Trio of Espalier Fruit Trees

One of the delights of my garden over these past few years has been to witness the growth of my fruit trees, and especially my two espalier trees. They have really developed and taken a nice form, since I first wired them up two years ago (see my post from February 2006).

This year, I was delighted to add a third espalier tree. Then today, my Dad arrived, with a heavy coil of a thick vinyl coated copper line, and re-strung my supports. The 19 gauge wire I had started with had broken in a few places, so this is a welcomed improvement. Tonight I removed all the original ties & wires, and re-tied the trees to the new supports.

Here is my espalier apple tree, grafted with 3 varieties of apple (click any photo for a larger view):

..and my espalier asian pear tree, with 3 varieties of asian pear:

..and my new espalier european pear tree, again with 3 varieties:


One of the many great things about gardening is that it is full of surprises. Tonight, as I was leaving the garden, I passed by my Morello sour cherry tree which we had only planted a month ago, and is now starting to sprout leaves. To my surprise, it is also sprouting some blossoms. This little guy is only 5' tall! What a summer this could turn out to be!