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Talkback: How to make willow plant supports

WHERE CAN I GET THE WILLOW FROM.

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  • The SaintThe Saint Posts: 23
    yea! I live in Ireland, and I did track down somewhere that sells bundles of willow sticks for planting, but I don't know much about coppicing willow. It's something Id love to do so I could have a ready supply of willow canes.
  • jojo127jojo127 Posts: 1

    what will the willow be used?

  • by a river/waterway?
  • cazannecazanne Posts: 3
    You can buy willow withies from www.musgrovewillows.co.uk based in Somerset. I managed to buy half a bundle and after several projects there is still plenty left.

    The willow is much easier to manipulate if it is soaked overnight in a bath or pond.
  • This is an idea I have never thought of and as a florist used to thinking "outside the box" that worries me - how many other good tricks have I missed along the way? Good winter project for wet Saturdays when I can't get into the garden!
  • DianaWDianaW Posts: 62
    Great use for ivy, too - and more gardeners will have ivy than willow to spare. I suspect that the tiresomely long and tough, thinner stems of Virginia creeper could be used instead, too.



    Let's all aim to reuse what we already grow in our gardens, rather than meekly buying something because it's the traditional material for the job - even when we have a perfectly good, homegrown alternative

    .
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,138

    Save the canes from cutting back the dogwood image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,064

    I did a day's course learning to make an obelisk from willow.   They were fresh withies cut in late winter so we had to let them dry out a  few days when we got them home if we didn't want them to grow in the garden.   It was lovely and very satisfying but by the end of the next winter it was ruined.  Not designed to stand up to howling gales, heavy rains or snow or -20C apparently.

    image

     

    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • I coppice my willows every February & use the withies after soaking for various little projects & make loads of these each year. I try to find homes for all the willow cutting I can't use but always end up either chipping it and turning it into mulch, which takes about 3 yeas!, or burning it for the ash to use in the summer as feed for the flowers & to help resist black fly on the beans! Seems a shame but not even the local florists are interested in it. I also cut back my Cornus at the same time. I have the red & bright green stemmed species in the field, again most of it goes to the mulch heap or burnt for ash so one way or another it's recycled back into the garden.

    i like your idea DianaW of using other plants for similar use ????

  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286

    I have a willow I coppice  thinking of putting in a hazel as well. Something very satisfying harvesting a tree in that way. My neighbours never seem to catch on, 'oh you cut down your tree', yep for about the tenth time in the last decade image image

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