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Index : Landscape Plants
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- 42. Espalier Provides Unique Garden Accent - Top
- Growing and training espalier plants offers the avid gardener a new challenge. It's a different way of growing ornamental or fruiting trees and shrubs. It's also a great way to hone your pruning skills.
Espalier (pronounced "es-PAL-ye") is any plant trained to grow in a flat plane against a wall, fence, or trellis. Espalier may also be used as a verb to describe the technique of training a plant to this flat plane.
The practice of training plants in espalier fashion originally was used in the old world to conserve space in small orchards and gardens. The English used espalier for protective reasons. Espaliered fruit trees located against a south facing wall received a degree of cold protection. Today, espaliers are used for introducing a decorative accent in the landscape.
An espalier becomes a living sculpture in the garden. Espaliered plants can relieve the monotony of bare walls. With the space limitations of urban lots, their flat growth pattern fits in narrow areas where other plants would not.
Almost any plant can be espaliered. However, some plants posses characteristics which make them better suited for espaliers. Plants that produce many flexible lateral branches and attractive flowers, fruit and foliage are excellent choices for espaliers. In the Tucson area fruit trees such as fig, loquat, pear, apple, peach and plum work well as espaliers. Fruit trees should be espaliered against an east facing wall or on a free-standing trellis. In our desert heat, fruit will cook on a south or west facing wall.
Some suggested ornamental plants to espalier include; crape myrtle, flowering plum, Japanese privet, yew podocarpus, photinia, and pyracantha.
There are many patterns of formal espalier. The most popular is the multiple tiered cordon. Tiers of horizontal branches are formed starting 18 inches off the ground, with each proceeding tier 18 inches above the previous one. Apple, pear, fig, podocarpus and pyracantha are good candidates for this style.
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Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161.
Material originally appeared in Arizona Daily Star gardening column, on November 8, 1998
- Updated: April 19, 2001
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