Dormant willow for planting

Winter has been unusually warm and friendly here this year and we are enjoying not to have to plow snow. That also means that we are able to harvest willow earlier than normal (unless we get a big storm) and I expect to have dormant willow available for sale during the first 2 weeks of March.

Willow cuttings

An assortment of willow cuttings for propagaion

The willow cuttings are approximately 10 inches long and ready for planting as soon as you can get them in the ground.

Use them for planting a willow bed for basketry or just for some beautiful willows in your garden.

For information and to order please go to our website here.

Willow rods (whips)

Example of dormant willow rods for propagation

Salix koriyanagi 'Rubykins'

The rods are approximately 6 feet long and can be used for living willow projects such as

Play huts and tunnels

Just installed play hut

Living willow fence (Fedge)

Living willow fence June the second year after installation

Woven trees in pots and in the garden

Trees just made

 First summer

After 5 years

Come and make your own tree - several designs available - in a nursery pot ready to take home. You can keep it in the pot on your patio for the first growing season and then transplant it to the garden in fall.

For information about 2016 spring workshops making living willow trees in pots please go to our website here.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Christmas Markets

Thank you to everyone who visited my  booths at The HandMade Market and The Artful Treasures Christmas Show during the past two week-ends.

It was fun to participate and the positive feedback from visitors who purchased items or showed interest in future workshops has been very encouraging.

In addition to the bird feeders I had produced a few baskets, mini hanging planters, willow globes and some Christmas items such as angels, stars, "twisters" (for use in outdoor planters), Christmas trees and wreaths - and it was a pleasure to talk to people about my business.

I am looking forward to participating in future markets - in the meantime: Look out for postings about planned workshops.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Willow Bird Feeder Classes

My friend Frances - who has a lot of experience working with willow and who is also the treasurer of the Southwestern Ontario Basketry Guild (SOBG) - had talked me into joining her in teaching members of the SOBG to make willow bird feeders.

At the Chatham location - The Chatham Cultural Centre - we had 7 eager members working on their feeders. 

The craft room at the center is large and equipped with lots of tables, chairs and each student had lots of space - which is required for this project.

Sunday's class was held at one of the member's studio in Thorndale. A beautiful space with everything that a basket (or craft) maker can dream of and the 5 students had a great time weaving and enjoying the beautiful view of the gardens and horses in the field. Thank you Linda for hosting this - and your offerings of coffee, tea, wonderful muffins and making sure we were not hungry as we hit the road again, some of us having several hours of driving ahead of us.

I am sure that everyone will enjoy watching the birds that will be frequenting the feeders in months to come.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows

Willow Globe for the garden

My friend Frances and I decided to make "Willow Globes" modelled after an image from the net and we were quite happy with the results - considering that we had never worked on structures like this before.

I imagine a few of these in different sizes could ad interest in the garden and I am going to place some among the woven willow trees I have planted in a garden bed for display along with some ornamental grasses.

This one is a big one, but smaller ones could also hang from branches under the canopy of a big tree, swaying in the wind.

If your garden is closed in you can just let a few roll around on the lawn, rolling here and there with the wind. But of course, you can also anchor them at certain desired spots on the lawn or in a flower bed.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

Willow bird feeder visited

The anticipated snowstorm dumped a pile of snow here today and it has been very busy at the bird feeder.
I have feeders in three different sizes, the biggest one too big for hanging in a rope or chain. In the spring we will place a pole in a flowerbed for mounting one in addition to leaving one on the deck, mounted on a rod placed in a sturdy umbrella-foot.
For now, so that we can enjoy the birds - and they can eat - during winter, we have placed one on top of our fire pit.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.

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.

Weaving for the garden and the birds

At the willow weaving class in June I had a chance to  meet a few of the members of the Southwestern Ontario Basketry Guild and it was a wonderful opportunity for me to get to know people with an interest in willow.

One of the girls, Janice joined my friend Frances and me for a couple of days of weaving here at Lakeshore Willows, where Janice and I benefited from Frances' great experience in willow weaving.

We used entirely left over willow from the above mentioned class in June - dried, then soaked willow kept in a freezer by Frances since June - and Frances was happy to see most of the willow finally transformed into something useful.

Both Janice and Frances have added wonderful posts to their blogs about our "Basket Camp" where you can read more about the experience.

This garter snake decided to pay us a visit in the garage. I was very surprised that he actually came right into the garage where we were working on the baskets - AND both dogs were there too. Maybe because it was a very hot day, but I quickly got him outside again - I really don't like snakes, even the harmless ones, and definitely not in the house. Really, since that day I catch myself checking for any movement whenever I step into the garage from the house!

Our finished garden baskets displayed on the deck.

Frances did a great job teaching us the techniques that were a great challenge for both Janice and me - especially to scallom and insert the stakes.

My basket in use - I just harvested the last big bunch of tomatoes a couple of days ago.

Our next project were bird-feeders. Here's Janice working on the base - Frances "lending a helping hand"

Our final products.

I think they look pretty good, considering they were our first attempts, helping each outer and following written instructions.

Words and photos by Lene Rasmussen,Willows.