Spring 2012 workshops

Living willow workshops for the spring 2012 have now been scheduled. You will have a choice of making the woven "Harlequin tree", the twisted (or roped) tree or both at the workshops.
Kits of rods for both designs will also be available for purchase at the workshops in case you would like to make one or more after you return home.
For more information please look under the tab "Events" at the top of the page.

I am excited to be able to announce the visit here at Lakeshore Willows by the very accomplished and internationally known willow artist Anne Mette Hjørnholm from Denmark. Anne Mette will be teaching a basket class here on the week-end May 26-27 2012 - details to be announced.

This is one example of Anne Mette's beautiful work. If you could be interested in participating, here is a link to the gallery on her web-site. By clicking on an image you will open a related photo album.
Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Taking orders for Willow cuttings and rods 2012

The winter - so far - has been mild with weather conditions changing almost daily. During January we had temperatures ranging from 15 degrees Celsius to -17 (+ the effect of the wind chill), sunny days, rainy days, snowy days, very windy days and a few days like today starting out looking like a dense snowstorm, then suddenly more and more blue appearing in the sky with bright sun and temperatures just above freezing. The snow probably won't stay long this time either.

These conditions have made it possible for us to start harvesting the willow already and we are now taking orders for willow cuttings and rods. Delivery can take place anytime you wish until the end of April. If you order - and receive cuttings before you are ready to plant them - don't worry, they will keep just fine wrapped in dark plastic and stored in your fridge. Prices and information about availability and kits for living willow trees can be found at the top of the page under "Cuttings and whips"!

The fairly wet snow coming down this morning blanketed and hugged the willow in the garden. Beautiful!

The smaller willow Salix eleagnos (often called rosemary willow, but it is not Salix rosemarinifolia) has narrow green leaves resembling the leaves on rosemary. Cuppiced each year the shrub grows to a height of about 75cm (under 3 feet) and I grow some as a low, natural hedge. The winter bark on S. eleagnos i very dark  brown almost black with dark red bud scales.

The trunk of the woven willow trees lend themselves to some beautiful snow covered images. Salix x acutifolia is a more vigorous willow, its first growth in spring a bright wine red with almost lime coloured new leaves. Later the foliage colour gets a bit darker, but the branches stay a wine red colour during summer. As the leaves fall the colours of the bark change to a dark purple, almost black. The following year the bark on last years growth develops a bloom that gives them a whitewashed look. Older bark  is black as seen on the image on left. The branches on the image to the right show winter bark on one year old shoots. 

A woven or twisted tree looks especially

beautiful in this variety of willow and grown as a shrub in the garden it ads beautiful colour year round. 

Salix alba 'Sericea' has intense dark orange coloured  winter bark. As other alba hybrids it tends to grow with lots of side branches (even when coppiced) so it is not the best willow to grow for basketry. It is great though, to have a few bundles of rods to ad some colour variations to certain baskets. For that purpose I have to cut the side branches off for use as weavers - and I only get a few for my own use. It is far too much work!

Living willow fence in snow.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Transplanting your potted willow tree to your garden

As the summer is slowly fading, the colours change and the leaves start to fall, it is time to transplant your potted willow tree to the garden - if you haven't done so yet.

When you first made your tree at our workshop (or bought it) in the spring, the willow rods didn't have any roots yet and you had to leave it in the pot to root and start growing.
It would look like the one in the photo on the left.

When the roots have developed during the summer, you can transplant it to your garden - and by this time of the year you have to do so. First of all the roots may not make it through the winter in the pot above ground, and secondly the woven tree is really 32 willow plants in that little pot - so it really wants to get some more room for its feet.

This morning - still a bit of fog in the air - a woven tree waiting to be planted looks like this one in the photo to the right.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Living Willow Workshops Spring 2011

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Learn how to work with living willow rods, twisting or weaving them into potted trees that can be transplanted to your garden later this year.

