You don’t have to be a master gardener to appreciate—and enjoy—the ancient craft of espalier.
It’s a centuries-old horticultural technique with roots as far back as ancient Egypt. There, through faded tomb paintings of fig trees planted and flattened against sun-drenched stone walls, evidence suggests that espalier (ess-PAL’-yay) had a place in the garden.

Later refined by French monks in the late 1600s, this art of pruning and training trees and deciduous shrubs into stylized, flat patterns is as relevant to today’s green thumbs as it was back then. That’s because espalier offers a number of rewards that 21st-century gardeners can reap.

No one understands the benefits— and beauty —of espalier more than Peter Thevenot, owner of River Road Farms in Decatur, Tennessee. He tends to approximately 3,200 of these living works of art at all times. Thevenot’s intense passion for espalier began some 16 years ago after a visit to the vegetable gardens at the historic Mount Vernon estate in Virginia.

An English walled garden, designed by John Cullen of Celtic Garden Imports in Ann Arbor, Mich., awaits you in the "Gardens of the National Trust" exhibit at the 2005 Chicago Flower & Garden Show. Here, Cullen re-creates the sophisticated ambience of an English country estate with a formal design that sets the stage for a cool-colored floral display.

Many architectural artifacts -- including limestone arches, antique cobblestones, reclaimed bricks and tracery windows, which were salvaged by Cullen's firm on trips to the United Kingdom -- lend an authentic British feeling to the space.

"I look at our garden as a stained-glass window," Cullen says. "The structure is very important. A strong design is necessary to support the plants, which serve as the stained glass."

PETER THEVENOT, nurseryman and arborphile, calls himself ''a gnarly-bark guy.'' On a Saturday morning last October, he steered his pickup truck toward a lichen-covered river birch near the bank of Big Sewee Creek, which joins the Tennessee River on the edge of his 340-acre farm here. The birch's peeling bark was reddish-brown, tan and white, with the texture of parchment. ''Isn't that cool?'' Mr. Thevenot asked.

Most people admire trees for their leaves or blossoms. Mr. Thevenot says he loves them for their hides. ''Flower color is just so fleeting that if that's all you're buying a tree for, I think you're really in for a huge disappointment,'' he said.

Mr. Thevenot resembles Ralph Waite during his days playing John the elder on ''The Waltons,'' and his voice discloses his Cajun roots in southern Louisiana. ''The interesting thing about bark,'' he added, ''is that you're usually dealing with a plant that you're going to have to stay with for a long time before it begins to show you all its little secrets.''

My interest in espalier began when my wife, Beth, and I visited Mount Vernon. I remember being taken by the way the paths in the vegetable garden were lined with plants shaped into low hedges. As I bent down to inspect them, I discovered they were actually espaliered pear trees that bore fruit. On the two walls that bordered the garden, there were more espaliers trained into fan shapes that served as focal points. The way these trees were artfully trained made the garden seem so inviting, while also lending structure and balance to the garden’s overall design.

After returning home, I read all the books that I could find on espalier and spent long hours in the hot Tennessee sun with pruning shears in hand, trying to recreate the shapely trees that I had seen at Mount Vernon. Since then I’ve mastered many designs and even opened a nursery that specializes in espaliered trees. And through the years, I’ve learned that all it takes to create beautiful espaliers is a good plan, some judicious pruning, and a little patience.