Dappled Willow, One Year After

At about 3 1/3' tall and wide

As gardeners, we are sometimes confronted with the "do I or don't I" prune it to the ground scenario. After a couple bad winters sandwiching a drought of nearly epic proportions, my dappled willow had about 2/3 of it severely damaged by pests. Nervously, I trimmed it to the ground in late summer. This picture was taken yesterday about 1 1/2 years later.

For those of you considering such actions and wish you had the benefit of someone's experience, here you go. 

I will add dappled willow enjoy their water, but after establishing themselves do well with a lot less. They are also know for their rampant growth and benefit from heavy pruning as the spring color is the result of new growth. 

For previous images of my willow, please use the search tool on the right side of my blog.

Close-up of the "bloom"

Not Just Flowers for Color!

Sedums and friends

My dappled Japanese willow needs its own fan page on FaceBook
with almost 10,000 people having searched and read about it.
(REALLY! Surprises me, too!)

After Taking it to the Ground...

Scilla under the privet hedge

Each year I tell myself I will move these.  Each year I do not.  They are perfectly beautiful where they are and protected from being disturbed, planted as they are within the drip line of the hedge.  As a spring ephemeral it is also a bulb which probably likes it a bit dry through the summer.

This odd little scilla was more teal than blue.
I intend to check to make sure being hidden beneath
leaves had nothing to do with its strange coloration.

Crocuses always say spring, don't they?

After being cut to the ground and having much of it removed altogether,
my dappled willow is poised to make a return display.  Hiding behind it a tray of Concord grape starts for my brother.

Pruning

This is the rejuvenated hedge mid-August.n  The dappled willow is not visible in this picture.

No pictures of gorgeous flowers in this post.  This post is more about the hard decisions needed by the gardener in his or her space.

By the middle of June my privet hedge had still not leafed out.  I decided to give it another week before I would take it out if need be.  The end of that week brought signs that indeed it was still alive, but a drastic pruning would be in order and no way would it be approaching it 2012 or 2013 beauty.

Since then I took it within ten inches of the ground and cut some growth all the way to the ground.  I have since given it a light pruning.  I can now say it is on the road to recovery.

This is my hedge about a week into June.  The good bones and pruning apparent, but little sign of life.  You can see why I wanted to give it every benefit of time as it is major structural component between my garden and the alley way.

I also trimmed out the dead limbs in the dappled willow.  Actually, I had Handsome Son do that.  On further inspection we could see some sort of borer was at work.  I treated both it and the privet hedge, here and in front, along with a lilac and a climbing rose.  I used a broad spectrum systemic spray.  I haven't used any pesticides for over four years.  I didn't spray any plants near anything which was in bloom in an attempt to go easy on the many pollinators using my garden as their primary food source.  I have a feeling this damage may be the result of some sort of larvae of a sawfly or adelgid.    I have allowed the willow to sent up new shoots, but have also taken the old wood, some ten years old, to the ground this year as well, completely rejuvenating this plant.

In many ways this year has been one of rejuvenation and stream-lining my garden space.  That which does not kill us makes us stronger and proves we are alive.

Decisions...Cut Where? Or When?

Clematis 'Blue Dancer'

C. 'Blue Dancer' is putting on quite a show.  It's nice to have something blue in bloom.  This clematis is almost other worldly.  It certainly looks foreign to my zone.  However, it is decidedly hardy after this past brutally cold and long winter. This clematis alpina blooms on old wood.  Don't prune!

The blue color is spot on.  Amazing, huh?

Other things in the garden are still struggling.  After a rain last week, and the slightly more humid nearly 80 degree (F) temperatures perennials are starting to pop.  What looks the worse for the winter are my shrubs, the bones of my garden.

Decision-making in the Garden: When to Prune and How Much

An overgrown dappled willow in July of 2012,
the middle of a 5 month drought with temperature near 100 degrees (F) each day.

I am hoping for a gardening day today.  Siri tells me partly sunny and 55 degrees (F), but Siri is often wrong about things like where Waseca, MN is (She is really bad with names!  But somehow she knew immediately that Robert Redford was 77 and didn't even attempt to hand me off to some biopic website.  She must be a fan.); or panders to me with innocuous responses like, "That's an interesting question."  Sometimes she responds with esoterica only someone my age would know, a reference to HAL or when asked for news throws something out about Apple.  She is very much Jobs' daughter.  You have to wonder at the involvement of Steve with the code for Siri's personality.

However, hoping for a gardening day, I have several tasks facing me.

My dappled willow, Hakuro Nishiki, has the starts of tiny leaves.

The Brutal Winter, The Great Garden Extinction, Gardening on the Edge

Just too much brown yet for this time of year.   My PJM rhododendron still has a very brownish cast, although temperatures have been mild for a few days.  The blue dwarf leaf Artic willow is starting to think about budding up its leaf buds, but typically does not set the catkins which are its "bloom" as it is typically sterile.  This year, I can tell it is stressed as it have several sprays of catkins looking more like a pussy willow.  The vedict on the survival of the lavender 'Munstead' and the zauschneria (California fuchia or California hummingbird plant) is still out.  Even the 'Gold Coin' lysimachia looks hard hit. 

