Kind of an obvious question I suppose!
Well then, what is a feathered maiden?
Will I be excessively pestered by unicorns?
seriously though, what does it mean?
A maiden is a one year old tree. A feathered maiden is one with several side branches, whereas a maiden whip has no side shoots.
They're cheaper than older trees because they have not had the pruning etc work done for eg espalier . YOu have to do it yourself. They will also take longer to fruit.
;D
As a southerner now living in the North...I can be sure of only one thing, a "maiden" is the northern version of a clothes horse.
As in "...just hang these sheets on the maiden, will you?"
??? ;)
Hee Hee Katynewbie,
You beat me to it.
We oop north (North east coast) would call it a clothes horse.
My OH's family would call it a maiden... very strange.
Maidens are 1 year old trees but often the rootstock they are grafted to will be 2 years old. This is done to give the new tree a kick start when planted.