Winter Planters with Willow

This year I chose to decorate my winter planters using willow as the main material.

The planters at the back door each has 10 large branches of the curly willow, Salix x 'Red Corkscrew Willow' placed in the middle.  

To complement the yellow and orange colours I made wreaths of Salix dasyclados and S. sachaliensis 'Sekka' and placed them on the edges of the planters.

It was easy and I like the look - although I might have added a few, small green branches had the soil not been frozen by the time I started to work on the planters - I was lucky to get the willow rods in place before the soil was too hard.

The low, black planters at the front door are filled with branches of Salix x 'Flame', a few S. sachaliensis 'Sekka' (Japanese Fantail willow), and "sprigs" of evergreens.

As we do not have Christmas lights on the house, we decided to wrap two very large wreaths and three big stars - made with fresh rods of Salix dasyclados - with strands of clear mini lights and hung them at the front of the house over the holiday. It looked great and I will have to take photos to show next year.

Salix x acutifolia is interesting with a white bloom on the dark wine coloured stems and I  used it as decoration on my advendt wreath this year - looking beautiful along with light purple ribbons. As I made a couple of Christmas decorations for the table, I also added a few stems for interest.

It is the last day of 2010 and I wish you all a Happy New Year with good health and lots of laughter.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Pussy Willows?

At the end of winter/start of spring some willows are among the earliest bloomers, providing nectar for the "early bird" - or should I say the early bee and other insects hunting for food seemingly long before any flowers are around.

For many people "Pussy Willows" are a sure sign of spring and a few branches with the fuzzy little catkins are picked for a vase.

What is a "Pussy Willow"? Some sources name the North American native willow Salix discolor and Salix caprea (Goat Willow, native to Europe and parts of Asia) as being pussy willows while other sources ad other Salix species under the title. In your mind, do you think "Salix discolor" when you hear pussy willow? or just any willow, blooming with catkins?

When you grow willows for basketry and/or cuttings, you most often harvest the rods before any catkins are visible, but this winter we had lots of snow in the field, so when spring "suddenly" came a few of my willows started to show their beautiful catkins.

These are from some "wild" willows that I have, maybe one of them is Salix discolor.

Salix dasyclados

Salix 'Americana'

Salix koriyanagi 'Rubykins'

Salix sachaliensis 'Sekka'

 

Salix viminalis

My Salix acutifolia doesn't show any catkins, but take a look at the blogpost about them at my blogger friend Vivian (Piletossen) - they almost look unreal.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

The longest month!

31 days don't make January THE longest month of the year. Yet in my mind no other month feels nearly as long as this frosty, crispy one, dark hours (black out here in the country) out-numbering by far daylight hours so intensly wished for to replenish our bodies and souls. By mid-month I feel that Christmas must be at least three months past - and not just three weeks

The images of tree and decorations long gone from my mind and only found in my photos.

As it happens every year the tree branches, separated from the trunk, waiting to serve as protection for the strawberry patch when the snow melts - which is rapidly happening today.

The planters outside - prepared before the Holiday season - will continue to remind us, until spring comes around - or rather until I dismantle them and replace with potted spring bulbs or pansies.

In the field the willows are dormant. I didn't harvest any this season yet as some of my varieties went dormant (dropping their leaves) rather late due to the warm fall weather and after that, lots of rain made it impossible for me to work in the field.

The colored rods look beautiful with the white snow - in the picture to the left is Salix x rubens 'Huchinson's Yellow' in front of S. koriyanagi 'Rubykins' the grayish green stems visible behind the yellow ones. To the right the open, though healthy vigorous first year's growth of S. dasyclados.

The Danish song treasure is vast and loved by most Danes. I'll admit that I often - when working outside or just being alone - sing out loud (sometimes just in my head) and recently it's been one of the beautiful songs by B.S. Ingemann, "I sne står urt og busk i skjul" written in 1831. I know that I cannot translate this without losing some of the beauty - I'd just like to share the feeling - it's sweet and comforting for the longest month:

In snow shrub and herb is hid
It is so cold out there!
Though, a tiny bird singing,
on twig by frozen pane!

Give time! Give time! it sings out glad,
shaking those small wings
Give time - and every twig has leaf!
Give time - all blooms unfold!