Botany

Using willow as an early source of nectar for bees

Willow blossom proffers a great service during the spring months by providing an early source of nectar and pollen for foraging bees. Without this rich food source many bees would perish.

Growing willows for winter stem colour

The winter and spring are when willows come into their own. Certain willows have striking stem colour whilst others combine this with beautiful catkins. However, since the 1960’s and 70’s when weeping willows got a bad press for causing subsidence problems when planted in small gardens many of these varieties have fallen out of favour.

There is really no need to tar all willows with the same brush though. If you control willows by coppicing every 1 to 3 years you shouldn’t have any problems at all.

How to grow willows

Most trees are cultivated using seeds. For instance when a forester plants a stand of oaks they would have originated from individual acorns each with its own genetic make up. Some will grow to become majestic trees whilst others will form puny runts that will be thinned out at the first opportunity. Once a large oak has been identified acorns will be taken from that tree to provide planting material for future forests but again these will include that same distribution of good, bad and mediocre.

The beauty and diversity of willows

Neglected beauties

Science and botany

Activity 5         Learn to identify some willows

There are hundreds of willow species. These 101 activities use many different species and you might feel a little daunted about where to start. However, the majority of tasks can be performed with just a handful of willows. This activity looks at five species native or naturalised to Britain and five native to North America. 

Gardening and horticulture

Activity 6         Grow Your Own Mistletoe by Infecting a Willow Branch

Most people will have used mistletoe to decorate their houses at Christmas and the lucky ones will even have had a Christmas kiss under a sprig. But come Twelfth Night don’t throw your mistletoe away – instead why not use the berries to create your own renewable resource and help in the conservation of the species.

Arts and crafts

Activity 4         Make a willow star

This is a really simple activity that could be performed with a class of primary school children. I did it at my daughters 2nd birthday party and it proved a hit with her friends. All you need is some pliant willow rods.

Activity 15       Draw a picture with artists' charcoal

101 things to do with willows

There are perhaps grander trees than willows and certainly many others with superior timber. But with willows you get a bit of everything. The usefulness of willows owes a great deal to their long, straight, slender, supple but strong shoots which make them perfect for basketry, weaving and other traditional crafts. Many activities such as living sculptures and screens would be impossible but for their ability to grow from cuttings and to produce rapid growth following the seemingly brutal cutting back as coppice and pollards.

What makes a Wonder Tree?

With willows it is the blend of beauty, diversity, adaptability, but above all usefulness whichmarksthem aside from many other temperate trees.

You can’t deny the tremendous virtues of oak and beech but when you plant these trees you are growing them for the future. With willow, you can watch a tree mature to full size within your own life time, or alternatively you can cut it down every year and it will produce new shoots that can be used as the raw material for any number of useful products and activities.

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