Trained on a single plane against a wall, an espalier apple or pear spreads its branches like the flat shoulder blade the name recalls, whether in fishbone palmette or U-shaped Verrier candelabra. It maximises yields in tiny urban gardens, but only with careful attention and regular follow-up tying new growth to wire.
Pruning following an espalier silhouette is easy, but it requires careful attention and regular follow-up to guide your apple tree and pear tree accordingly.
Here, in a video, you’ll find all the tips on how to prune and shape an apple or pear tree into an espalier shape.
We actually went over to the Valloires Abbey Gardens and talked to the Master gardener there. He opened up his secrets on how to grow trees into an espalier shape.
These images share examples of apple or pear trees pruned in an espalier shape. Each particular type of espalier has a name which often draws back to the far past.
To train each, usually a square grid lattice must be set up and attached to the wall or to strong posts. String thick wire to mark out the “pattern” and tether new growth to the wire.
Palmette pruning
This resembles a “fishbone”.
Also called Verrier, and palmette verrier. Candelabra pruning is a variant of the basic “Palmette” pruning shown just above.
The article explains the shapes but not what to plant in them. These are apples and pears widely sold in UK garden centres and catalogues, all spur-bearing types that take kindly to the repeated pruning an espalier needs.
| Variety | Fruit | Picking time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ | Apple | early autumn to mid-autumn | Spur-bearing; needs a pollinator and a sheltered, sunny position |
| ‘James Grieve’ | Apple | Early to early autumn | Dual purpose, eating and cooking; heavy and dependable cropper |
| ‘Conference’ | Pear | Early to early autumn, ripened indoors | Partially self-fertile and very reliable; long tapering fruit |
| ‘Doyenné du Comice’ | Pear | mid-autumn | Best flavour of all; repays a warm sunny wall and a pollination partner |
| ‘Beth’ | Pear | late summer to early autumn | Compact and early cropping; good where space is tight |
| ‘Egremont Russet’ | Apple | mid-autumn | Nutty, dry-fleshed fruit; naturally upright and restrained in growth |
| ‘Sunset’ | Apple | mid-autumn | Cox-like flavour on a smaller, hardier, more disease-tolerant tree |
| ‘Greensleeves’ | Apple | early autumn | Self-fertile and compact; crops young, so good for trained forms |
The word “espalier” itself originates from old French, which previously had taken it from Italian “espalliera”. Going further back, the Italian word came from “spalla” which meant “shoulder”, from the Latin root “spatula” which was how the shoulder blade bone was called. Indeed, this type of pruning is only on a single plane. The overall shape of the tree looks like that curious flat bone!
Usually these forms are trained along a wall to which a lattice or trellis was affixed for easy tying. This made it possible to maximize yields in tiny, often urban gardens. It also made double use of walls and fences to reflect extra light and warmth on the trees.
But it’s also seen in open fields, where it makes it possible for motorized tractors to weave between rows of trees. This facilitates harvesting, weeding, and other mechanical tasks.
