Contre-espalier, a row of dwarf fruit trees which are spaced equidistantly, trained to a regular shape, and secured to an isolated trellis fence in order to form a straight line in kitchen and fruit gardens. It is generally placed at the centre of wide parterres bordering avenues and serves to frame the beds. This form of tree training has been termed ‘contre-espalier’ because the contre-espalier is often placed opposite an espalier running along a wall. [1] A contre-espalier is shaped like an espalier: the trees are trained and cultivated in the same way, except that contre-espalier trees are not allowed to grow as tall as espaliers which moreover display only one of their two sides, whereas contre-espalier trees show both.

A well-trained contre-espalier should be shoulder-high and four feet high at most, so that a clear view is left over the beds and the action of the sun and air on the vegetables is impeded as little as possible. [2] Growing fruit trees as bushes, which became fashionable in the last century, prevailed for a certain time over the contre-espalier, but it was eventually observed that these bushes obfuscated and thwarted the alignment of the allées, and the contre-espalier returned, being infinitely more suited to bordering straight lines and forming fruit trees in staggered rows at the centre of parterres than trees grown as bushes. See Espalier.

Notes

1. The French ‘contre’ meaning ‘against’ or ‘counter’.

2. ‘Espalier’ comes from the Italian ‘spalle’, meaning shoulder: espaliers are thus tall enough to lean on (article ‘Espalier’, Lambin, in Jellicoe et al., 1991, p. 178).