[Matt S] Salix babylonica

[Matt S]

This is a Weeping Willow that I obtained from a cutting I took in the Summer of 2014, so it's had 2 growing seasons. The willow was growing by a creek and was being removed to make way for native tree plantings, and my nephew was sad to see it go so we took a couple of cuttings. So the cost was nothing.

I have a couple of Willows that I've styled to provoke a feeling of calmness and solitude, but now I want one to reflect those old gnarly, slightly malevolent willows so prevalent in Western culture. For me Willows only look good without their leaves or at least in early spring, and the picture I have in my head is definitely a Winter image.

All that's happened is the cutting was placed in a bucket of water for a few months while it grew some decent roots, then placed in the current waterwell pot over a small upturned pot to keep the roots growing sideways. It was rootpruned in August 2015 and placed back in the same pot. A lot of the topsoil has been washed away (thanks to my 4 year old's watering efforts, bless her) so the tops of the roots are exposed.

Currently it's 1100mm high so there's a fair amount of reducing to be had, but it won't be a problem as these willows are fast growing and indestructible. Pretty uninspiring so far...

Willow - full.jpg

Here's a closeup. You can see the pot the pot was placed on.

Willow closeup.jpg

I'm hoping this will show people how quickly a Willow can be styled and encourage people to have a go.
Matt.

[kcpoole]

never would have thought willow would make a Shohin candidate due to the fast growth being hard to control
Going to be interesting to see where this one ends up

Ken

[Matt S]

Time to get to work on this one.

Not much to show at the moment. I chopped the trunk and pruned the exposed roots, resulting in what's really just a new cutting. I planted it in a waterwell pot with a really free draining mix so I know it will be getting plenty of water. The only problem with standing willows in water is that the roots will often bypass your nice potting medium and go straight for the water, which paradoxically increases the risk of them drying out because the standing water is usually the first to evaporate on a hot day. However this doesn't worry me too much at this stage and I'll probably be repotting it again in mid summer.

At this stage its all looking very uninspiring but it's early days. Once the shoots have gotten established I''ll choose the ones I want and prune the trunk down further.

shohin willow left.JPG

shohin willow right.JPG

shohin willow pot.JPG

Matt.

[kvan64]

Time to get to work on this one.

Matt.

Yes...all you need is ...time. That brave chop is opening up whole lot of options when shooting up branches.

[Matt S]

OK, this tree is showing some progression.

A few weeks after the trunk chop new shoots sprung up all over the stump, so I chose the couple that I wanted and rubbed off the rest. Lots of water and fertilizer and you can see how much growth has occurred.

Willow shohin - Nov1.jpg

last weekend I carved out the top of the stump using my new die grinder to soften the flat stump. I may extend the carving later but for now I'll leave it alone.

Willow shohin - Nov2.jpg

Willow shohin - Nov3.jpg

Not much to do for a while but feed and wait until the base of the branches have reached the thickness I want, then I'll cut back hard and repeat the process. I'm not sure if the primary branches and new apex will get to the stage where I can start the weeping secondary branches this growing season, but so far the growth has been excellent.

Matt.

[Matt S]

My Willow has been growing strongly over the summer and as usual the first flush of growth is looking pretty daggy. In my experience they often benefit from a late summer prune and repot to set off a new flush of growth and give the roots some room to grow. Willows by now are often root bound and the growth will suffer in the critical Autumn period (Willows not in full health and growing strongly in late Autumn will often shed branches).

I had already pruned the main branches in early January and so on the 28th Jan the new growth had hardened off so I decided to give it a root prune.

willow jan17 before repot.jpg

The pot was full of roots, especially around the water well at the base of the pot. Pretty typical.

willow Jan 17 roots.jpg

I delicately(!) sawed off the bottom 2 thirds of the root mass and teased out the remaining roots and chose the ones I wanted. Everything else was eliminated. Considering that I could easily cut off all the roots at the base and grow it as a cutting without any problems I wasn't worried about removing so much at this time of year. Sorry about the photo, I just noticed how blurry it is. Pro tip - check your photos after you take them!

Willow Jan17 repot.jpg

The tree was then replanted back in the same pot at a different angle. These photo was taken today - lots of new growth that I'll let go for another week before selecting the shoots I want.

Willow Feb17 after repot.jpg

Willow Feb17 after repot close.jpg

Willow Feb17 after repot reverse.jpg

Matt.

[Matt S]

After last month's repot my willow sulked for about a week then decided to power on as normal. You can see how much growth occurred in just over a month and start to get an idea of the main structure.

Willow March17 1.jpg

Willow march17 2.JPG

This will probably be the last hard prune of the season. The primary branches are now in place so now it's time to start to introduce the weeping branches. Willow shoots need to get quite big before they hang down on their own so some encouragement is needed, however once they are set downwards growth is quite strong. I'm using wire for now but later when I have more branches I'll start with the weights.

Willow march17 3.jpg

It's a bit of a race now to get enough secondary and tertiary branches before the end of the competition but if the weather stays kind I should get a few to work with.

Matt.

[Redsonic]

Just found your willow entry today Matt; enjoying the journey and appreciate your obvious knowledge of the species. Thanks for sharing, and I will follow your little guy with interest!

[Paul W]

Agree with Ken, this is going to make an interesting shohin,a very rampant grower
Will need to get the hedge trimmer out every couple of days

[Matt S]

Rampant is right! Although putting them into small pots slows them down considerably. I imagine that it will have 2 pots, one for growing and a smaller one for showing. Luckily they take multiple root prunings during the growing season.

[Matt S]

After the last post I decided not to prune anymore as there wasn't much growth left for the season. Right on queue it put on a final few weeks of growth then slowed right down, so I'm happy with the timing. There's not much in the way of Autumn colour and the spots you see on the leaves are rust which I occasionally see around now, but only on my willows. Once the final leaves fall off I'll trim off any dieback, put a bit of wire on and start thinking about a pot.

Willow May17 1.jpg

Willow May17 2.jpg

Matt.

[Matt S]

Winter has finally arrived and the late summer root prune has paid off as there has been no dieback at all (Willows that are root bound in Autumn will experience dieback, sometimes quite severely). So now it's time for a light trim and a lot of wire. I'll need to be careful in Spring and get the wire off as soon as possible because wire scarring can happen within a few days with such a strong grower.

willow shohin july 2017 1.JPG

willow shohin july 2017 2.JPG

The apex needs the most work but hopefully there will be plenty of new shoots to work with in Spring. Not much to do now until repotting time. I really need to find a pot!

Matt.

[Sno]

That's impressive ! When you look at where you started . Can you contain that energy long term ? Really good stuff .

[boom64]

Great work Matt, very interesting tree. Looking forward to final pot choice. Cheers John.

[bodhidharma]

In my experience they do not like wire, there is a great article somewhere where you weigh them down with clay, which is what i do with mine.