I am not sure what to think about this spring clean up in the garden.  I have spent a mere handful of hours in the garden cleaning the debris from both last fall and the winter.

The grass left longer than normal, as no mowing took place after my injury, particularly in the hellstrip ditch bordered by daylilies looks better than it ever has.  It was also covered by all the leaves blown or washed there as part of the villages highly evolved ditching efforts as the village sits on sort of a sandy boggy wetlands.  My house, one of the first built and therefore sited on a higher place, where I needn't worry about flooding still has an impressive ditch where leaves and debris can collect.

My neighbor, Dr. Darrel Apps, and I have been conferring on what we see dead in our yards.

Pruning: It Was a Bloodbath

As the summer heat comes on, containers with succulents take their turn in the sun.

(AP) - Somewhere in Central Wisconsin

As the corn grows high and dogs get fat in central Wisconsin, gardeners everywhere are battling weeds and rampant foliage growth on hedges and vines.

Last week's high temperatures followed by rain these last few days have plants that have been stuck in neutral pushing it into high gear.  Not only are The Plants making up for lost time, but so are The Weeds.

"It was a bloodbath!" The Gardener replied when asked about pruning on the shrub and alley border.

One gardener was quoted, " I don't usually use a hedge trimmers on my dappled willow, but it was so out of control.  I needed to do something quickly to get it in check.  The neighboring wine grapes had scampered across it and up my 'Beauty of Moscow' lilac and my fruit trees.  The hedger made short work of returning the border hedge to some semblance of order."

Some of the plants in The Border were given a bit of latitude this spring due to the protracted winter following last year's heat and drought.  Cloudy overcast days in the beginning of the growing year also made for fast growth of foliage trying to grab any available sunlight for photosynthesis to supply exhausted root systems with the sugars they so desperately need.

"I have a few invasive species and others that can be Garden Thugs," The Gardener said. "The only thing that allows this large a plant collection to co-habitate successfully in such a small space is vigilant pruning."

The Gardener went on to mutter something in low, guttural tones about climate change, and then muttered something like a zealous religious mantra.

"Pruning is The Way.  Pruning brings The Light.  Pruning bring shape and form.  Pruning is The Way..."  The Gardener was heard to say as her eyes grew wide and fixed.

At this time, order has been returned to The Garden and The Border.

Clipping from the dappled willow, lighter in color lying across the ground and the newly pruned privet hedge.

I didn't expect much from this elephant ear colocsia.  It was a half-eaten by raccoon bulb, from my mother, which I wintered over.  Bought Thai Giant this spring and although pre-started, it has not grown.

Peppermint portulaca in a hot dry spot, just hasn't performed as advertised.  Additionally, I did not realize portulaca bloom in the morning and close up during the heat of the day!

Petunia on alley border, a hot, dry spot

Petunias in hanging baskets have fulfilled their promise with this last week's heat.

Planted in the moister, more hospitable long border, the earwigs are keeping the flowering and plant size to a bare minimum.  I am loathe to spray, though with all the bees, dragonflies, and hummers, living there.

Western spiderwort (that pink one), in a plant prison need to be cut back to the ground.  I have this potted in a 5-gallon plastic container eith the bottom removed.  This garden thug is pretty, and will rebloom, if cut back.

Pruning the Overgrown: Dappled Willow

(Perspective makes it appear as if the dappled willow is half the size of my hobbit home. Not the case, it is a mere five feet by five feet in this picture. In the location in my garden, a more manageable 3 1/2' by 3 1/2' feet is more to my liking.)



I've yet to see a mass planting of dappled willows. I rarely see them in botanical gardens, either. However, for about 2-3 months of each year, visitors to my yard are bowled over upon viewing mine. Even my neighbor, Dr. Darrel Apps (who should know better!), has succumbed to the allure of the dappled willow, planting a rooted cutting of mine in his front yard.

I attempt to keep mine "in check", meaning it seems like I am checking/pruning it all the time.

I'll also be the first to admit that at times I've let my dappled willow get to be too much of a good thing. Like the commercial when the grade-schooler attempts to define less and more, we gardeners tend to always want more. A word of advice, more in the case of the dappled willow rapidly becomes unruly and overgrown.

This constant gardener thing is probably why botanical gardens fail to plant this lovely. It needs a one on one relationship with a pruner.

At this point I would love to have some cohesive pictures of the pruning of a dappled willow. I do not. Photojournalist have not applied to document this aspect of my on-going pruning war. (Come back in late July, maybe I'll take the time to document in pictures then.)

