These are the forms I have used in my garden, links alongside each form take you to pictures of the actual plants…
Espalier, multi-tier
A good form for walls and tall fences, or on wires in the open. Suitable for apples, pears or grape vines.
> ‘Sunset’ Apple
> Japanese holly
Espalier, 2 tier
For apples, pears or grape vines, grown on a low fence or balustrade.
Step-over
A single tier espalier, used to edge beds. Suitable for apples, pears or grape vines.
> ‘Beauty of Bath’ apple
Double Cordon
A compact form for walls and fences. Often seen trained at an angle of 30 to 45 degrees. Suitable for apples and pears.
Triple Cordon
A trident form. Suitable for apples and pears.
Ladder Cordon
A modified double cordon where laterals are trained inwards along alternate wires to form a ladder. Suitable for apples and pears.
Small fan
Suitable for red and white currents and gooseberrieswhich produce many stems from the base.
Large fan
Plums, cherries, apples and pears can be trained in this form. It can easily spread to 16ft (5m) across.
> Cherry Fan
> ‘Concorde’ Pear
> ‘Brown Turkey’ Fig
Alternating fan
By training successive leading shoots to either side a zig-zag pattern is produced. Suitable for plums, cherries, apples and pears.
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Alternate bay
A method of training cane fruit such as blackberry, tayberry, loganberry etc. The canes shown will produce fruit, new shoots appear from the base and can be tied in the other side to fruit next year.
> Tayberry
Standard – soft fruit
It is common to see orchard trees with a clear stem but soft fruit such as gooseberries and currents can be trained as standards also.
An Englishman's Garden Adventures 