Espalier, anyone?

I have been toying with this idea for quite some time now, but have never had the courage to try. Has anyone here in the midwest done it? What type of tree did you use?

I have a big, bare barn wall that is just perfect for it. That, or even those cool "step-over" apples that seem to be pretty popular in the UK. Oh the possibilities...

If anyone has any experience, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks!

I'm bad. I took a class at the Chicago Botanic Gardens on espalier but never tried it. The example they were using in class was a Burning Bush. I still have the paperwork from the class somewhere. I'll try to find the folder and see what I can scan for you.

Thanks! I could google it, and I have, but it's always better to get real-world advice from someone who's actually done it (or had a class lol)

I've always wanted to try it as well....and haven't. In this area I have seen apple trees against the side of a house, and what I think was a plum against a chain-link fence. Facinating!

Still looking for my class handouts on espalier. I shouldn't have cleaned my office over the winter. Will keep looking.

A local nursery is selling espalier crab apples.

You could also espalier a regular apple tree.

HI, I SAW ONE AT LOCAL GARDEN CENTER HER E TOO! IT WAS FOR 60.00 DOLLARS IT LOOKED VERY HEALTHY. I WISH I HAD MORE SPACE I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE ONE!!

I was just at a farm tonight that trains the trees to these shapes. They had the Gala apple, Liberty apple, viburnum, even a few cypress, magnolia, dogwood. Its amazing what they can do to those trees. I would guess you would want to make sure it was hardy in your zone.
Here is their website if you want to see the pics of the different shapes, to give you ideas, The 3 tier was starting at $335.00 and that was about a 6yr tree. I am also going to try my luck at doing this myself. Good luck
http://espaliertrees.com/Home.html

I have to say that I have always been a little curious about how and why some 17th century gardeners decided to thrill their patrons with an espaliered apple. I guess it's really no different than today's gene splicers--trying to improve on the form. I've been thinking that I might take a shot at training our house ivy into a form that spells out my husband's last name "Engleman" so our vacation/summer mail man doesn't have to work so hard. I am serious about the form--it is interesting and I would like to try it--do you think that any dwarf fruit tree would work?

I think all you can do is try it out !!!

i heard that monks, who couldn't go outside, would tend the trees inside. the espalier would save space.

I thought it was originally a way to grow fruit in limited space. But apparently it does increase yeild, so...who knows? Fleet Farm has 50% off all their plants right now, I'm going to go and get a dwarf apple tree today so I can finally get this baby started. Wish me luck...but really how hard can it be? Just have to prune, prune prune! :)

good luck with the project. I'll be looking forward to photos.

Keep us up to date on your progress. This is going to be fun!