I will admit, like the gardener with the hedgers locked under glass, preferring to hand-prune, I have broken out the hedger. This approach is a bit like using a wrecking ball to kill a housefly, and not recommended. I've used this approach a couple times. The result is much less than satisfactory, with frayed cuts when nice clean ones are preferred. Willows, because of their stringy bark which does endear them to basket makers, and hedgers are not simpaticos.

Once you have established the best size for your willow and regularly cut it to that height, over time it becomes an easier and easier task to see where you need to make your cuts. The new growth will be thin pencil-straight and the hard-pruned areas of your shrub will take on a branching appearance. Often by the time pruning time comes around your willow will put on 10" to 18" of new growth. It is this new growth, after the color changes from the white to pink and into the green of chlorophyll producing foliage, which needs to be removed to keep your willow looking its best. For me, here in central Wisconsin this tends to be in the beginning of July. Additional pruning for size and shape can be done up until about eight weeks before your frost date in fall. You want to allow sufficient time for any new growth to harden off. I have found I prefer a ovid shape (like an egg laying on its side), and given the location of my shrub, this works very well for me. This is not the shape I recommend for the pruning of box or privet (or even dare you prune them, conifers).


Last year this color change for my dappled willow came about eight weeks into one of the hottest, blistering droughts I have ever seen in central Wisconsin. One cool evening, as I was starting my pruning process, I noticed that typically where there are lots of leaves to provide sugars to the roots growing in the branched areas of my shrub, this year there were none. For those of you not aware, willows need/love moisture. There is a reason for the iconic image of the graceful weeping willow draped over the shoreline of a creek or pond. They are wetland lovers. Once established, willows have no problem sourcing their moisture needs as their fibrous roots will travel far and wide to obtain the moisture they need (Do not plant these beauties near septic, or sewer lines!) Even in my well-watered and mulched garden, my willow was having a hard time of it. (I believe due to the heat. Its chlorophyll production was totally being produced by the new growth. Prune this off all at once, I would run the risk of pushing this plant beyond its levels of endurance, even as well-established as mine appeared to be.

I devised a plan to remove the new growth in stages, approximately a 1/8-section of the plant down to the branching area at two-week intervals. This I felt would encourage growth on the inner branching areas of the shrub where the mature branches would produce primarily green foliage.

I took this picture today and it shows this structure more clearly.




(The above picture is from the same perspective as the second picture in this post.)

Only the foliage growth on new wood seems to have the intense coloration for which I grow this shrub. I also increased the watering of this shrub throughout the rest of the summer. For any of you thinking of taking your 8' to 10' willow down to a 3' to 4' more manageable size; this might be a good plan for you as well.

Part of your pruning program should also allow for the entire shrub to be cut to the ground every 3-5 years. Choose a couple of the oldest branches and cut them off at ground level each year.




Snow Report- Comparison




Last year on this day my PJM rhododendron was in full bloom. This year, I can't find it under the snow bank.

However, the 4" deep "lake" that covered my parking space in my yard suddenly disappeared, meaning the ground has finally unfrozen in at least one spot in my yard!

In other on-going snow news, the snow-loading of my yard by a neighbor has me more and more concerned. THIS shoving of his snow away from his garage (and into my spruce) so the melt would not run into his garage was not "okay." (How is it I can spot non-gardeners by observing their other actions?) I can see already there may be damage. Just in case he can not "remember" all his snow pushed up on my trees and shrubs and cannot imagine how all those branches got broken and shrubs scraped off and up-rooted...











...a little chat will be forthcoming once the snow melts. I want to be VERY clear. Not "okay."


POSTSCRIPT: My dappled willow seems to have its own fan club. I wanted to publish some recent pictures of my shrub which is now over ten years and has almost died once after a drought, but is in all its glory at the moment, June, 9, 2016.

Currently about 3' tall by 4' wide

A Few of My Favorites From the Past Year

A lazy Sunday viewing of some of my favorite plants from throughout the past year.

Enjoy!


My front sidewalk in late July and early August is a walk worth taking for three to four weeks each summer.


Lily 'Satisfaction certainly gives that.

Creamy yellow white lily has lots of blooms and reblooms, giving the longest and most floriferous show in my garden.


A lot more of these Asiatic lilies are becoming established in my garden. They are worth the space.


'Golden Spirit' smokebush is a lime green in the spring. During the fall show, the leaves turn a golden apricot and seem to glow from within. It is a wonderful addition to my shrub border that also includes a sweet cherry, a pear, and an apple.


Another shrub from my shrub border, viburnum tomentosa.

When my dappled willow 'Hakuro Nishiki' (dappled brocade in Japanese)sends up its new growth, it is a beauty stunner in the landscape.







Two barberries planted for contrast.


Smokebush 'Nordine' showing beautiful coloration of spring foliage prior to blooming.


Green girl cast iron wall hanging rusting into a patina.


Peonies are one of my favorite flowers. I wish I had room for a full peony border.



White Asiatic lily with black stems planted en masse at Olbrich Gardens.