Espalier Apple Tree (Queen Cox)

At last, our part-trained Apple espalier arrived. It’s in its third year and has two branches trained as espaliers already, which means that we’re off to a flying start with our fruit garden. It arrived by courier and is probably the biggest package I’ve ever received . It was so well packed, in straw and newspaper and cardboard then plastic, that it was actually difficult to carry around to the garden. But once we’d got it unpacked I soaked the roots in water over night and planted it straight away. It’s a Queen Cox, eating apple variety and it’s a self-fertile clone. This means that, in theory, it shouldn’t need a pollinator, however because it’s a clone it won’t pollinate other apple trees. This means that if I decide to buy another apple tree I will need to buy two, in order to pollinate each other. Complex, I know! Originally I wanted to go for two different trees, however it turned out that I couldn’t get either variety in a part-trained espalier (sold out everywhere) so I decided to go for Queen Cox because they were available and also, to save space, I can get away with using only one tree. I’ll keep you posted on how that experiment is going!