At the workshops you can choose to make a tree where the trunk is twisted like a rope or woven in a "harlequin" pattern similar to the Living Willow Fence.

The trees you make at the workshop are yours to take home.

Join us at one of the scheduled workshops at Lakeshore Willows - please check under the tab "EVENTS" at the top of the page for dates, time and cost. To sign up for a workshop drop me a mail at salixlene@gmail.com.

Or you can book me for a session with a group of friends - either here at Lakeshore Willows or somewhere else - just contact me for availability etc. 

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Pruning to renew growth, shape

The Twisted Willow trees and the Harlequin trees that we made in the spring need a bit of maintenance to keep looking their best.
You want the plants to appear like a tree - with a trunk and a crown - but as the rods that we planted start to root and grow, they will naturally set shoots along the length of the rods. The shoots on the "trunks" of the trees have to be pinched off during spring and  summer to keep the shape of the trees while the shoots in the top are allowed to grow. If you fail to do so, you will end up with a very bushy shrub in the pot.

Keeping the twisted trees (from left: Salix x 'Flame, S. 'Americana', S. integra 'Hakuro Nishiki', and S. x acutifolia) free from shoots on the "trunk" is fairly easy as you basically just rub your hand down the trunk while the shoots are small. As you may see on the photos, the different varieties have different habits as to how many shoots they grow and how easily they are pinched off.

The Harlequin tree takes much more work and the variety in the picture, S. koriyanagi 'Rubykins' will have a lot of shoots in the spring and early summer with fewer shoots continuing to show up during the rest of the growing season and the following years.

In the photo to the left I have removed all the shoots and the trunks look clean and smooth.

When pinching off the shoots it is important to be careful not to damage the bark on the tree. If the shoot has been left too long you may rip some of the bark off if you "rub" or pull on the shoot - risking that that particular willow rod will die. If the shoots have been allowed to grow too big, it is a good idea to pinch them off with your finger tips or cut them off with a small pruning tool.

As the plants grow, you will also like to encourage the crowns to "fill in", get bigger and fuller. This is accomplished by pruning the crown a few times during the summer - starting when the individual shoots in the crown are about 25 cm long, cutting off about 10 cm.

On the left are the trees before pruning - I was late with the first pruning this summer - and on the right the same tree after it has been pruned.

The top tree is S. x acutifolia

The bottom tree is S. koriyanagi 'Rubykins'

They look a little "stunted" right after this operation, but the plants respond by developing two or more new shoots for each tip that has been cut off and after a few weeks you will have a larger, bushier crown.

This is what my very first Harlequin tree looks like now, planted in the garden.

Workshop fun!

We had three workshops here in April and I believe that everyone - not just me - had great fun. I met some really wonderful fellow gardeners, people enthusiastic about doing something different and I have received a lot of positive feed-back.

My friend, garden writer, author Yvonne Cunnington posted about her woven willow creation on her blog. Garden writer, editor and Master Gardener, Lorraine Flanigan was spreading the word about Living Willows at a presentation at Bolton Horticultural Society. Claudette Sims, a  Halton Master Gardener would like to be able to show fellow master gardeners some willow workshops next spring. Judy and Caroline are arranging a group visit here later and I have several people expressing interest for next year's workshops already.

Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki' (Japanese Dappled Willow) was a popular choice of variety for the twisted tree.

'Hakuro Nishiki' is a beautiful willow at all stages. The photos show (from left to right) how the foliage changes during the summer. When the new leaves start to unfold, they are a tender cream and green (sometimes a pinkish white), but then, for about 4-6 weeks in June-July, the tips of the shoots are a stunning pink. We have even had hummingbirds hoovering at the plants, thinking that they were flowers to feast on. Later in the summer the leaves are green with big splashes of creamy white and some coppery tones on some of the tips of the branches.

