Espalier

espalier, a relatively unusual training system, more desirable for aesthetic than commercial reasons, for vines or other fruit trees, by which the plant is trained to grow in a single plane to form a flat shape, for example against a wall (see diagram below). Espalier training leaves a trunk and one or two arms with several canes which are trained in the same plane with a trellis or wire for support. Different vines are trained to different heights in the French Espalier de Thoméry.