Editing Espalier (section)

==History==
The word {{lang|fr|espalier}} is French, coming from the Italian {{lang|it|spalliera}}, meaning "something to rest the shoulder ({{lang|it|spalla}}) against."<ref name=IFAS>{{Citation| first1 = Sydney Park | last1 = Brown | first2 = Thomas H.| last2 = Yeager| first3 = Robert J.| last3 = Black|title=Circular 627: Espaliers | date = September 2007|orig-year=May 1985|page=1| place = Florida, USA| publisher = Department of Environmental Horticulture, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida | url = https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/MG/MG27300.pdf}}</ref> During the 17th century, the word initially referred only to the actual [[trellis (architecture)|trellis]] or frame on which such a plant was trained to grow, but over time it has come to be used to describe both the practice and the plants themselves.<ref name="NCSU"/>

Espalier as a technique seems to have started with the ancient [[Ancient Rome|Romans]].<ref name="Dumbarton Oaks">{{cite book |editor-last1=MacDougall |editor-first1=Elisabeth B. |editor-last2=Jashemski |editor-first2=Wilhelmina F. |title=Ancient Roman Gardens |date=1981 |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture |location=Harvard University |isbn=9780884021001 |page=35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HroD_90ciCMC&q=espalier%20 |access-date=10 August 2021}}</ref> In the [[Middle Ages]] the Europeans refined it into an art.<ref name=IFAS/> The practice was popularly used in [[Europe]] to produce fruit inside the walls of a typical castle courtyard without interfering with the open space and to decorate solid walls by planting flattened trees near them. [[Vineyard]]s have used the technique in the training of grapes for hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years.

{{multiple image
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 | width = 150
 | header= Belgian fences
 | image1 = Espalier_-_Belgian_fence.jpg
 | caption1 = Belgian fence
 | image2 = 01212belgianfenceinice.JPG
 | caption2 = Belgian fence after an [[ice storm]]
}}