what is a maiden?

[misterphil]

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?

[misterphil]

[Ceratonia]

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.

[grawrc]

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.

[katynewbie]

;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?"

??? ;)

[Debs]

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.

[Bodolph]

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.