who can produce sculpture" .)