Weeping Willow cuttings

michael o'c · Posted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 10:27 am Post subject: Weeping Willow cuttings

I'd love to have a weeping willow tree. I've found one growing near me and weonder if anyone has tips for raising cuttings? Also how do you propagate bamboo? Thanks

Edlyn12 · Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:41 pm Post subject:

Weeping Willows are very easy from cuttings.Take an eight inch cutting.Remove the lower leaves until there's about four leaves left.Optional,apply rooting hormone and bury the exposed leaf nodes in a pot of compost.Place a bag over them and then when they root after babout a week poke holes in the bsg.A week after that you can take off the bag.This is called acclimatising cuttings.However,Weeping Willow trees have a very short lifespan,only about 20 to 30 years.But they grow quickly.
Edlyn12

Edlyn12 · Posted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 10:42 pm Post subject:

Sorry,burying the leaf nodes is necessary.I meant to say apply rooting hormone(optional).Bury the exposed leaf nodes in a pot of compost.

Good guy · Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 11:09 pm Post subject:

If it is the real Weeping Willow (hybridised from Salix Babylonica and others) I hope you have a large garden. It's a truly beautiful tree, but can reach a height of 20 metres, a and it lives a lot longer than 30 years.
If it is the Kilmarnock willow which grows to 1.5 or 2.5 metres, then you've no problem.
All willows should grow really easily from cuttings, needing no special help other than not drying out.

medieval knievel · Posted: Fri Jun 14, 2013 11:12 pm Post subject:

the kilmarnock willow is a graft though; so the size of that is restricted by the rootstock, which wouldn't share the characteristics of the cutting.

Good guy · Posted: Sat Jun 15, 2013 8:40 am Post subject:

Oops! Hadn't thought of that!

It's so important to be wary of the mature characteristics of trees before planting them. What can look so tempting in a garden centre or a neighbour's garden may, years later, turn out to be a nightmare.
When I was a beginning gardener in the 1970s, Variegated Poplar were all the rage so I planted one and admired it. A year or two later a friend's tale of the damage poplars had done to the drains and sewers of his Mother's house led me to investigate the roots of my tree. I was staggered at how far they had travelled. The tree was relocated to a furthest point of the plot!