Willow has its own schedule and requirements that are unlike food crops but most like trees, because they are deciduous trees, of course, but grown as a crop to harvest the long straight branches, not for the shade of its leaves. The process of raising willow as a crop entails the use of an ancient practice called coppicing, which is the act of cutting the willow branches, or rods, down to the ground to form a base, or stool, to grow many more rods than if left to branch normally. A stand of willow in crop rotation is often called a coppice. Pollarding is a style of coppicing, and is simply training a single main rod to grow about 3 ft. from the ground to be the main trunk and all rods will eventually grow from that elevated stool. This causes the willow to look more like a tree than a shrub and makes bed maintenance and harvesting much easier.
If left uncoppiced, most willow will grow into large and rangy trees and shrubs, up to 20' and taller.
There are so many uses for willow! Here are just the first ones I can think of:
Pollarded willow
Dried willow
- baskets, of course
- furniture
- craft decor and ornaments
- so many garden uses, from plant containers, cloches, plant supports and obelisks, bed edging, tomato cages, etc.
- fencing with dry willow in many styles, includes wattles and hurdles
- Sculptures
Live Willow
- tall, quick growing and dense hedges
- Stream bank support
- fencing with live willow - called fedges - a woven willow fence that grows from that structure into a hedge
- landscape specimens for shape and winter color
- privacy shields in strategic locations
- living willow archways, gazebos, tunnels and pods, structures made from growing willow.
...and anything needing a good straight stick!
Growing a planned willow bed for your own basketry and craft materials requires coppicing every year to get the preferred qualities for weaving. You can also let the rods age on the plant and harvest them 2-5 or even 7 years in rotation to get sturdy posts for fencing, heavy rods for structural uses as well as to strip for bark for weaving purposes. Willow is one of the fastest growing biofuel sources if you burn wood for fuel.
Which Willow?
There are at least 300 varieties, with new ones being developed and old varieties rediscovered. Their Latin prefix is Salix, and these are groups of varieties that have specific characteristics.
These are the families available at GWF right now:
Salix purpurea is the main basketry family, Their rods tend to be thin and flexible. They won't be the tallest willow variety usually, coming in the 4-6 ft range. They also seem to need a year or two before they produce lots of rods.
Salix fragilis grows tall and stocky, great for hedges and living willow work. There are some varieties that are also good for baskets. Many of these have the bright gold and red rod colors that show off in the winter.
We also have some hybrid families, like Americana, Flame, Miyabeana, Alba and Rubra. These combine qualities of two or more families and tend to be insect and drought resistant where established families may be more vulnerable.
We are adding Salix trianda and Salix daphnoides for more varieties and colors this year! We'll add info on them after they have a year to establish
Willow Fedges and Living Willow
Fedges are living willow fences that hedge out above and around the fence structure. They have the effect of a topiary if the fence structure is trimmed regularly. To create a fedge, you plant willow rods and weave them together for strength, then trim as they grow.
Living willow structures are similarly built. By planting the largest, strongest rods as the basic structure, and weaving in supporting rods, all planted at the base, you can create living arches, tunnels, gazebos and hobbit hideaways that continue to grow and become part of the landscape. These are great for the backyard, but also wonderful in a park or commons for the community to enjoy.
Growing Willow
Growing willow couldn't be easier - you are sticking a 12" cutting or 3+ ft rod into the ground, burying 8-9" underneath the dirt to grow roots. Heavy mulching will help keep competition from weeds and grasses. The willow can grow several feet per week in the right conditions - full sun and regular rain - and some varieties will reach 7-8 ft by fall in the first year. If you coppice, successive years will show substantial growth each successive year, for at least 7-10 years.
One strong advantage to growing willow is that most of the work involved happens in the cooler months of spring (planting) and fall (harvesting). Summers you just have to keep an eye on the rainfall and winters they lie dormant. We send planting instructions with the cuttings we sell.
Growing Tips
In general, willow needs lots of rain and lots of sun. They are fast growers under those conditions. While willow is not invasive via underground propagation, it will send roots into any nearby water source so keep willow away from water pipe areas.
You can space willow closely to get long straight rods to harvest for other applications and to quickly get dense, impenetrable hedges. The planting process itself couldn't be easier - push a stick in a hole in the ground and water.
In deciding how many cuttings you need, here is a place to start:
For a dense hedge, plant cuttings about 10-12" apart, so you will need about 10-12 cuttings per every 10 feet of hedge line, at a minimum. The closer they are, the fuller and taller they will grow, and planting them in two close-spaced rows and alternating them will make the hedge denser.
For basketry and handcraft uses: Reportedly, it takes about 125 rods to make a medium size basket. The basketry varieties tend to need a year to be established before you get more than 2 usable rods per plant. Our current group of 2 year olds are getting 4-6 rods per plant, and we expect those numbers to climb to 10 and more. So a plot of mature willow would need about 10-12 plants for each basket made per year, at a minimum.
For fencing or living willow structures: email us with your project ideas and we can suggest quantities and estimate costs. .
Every purchase will include complete instructions for planting and care. I can also recommend Hanna Aelst's page for new growers. She is an expert and I learned from her examples.
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