Salix x acutifolia - shown on these photos - was also available for the twisted tree. The bright colours on willow stems are only showing on new, one year old branches. On most willow varieties the older branches turn various colours of green or brown, but this one is quite different. The photo on the left shows the dark burgundy colour on the rods just after harvest in the spring (so they are still one year old). Soon after the new growing season starts, a white bloom is covering the stems and they stay like that for the rest of the season to turn almost black come spring. The photo on the right is a close up of the plant in summer - the new shoots bright red while the older wood on "the trunk" is white.

Salix x 'Flame' was picked for a couple of twisted trees, and Salix koriyanagi 'Rubykins' - in this photo - and Salix 'Americana' were available for both the twisted tree and the harlequin tree.

Thank you all for participating, for the great feed-back, and for your enthusiasm for "Willows". Thank you Lorraine for allowing me to use some of your photos from the workshop.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Living Willow Workshop, additional date available

My April 10 workshop is now full. I still have spots available for the April 17 and we have added another date, Thursday April 15 for those who prefer to attend on a week-day.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Living Willow Weaving - Workshop

Over the past couple of years I have been working with living willow creations, making "potted trees" for use in the garden, on the patio, at your front door, or anywhere you would like a small ornamental tree. After a season or two it is transplanted to the garden as it gets too "crammed" in the pot.
I am holding two workshops here for anyone who would be interested in participating, making their own tree or two. Two different "models" will be taught with choice of using different willow varieties for the trees:

A "basic" twisted tree (with variations), simple and classy. As the tree grows the 9 willow whips used to create the "twist" will - as they grow and expand - eventually grow together and look like a thick rope.

A "fancier" "Harlequin" tree. The pictures show use of a few different willow varieties as well as both summer and fall foliage of Salix koriyanagi 'Rubykins'. The willow whips in the "trunk" on this tree will also over the years fuse together as they grow.

Workshops scheduled:

Saturdays April 10 and April 17, 2010.

Start 10 a.m. Length of the workshop will depend on "model" and number of trees.

11770 Lakeshore Rd, Wainfleet

There's a $ 10 cover fee + cost of materials: Twisted tree $ 35.00, Harlequin tree $ 115.00

Bring your own lunch. Coffee, tea, and water is on me.

Please contact me by mail (find it under "Who is Salix" on left panel) to sign up or if you have any questions about the workshops.

Hope to see you there.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Repairing the willow tree!

Last year I started to experiment with growing "homemade" willow trees in pots. This "Harlequin" or "Belgian" tree I made from rods of Salix koriyanagi 'Rubykins', the one year growth of which is a pale greyish-green colour. This is how it looked just after I had made it.
32 rods are woven in a harlequin pattern and the fresh willow rods will root and start to grow. As they grow all shoots appearing on the "trunk" are removed to keep the woven pattern clean.

By June most of the rods were growing and the crown of 'Rubykins' was a beautiful fresh green with coppery tips on the shoots.

Some of the rods had not rooted, but the "big picture" was still pretty during the summer.

I was prepared to replace the dead rods this spring and yesterday the tree was fixed. At a closer count it turned out that almost half of the rods had not rooted and had to be replaced. The dead rods had dried out, shrunk, and changed to black or a light straw colour. The growing ones had increased in diameter and also changed colour. Now they are multicoloured olive green and different shades of rosy-brown.
I replaced one rod at a time by carefully pulling the dead one out and weaving the new one down towards the pot. In the image to the left the new rod is almost at the bottom where it has to be pushed about 25 cm into the "soil". (As a gardener can imagine, there is not much soil left when 20+ willows are growing in one single pot). The other image shows the tree after the full operation has taken place.

Now I really hope that the new rods will be able to compete with the already established ones. Only time can tell!

January 2012:

The repaired tree looked OK most of the summer with someof the new rods growing. During the following winter though, most of the new rods died as they couldn't compete with the established rods. So, even though the planter was fairly big, if you want to make sure that your tree will stray strong and healthy you must transplant it to your garden by the end of the first growing season.