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.

Winter's Beauty

One of my favourite blogs: Gardening Gone Wild has long tempted me with their monthly contest, Picture This Photo Contest. For January 2010 the theme is "Winter's Beauty" and the many photos submitted (go to the comments for their contest post) truly show that there is beauty to be found in winter. You may not like the cold, ice, snow, and dark, but admit that there is lots of beauty!
Being new to photography, I finally this month decided to participate, and here is my chosen photo:

Although the snow is not visible on the photo, it is covering the ground in a thick, soft layer and I believe it gives the photo it's special light and colours - helped by the red twigs on the dogwoods in a distance.

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!

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.

European Beech - lasting colour

A week or so ago we finally had some real fall colour around here - and now after a couple of days with high winds almost all leaves have fallen.

Fagus sylvatica

This spring I planted one of my very favourite trees, Fagus sylvatica (European beech) and although it is quite small, I enjoy looking at it every day. The leaves slowly turn from green to yellow - with a purplish tint while they transform to a final golden brown. Unlike most other decideous trees, younger trees keep most of their beautiful brown leaves all winter - finally dropping them as the new leaves unfold in spring. As the trees mature, typically only some of the lower branches will keep their leaves during winter.

Fagus sylvatica at Sunset Villa Mindepark, Puslinch

At the Mindepark (Memorial Garden) at Sunset Villa Association, Puslinch, Ontario I captured this beautiful Fagus sylvatica (the tree is from Denmark, if I am not mistaken) today as we went for a walk around the park after having indulged in delicious Danish open faced sandwiches along with one of my very favourite Danish Beers, Tuborg, at the Sunset Villa Restaurant.

I am so looking forward to my little tree getting bigger.

Salix koriyanagi 'Rubykins'

This is the second post in a series about my willows.
Salix koriyanagi 'Rubykins' is at this point my favourite willow variety.

In my field, growing in very heavy - wet to moist - clay they grow to 7-9 feet in one season. The rods are slender and sway gracefully in the breeze, showcasing the beautiful colours of the leaves.

According to Christopher Newsholme in his book Willows, The Genus Salix, Salix koriyanagi is of Korean origin and is extensively grown in Japan for fine basketry. I am not sure, however, how commonly it is cultivated for basketry in North America or Europe, but I really like the plant and the dried rods are flexible and of a light grayish green colour. As I used pretty much all my harvest last year of this variety for propagation, I am looking forward to working with it next spring, both as dried material for weaving and for living willow creations. This is the variety that I used for the harlequin woven tree in "Repairing the Willow Tree". This is what it looks like today, standing in front of the barn:

In the field 'Rubykins' stands tall and healthy and this year's new planting will already at the end of this growing season deliver a few, shorter, very slender rods usable for some fine weaving.The photo is from September 1st and the plants have grown a bit since then.

Rubykins is very easy to recognize in the field with it's unique colours and appearance. The branches are glabrous pale green with leaves dark green above with an almost white mid-rib and glaucous underneath. The leaves at the tips of the branches are pinkish, copper like in colour.

From seed to bloom first season - perennials

The new perennial bed is filling in with the plants that I grew from seeds this spring. It will take a couple of years until everything really has settled in and is able to block out most weeds, but I am quite happy (for now) - many of my plants have bloomed this first season:

The verbenas, poppies and daisies were the first to start blooming, already before they were transplanted to the garden.

The white poppy (papaver anomalum 'Album') is still blooming, but most of the plants are quite small and I hope that they will get stronger, larger by next summer.

Brazilian verbena (verbena bonariensis) has put up a non-stop show and I just love their colour and airy structure.
- and so do the Monarch butterflies.
Daisies have always been some of my favourite flowers - I would just wish that they had a much longer blooming time. I chose this double shasta daisy (leucanthemum maximum 'Crazy Daisy') and this first year their blooming season has been quite long, mostly because the individual plants decided to start blooming at different times.

This beautiful agastache (agastache foeniculum) also started it's purplish-blue flowers early in the summer - but ONE DAY AFTER we had this summer's heaviest rain they all died, drowned. My frantic digging of trenches didn't save these and a few more plants - darn!

Sitting right in the middle of the lowest spot and with their feet in water were the sneezeweed (helenium flexuosum) their happy little faces glowing. I'll ad some more heleniums next year to help fill in the bare spots in the bed.

Saved by the trench were the native Giant Blue Lobelia (lobelia siphilitica). A couple of them died, but most came back from their drooping state after I dug the trench.

Another native (you find it everywhere around the countryside this time of the year) the aster (aster puniceus) has bloomed and is now producing large amounts of seeds that will be spread by the wind.
Butterfly weed (asclepias tuberosa) bloomed although the plants are very, very tiny. After the butterfly larvaes have been there, there isn't much left - hopefully enough to carry the plants over till next year.
I didn't really expect any of the echinaceas to bloom this year, but the white variety Alba (echinacea purpurea 'Alba') has turned out a few blooms - although I have left them in small nursery pots to be transplanted to the garden soon. Looks like it was not just seeds from Alba in that envelope from the seed company.

With a little luck - and lots of work - I'll be able to post some beautiful images of the perennial bed next year.