Hi,
Got a shock with something I read out last night as I wanted to describe a system of tree management on my fantasy island whereby branches are trained along a frame to keep the trees low without sacrificing yield.

Sounded a lot like espaliering to me, so I used the term "espaliered". All well and good, but espaliering is also very common in confined spaces and walled gardens in colder climes where it is used to train trees to maximise their use of sunlight and grow warmth / sunlight loving plants in places they might otherwise die. The trouble is, it was the latter usage that jumped into my listeners heads and (just as with an unlooked for cultural parallel that floored me a few weeks previously) they ended up shivering in the Arran islands when I wanted them to be basking in the hot hot sun...

Anybody got a better and less controversial term, or do I have to resort to actual (very dull) descriptions of the techniques in play?
G

I'd have called it espalier too, or just trained (or cordoned) fruit trees, all three of which are terms they use at RHS Wisley for what you describe. They espalier to make fruit easy to pick, not for the other reasons your writers' group mentioned.
HTH

Susannah

they ended up shivering in the Arran islands when I wanted them to be basking in the hot hot sun...

I think you probably just need a bit more scene setting, rather than change a word which is appropriate to the cultivation method you describe.

<Added>

Also, what sort of fruit trees are you training? Apricots, peaches and advocados will evoke hot sunny climes; whereas apples and plums are more northern fruits.

all three of which are terms they use at RHS Wisley for what you describe

Thanks Cherys, a couple of gardening friends of mine and wikipedia also agree, but Chambers dictionary doesn't.

I think it's like the trend to describe Escherichia coli as a deadly killer rather than one of the most common symbiotic bacteria known to humanity present in the intestines of roughly 100% of the population (hence the reason it is a good faecal indicator for water purity tests) with just a few strains that are dangerous... Similarly, the effort to keep explaining what type of espalier I am imagining is likely to be much greater than simply finding an alternative.

I think you probably just need a bit more scene setting

One of the reasons my group jumped on the espalier, so to speak, was that (their preconceptions of) it clashed with the other bits I was describing.

Apricots, peaches and advocados

As an FYI, it is actually a shade too hot for peaches to thrive! They tried avocado on the island once, but other factors (ah... the roots rotted) mean they lost them. They have quite a lot of citrus (which are the trees they espaliered), some papaya (untrained, though they need to be protected from the wind) and have also developed quite a lasting respect for coconuts (untrained also as no feasible way to train a palm tree that doesn't in some way kill it stone dead).

G

Espalier sounds fine to me. I'm sure it will be clear from other details that the place is hot, and for many readers the word espalier won't have any climate connotations anyway - I've always thought of it as being mainly decorative or to save space.

I think people in a critiquing situation often feel they have to point out something in order to be helpful, so can end up focusing a bit too much on very specific stuff like this.