Lovely!! I’m hoping to find room for a few willow coppices to harvest rods. I mainly have decorations and garden projects in mind but maybe I’ll have to look into basketry.
Let’s see some baskets once made Jesse!
This is so cool! Thanks for your post. Great pictures! I can’t find willow to make baskets from, and the bread-making baskets you can buy these days aren’t even made from willow any more!
Any hints on locating some rods or scions?
You can get Green Dicks and Polish Red from SkillCult. I think they would grow in your area, I am not sure about others. You would have to try out varieties, they do like water, and I am not sure you have that. We are on the edge of being too warm, but we have water. Even the Irish basketmakers plant near-ish to streams and in low places. Otherwise, Vermont Willow has many varieties, basketmakers such as Dunbar Gardens sell a few they use. Double A Vineyards has 4 or 5 hybrids for biomass, which can be cut yearly for baskets, some are rougher. There are other sellers, but those are the ones I have on my list. I got a few random types, for fences and basket.
Vermont Willow Nursery has a big selection.
I can set you up with some stakes, rods or whips
I know my grandpa planted willow simply by shoving a stick in soggy soil. How small of a stick, whip, or scion can you root? I have a very thin drooping branch of a corkscrew willow in water right now. Just wondering if there’s any hope.
It doesn’t take much…willow wants to root and grow
Thanks for your reply! After thinking about it more I decided that for my purposes planting basket willow would be overkill — especially since we get a lot of drought here.