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.

Salix alba x for winter colour

The third post in a series about my willows is about Salix alba, White Willow and some of its hybrids.
The many varieties and hybrids of Salix alba offer beautiful "sunshine" colours for the winter garden.

Salix alba 'Chermesina' click image to enlarge

Salix alba 'Chermesina', Redstem willow truly lights up in a snow filled landscape. These photos from March 2009 show plants planted from cuttings in April 2008. The bud scales are flat and yellow.

The bright yellow-orange-reddish colours are unique to the newest growth on a dormant willow plant. As I coppice (cut down to the ground) my willows every year, they will always show colour on the whole plant during winter. When the plant is left un-pruned the colours will slowly change to brown and only the newest growth will show colour during the dormant season.

Salix x 'Flame' click image to enlarge

The new growth on 'Flame' in early summer is very pretty with red stems and orangey-red tender leaves, but during the summer the plants turn rather dull with light greenish-yellow branches. As the plants prepare for dormancy, they start to take on the fiery colours.

Salix x rubens 'Hutchinson's Yellow' click image to enlarge

Salix x rubens, Hybrid Crack Willows, are hybrids between Salix alba and S. fragilis and they hybridize readily in nature.

The seasonal changes for 'Hutchinson's Yellow' are very much the same as for the above 'Flame' and they both have beautiful red bud scales on the dormant rods. Looking at the plants up close, it is difficult to tell the difference. From a distance, however, the overall winter colouring is darker, reddish for 'Flame' and more yellow, orangey for 'Hutchinson's Yellow'.

Salix x 'Red Corkscrew Willow' click image to enlarge

The corkscrew willows have become very popular for floral arrangements and are available at most floral suppliers. If you'd like to grow your own, it is very easy and you don't need to have space in your garden for a big tree. When you coppice the plant in early spring, you'll end up with 5-7' long curly branches by fall and they will develop beautiful colour when dormant. There are different varieties yielding different colours.

Some Salix alba varieties have flexible rods and are also used for basketry. The yellow colours are attractive, often used for contrast although the colours change drastically during the drying and subsequent soaking of the rods. Sometimes the rods are woven before they are completely dry and still flexible enough for weaving which often results in work keeping more of the original colours.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Christmas - Jul countdown

Jul, the Danish word for Christmas, is pronounced as the English word Yule and is of the same origin. But the Danish Christmas traditions and how people prepare and decorate their homes are very different from what I have seen in Canada.
The "Advendt Wreath" is typically the first sign in the home that Christmas is approaching. To me it has always been a part of my Christmas preparations and the first of four candles was lit on Sunday November 29. Yesterday we had two candles lit, three next Sunday, and all four will be burning on the last Sunday before Christmas. The tradition originated in Germany in late 1800 and it was first seen in the Southern part of Denmark around World War I. During World War II it became a new Christmas tradition in all of Denmark.
At the top are images of my wreaths from other years and this year I have made a more untraditional one.

I cut a branch off one of my Curly willows and twisted it into a wreath. Then I tied small bundles of red eucalyptus to it using a gold thread and placed it on a large platter made from pewter. I placed four block candles in the middle and I was done.

During The Second World War people began another tradition, the "Calender Candle". The first ones were "homemade" by drawing numbers 1-24 on a thick candle. In 1942 the first Calender Candles for sale by the Danish candle manufacturer Asp Holmblad were produced and today many different styles can be found. As I cannot buy the Danish candles that I like here, I use to buy a couple when I visit or have someone visiting here bring me one. This year I didn't have any, so I made it myself. It sits on the kitchen island on a plate with some homemade stars made from golden paper strips and willow.

On the kitchen island is also my cute little Danish "Christmas troll" that my Danish girlfriend sent me a couple of years ago along with some nice poinsettias in a traditional red colour.

For the livingroom I purchased a new 2009 variety Ice Punch which lights up nicely with it's white sections on the leaves.