Crossword Genius

Ease, they say, with sort of spiral latticework (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

espalier

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'latticework' is the definition.
(I know that espalier is a type of treillage)

'ease they say with sort of spiral' is the wordplay.
'they say' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'sort of spiral' becomes 'palier' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ease' is a homophone of 'es'.
'es'+'palier'='ESPALIER'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for espalier that I've seen before include "Fruit tree trained to grow against a wall" , "Trained fruit-tree" , "Kind of trellis for pearlies" , "Trellis to train plants to grow flat" , "train a plant" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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