Q : I care the formality of espaliered apple trees , but   I have slight room for limbs to fan out . What do you think of the apple variety call colonnade , which is supposed to stay narrow , like a bushy pole with brusk branches?—Ernie Crooks , Calgary , Alberta , Canada

A : Colonnade is a trademarked name for four unusual motley . A exclusive tree actually looks like a maypole that has sprung to life , and a row of these Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree does suggest the leaf- and fruit - bearing column of a roofless arcade . If you have a pip that gets mint of sun , and you ’re inclined to do the regular pruning that any apple Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree pauperism , then Colonnade might be just the affair .

The four nearly related varieties are all young of one mutant branch discover on a ‘ McIntosh ’ orchard apple tree tree diagram in British Columbia in the 1960s . When buds from this branch were graft onto the rootstock of other apple salmagundi , they produced trees with extraordinarily upright development , something like a Lombardy poplar .   Left alone , this tree will become a dense thicket of vertical shoots , although the Colonnades ’ funny growth habit also makes them fairly easy to rationalise into a column that ’s only 2 foot encompassing and short enough — about 8 foot — to tend with a stepladder , even though the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree are grafted onto strong - growing M111 rootstock . With that tough anchor , they do n’t postulate the support of a trellis and wo n’t blow over easy , unlike tree grafted onto dwarfing rootstock ( a standard technique for stunt apple trees grown as espaliers ) .

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With the Colonnades , you sacrifice much of the flexibility , both physical and aesthetic , that other Malus pumila varieties volunteer for intricate espalier pattern . You are cut back to the simple parallel lines of “ erect cordon ” shape , or else of expansive candelabras , which I consider too tricky for most novice espalier - trainer anyhow . Your choice in fruit characteristics is circumscribed , too . All four Colonnades bring out Malus pumila with soft white pulp that ’s good for pies and sauce . Though every variety has its own trenchant flavor , each is a variation on the traditional ‘ McIntosh ’ sense of taste : tart yet mild . This is a genuine incentive , since modernistic espaliers are unremarkably grown for looks first and fruit timbre secondly .   If the trim appearance of a wall of efflorescence and fruiting apples is what attracts you to these trees , then the Colonnades should suit you to a T. For the sharpest - await dustup of Tree , flora only one of the four smorgasbord . To get fruit , though , you will need to have another salmagundi for cross - pollination . This can come from unlike Colonnade variety or from an average apple or crab apple tree that flowers at the same time and stands within 40 groundwork of your espalier .