Hello,

I have a variegated willow shrub (don't have the exact name but I
suspect it is Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki') which is getting a little large
for its spot. It has a well structured form, so I thought it would do
well pollarded.

How to begin? Just saw a branch at the desired height? My RHS pruning
guide is a little vague about starting, the picture looks as though the cut
was made where desired and then whips came out, but it's not clear.

Thanks for any advice,

-E

--
Emery Davis
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I used to live not far from an osier bed where each year all the willow
branches were cut away close to the ground. The whips were used for
basketry and fencing.
Now, February, is the ideal time to pollard your willow. Saw each branch
down as near to the ground as you think fit. Often the nearer to the ground
you cut a branch, the more new young whips you will get growing from the
stump.

MikeCT
-----------
"Emery Davis" Asked:

I have a variegated willow shrub (don't have the exact name but I
suspect it is Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki') which is getting a little
large for its spot. It has a well structured form, so I thought it would
do well pollarded.

How to begin? Just saw a branch at the desired height? My RHS pruning
guide is a little vague about starting, the picture looks as though the
cut was made where desired and then whips came out, but it's not clear.

Thanks for any advice,

On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:55:06 GMT, "MikeCT"
wrote:

Now, February, is the ideal time to pollard your willow. Saw each branch
down as near to the ground as you think fit. Often the nearer to the ground
you cut a branch, the more new young whips you will get growing from the
stump.

I may be wrong, but I understood that cutting down close to the ground
is called cooppicing, as they do with hazels in woodland. Surely
pollarding is cutting all the branches back to the trunk but leaving a
fair length of trunk as you would see willows on a river bank.
Presumably you can do whichever method you fancy with your willow, and
I'm sure the advice to cut any time in the dormant period is good.
I had a small twisted willow on my allotment for some years grown from
a piece I just stuck in the soil. I cut it back each year to a stump
about 2 feet high. I gave it to my young gardener friend about 5
years ago. He has kept it as a sort of large bonsai in a pot by
cutting it back each year.
Pollard or coppice, take your pick and good luck!


Pam in Bristol

"Emery Davis" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I have a variegated willow shrub (don't have the exact name but I
suspect it is Salix integra 'Hakuro Nishiki') which is getting a little
large
for its spot. It has a well structured form, so I thought it would do
well pollarded.

How to begin? Just saw a branch at the desired height? My RHS pruning
guide is a little vague about starting, the picture looks as though the
cut
was made where desired and then whips came out, but it's not clear.

In my experience you can hack most willows back to the ground and they just
grow back even more vigourously.


--
Chris, West Cork, Ireland.

On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:14:02 GMT
Pam Moore wrote:

On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:55:06 GMT, "MikeCT"
wrote:

Now, February, is the ideal time to pollard your willow. Saw each branch
down as near to the ground as you think fit. Often the nearer to the ground
you cut a branch, the more new young whips you will get growing from the
stump.

I may be wrong, but I understood that cutting down close to the ground
is called cooppicing, as they do with hazels in woodland. Surely
pollarding is cutting all the branches back to the trunk but leaving a
fair length of trunk as you would see willows on a river bank.
Presumably you can do whichever method you fancy with your willow, and
I'm sure the advice to cut any time in the dormant period is good.
I had a small twisted willow on my allotment for some years grown from
a piece I just stuck in the soil. I cut it back each year to a stump
about 2 feet high. I gave it to my young gardener friend about 5
years ago. He has kept it as a sort of large bonsai in a pot by
cutting it back each year.
Pollard or coppice, take your pick and good luck!


Thanks all for the advice. I am indeed pollarding about 3-4 feet from the ground.
Don't know at what precise height a coppice becomes a pollard: 6 inches? 24 inches?
No doubt the EC has released an official definition...

Now confidently armed, I shall take the old chain saw and hack it to bits!

Pam, did your Dragon's Claw willow manage to stay healthy? This winter I pulled
one out of the garden, it never looked anything but mangy with lots of die back
and blacking twigs. I never did figure out exactly what was wrong with it, the nearest
guess being a bacterial disease transmitted by caterpillars. A nurseryman told me
about this, saying it's a very common problem. Talk about pollarding, I hacked it
_way_ back and replanted out at the edge of a field. Too early to know whether it
survived the experience.

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to ecom
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On Feb 6, 9:09 am, Emery Davis wrote:
On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:14:02 GMT





Pam Moore wrote:
On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:55:06 GMT, "MikeCT"
wrote:

Now, February, is the ideal time to pollard your willow. Saw each branch
down as near to the ground as you think fit. Often the nearer to the ground
you cut a branch, the more new young whips you will get growing from the
stump.

I may be wrong, but I understood that cutting down close to the ground
is called cooppicing, as they do with hazels in woodland. Surely
pollarding is cutting all the branches back to the trunk but leaving a
fair length of trunk as you would see willows on a river bank.
Presumably you can do whichever method you fancy with your willow, and
I'm sure the advice to cut any time in the dormant period is good.
I had a small twisted willow on my allotment for some years grown from
a piece I just stuck in the soil. I cut it back each year to a stump
about 2 feet high. I gave it to my young gardener friend about 5
years ago. He has kept it as a sort of large bonsai in a pot by
cutting it back each year.
Pollard or coppice, take your pick and good luck!

