Columnar Fruit Trees

I'm hoping to plant some fruit trees (ideally four) in the garden where the willow tree used to be. I was looking at the root stock sizes and stumbled upon columnar trees. These may be ideal as I did have concerns on how wide the M27, M106 and M116 may get.

Does anyone here have any experience with columnar trees for apple, pear, damson, plum?

This is what I am currently considering:
Ta!

 

I've emailed them, they've said they'll be a metre tall on arrival. Seems okay. They also said I should swap the 'Cox' for a 'Saturn' as the 'Cox' can be problematic.

 

£20 seems a lot for a 1M apple tree, sounds like its just a Maiden.

Is "columnar" the same as Cordon?

Personally I would plant bare-root in the Autumn - its only a few weeks away.

Check that you have pollination partners, ignore any that say they are self-pollinating and make sure they have a pollination partner too, and choose varieties that you like the flavour of (if you haven't tried any of the ones you are planning to order then try to get to an Apple Open Day as most likely the varieties you want will be available for a taste test there)

Local specialist nursery, hosting an Apple Open Day, will also give you local knowledge/advice about what suits you climate/soil.

 

This is worth a look @nFrost

http://willypnzb.we.bs/orchard/

 

Thanks Loli, I may go have nosey there.

I think I might steer away from columnar and go for a tree shape instead now. Do you think they may drink more? This would be good. The reason I chose columnar was to make it easier to get through that part of the garden but I suppose I can take the branches off any trees that get in the way etc.

 

I'm also considering waiting until next year to buy and plant the fruit trees and let the lawn recover first (just removed a willow tree stump), plenty of other stuff to do in the garden anyway. This book may help me get to grips with it also:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Fruit-Tree-Handbook-Pike/dp/1900322749/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

 

The book arrived and it's very good. I think I'll forget about the Damson, I've heard from a friend that they're only good for jams. I may just get three trees or maybe another Apple.

Had a rethink on the columnar tree for Apples as well, I want M26s now.