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Willows
22
February 2007
Willows
tend to get a bad name in Ireland. They are
common, fast growing and most of them are boring
for a lot of the year.
 The
reason they are common is their tolerance of
moist, wet or even waterlogged ground and there
is no shortage of that. They will also root
like weeds and poles of willow used by farmers
as fence and gate posts actually root becoming
trees before you can say 鈥渃ut it down鈥.
There is a grafted, weeping willow, Salix caprea
鈥楰ilmarnock鈥 that is  suitable
for small gardens but it needs regular attention
to remove suckers from the main stem below the
graft and the old, dead stems under the outer
canopy of branches.
The contorted willow has a long name, Salix
babylonica var. pekinensis 鈥 Tortuosa鈥.
Its bare, twisted branches look beautiful against
a dull, winter sky. Regular pruning will reduce
the height and furnish it with new, manic-like
growth.
The willows with coloured bark on the young
stems are worth growing. In winter they are
noticeable from a distance as a coloured blur
on the landscape, not unlike a cloud of yellow
or orange.
If you haven鈥檛 a large garden they may
still be grown and either coppiced or pollarded
every second winter. With coppicing the stems
are cut down to stumps every other winter encouraging
a mass of new growth with good bark colour.
As the bark ages it loses its brightness.
Pollarding is the same principal but the tree
is grown as a standard with 6 ft of un-branched
stem. The branches are pruned where they form
a head.
Salix alba var. vitellina produces young growths
with bright yellow bark. Salix a.var. v. 鈥楤ritzensis鈥
has bright orange-red stems.
Then there is the beautiful golden weeping willow
Salix x sepulcralis 鈥楥hrysocoma鈥
with slender, weeping branches of bright yellow
stems. Unfortunately it is prone to canker disease
and most trees eventually succumb in our moist
climate.
Many of the willows are female producing the
silken catkins in winter and early spring. Salix
gracilistyla 鈥楳elanostachys鈥 has
an upright habit of growth making 9-12-ft in
height. It has unusual catkins that are black
with red anthers.
back
to John's index page
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