Thanks all for the advice. I am indeed pollarding about 3-4 feet from the ground.
Don't know at what precise height a coppice becomes a pollard: 6 inches? 24 inches?
No doubt the EC has released an official definition...

Now confidently armed, I shall take the old chain saw and hack it to bits!

Pam, did your Dragon's Claw willow manage to stay healthy? This winter I pulled
one out of the garden, it never looked anything but mangy with lots of die back
and blacking twigs. I never did figure out exactly what was wrong with it, the nearest
guess being a bacterial disease transmitted by caterpillars. A nurseryman told me
about this, saying it's a very common problem. Talk about pollarding, I hacked it
_way_ back and replanted out at the edge of a field. Too early to know whether it
survived the experience.

-E
--
Emery Davis
You can reply to
by removing the well known companies
Questions about wine? Visithttp://winefaq.hostexcellence.com- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

When you say "getting a little big", how big do you mean?

Pollarding removes new growth, cutting back to the frame of the tree;
more for encouraging shape and keeping a tree at a specific size, best
begun on young trees, not mature ones. A formative practice.

Coppicing encourages strong flushing so that the shoots may be cropped
for use. Call it more industrial, if you will. Coppicing is properly
begun on young trees when they are 100% dynamic mass and can easily
recover the energy loss caused by surgery. When coppiced from young,
essentially the tree remains young.

If the growth you are planning to take of is bigger than a childs arm:
beware. The larger the wound, the poorer the practice, in essence.

If the limbs are the size of an adults thigh: leave the tree alone,
unless you remove any dead wood, diseased or crossing branches. At the
very most a minimal reduction (10% of the overall crown).

If you are only wanting to keep the tree at a certain size, yet retain
some of its lovely structure, use your saw with care- remembering that
the tree will put on new growth to recover from the energy loss- these
shoots will grow straight and upright, not aesthetically pleasing to
the eye. Secondary growth is weaker than primary growth. Should any
failre occur under extreme weather conditions, the secondary growth
will be most likely candidate.

If you pollard the tree you will end up with clusters of new growth on
the end of the limbs compromisng the framework. Large Willows
regularly pollarded look like they have fists at the end of the limbs.
A blight on Willows, in my view. Quite often ending in a structurally
destabilised tree.

Many a lovely Willow tree has lost its natural beauty through
extensive chainsaw use.

On 6 Feb 2007 07:28:42 -0800
"Treelady" wrote:

When you say "getting a little big", how big do you mean?

Pollarding removes new growth, cutting back to the frame of the tree;
more for encouraging shape and keeping a tree at a specific size, best
begun on young trees, not mature ones. A formative practice.

Coppicing encourages strong flushing so that the shoots may be cropped
for use. Call it more industrial, if you will. Coppicing is properly
begun on young trees when they are 100% dynamic mass and can easily
recover the energy loss caused by surgery. When coppiced from young,
essentially the tree remains young.

If the growth you are planning to take of is bigger than a childs arm:
beware. The larger the wound, the poorer the practice, in essence.

If the limbs are the size of an adults thigh: leave the tree alone,
unless you remove any dead wood, diseased or crossing branches. At the
very most a minimal reduction (10% of the overall crown).


Thanks for the thoughtful post. Actually I am for minimal pruning as a rule.

In this case, it's really a bush more than a tree. It's planted in a bushy border,
with a smallish Euonymus on one side and a mature box on the other; in back
there are a couple of laburnums then a stone wall. It's maybe 5 ft tall at largest
(the laburnums tower over) but also gotten quite wide, invading its neighbors.

I don't think the branches are more than 2 inches diameter, as I intend to leave
most of the structure intact. Some of the laterals may be cut lower and hence
a little thicker, but I expect they'll be OK.

It's a reasonably mature plant (perhaps 8 years) so it may not be ideal to
do this now, but there you are. It does have very attractive new growth,
many of my neighbors have taken cuttings so it now adorns quite a few
local gardens.

-E

--
Emery Davis
You can reply to ecom
by removing the well known companies
Questions about wine? Visit http://winefaq.hostexcellence.com

In message , Emery Davis
writes
On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:14:02 GMT
Pam Moore wrote:

On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:55:06 GMT, "MikeCT"
wrote:

Now, February, is the ideal time to pollard your willow. Saw each branch
down as near to the ground as you think fit. Often the nearer to the ground
you cut a branch, the more new young whips you will get growing from the
stump.

I may be wrong, but I understood that cutting down close to the ground
is called cooppicing, as they do with hazels in woodland. Surely
pollarding is cutting all the branches back to the trunk but leaving a
fair length of trunk as you would see willows on a river bank.
Presumably you can do whichever method you fancy with your willow, and
I'm sure the advice to cut any time in the dormant period is good.
I had a small twisted willow on my allotment for some years grown from
a piece I just stuck in the soil. I cut it back each year to a stump
about 2 feet high. I gave it to my young gardener friend about 5
years ago. He has kept it as a sort of large bonsai in a pot by
cutting it back each year.
Pollard or coppice, take your pick and good luck!


Thanks all for the advice. I am indeed pollarding about 3-4 feet from
the ground.
Don't know at what precise height a coppice becomes a pollard: 6
inches? 24 inches?
No doubt the EC has released an official definition...

I am not sure about the EU but Rackham indicates that pollards are
cut between 6 and 15 feet above ground leaving a permanent trunk called
a bolling which sprouts in the same way as a coppice stool but out of
reach of livestock.
--
Robert