Best Source For Hybrid Willow Cuttings

[Bill]

I’d also ask about zone 3. Just checked the website and it says zone 4-8

 

[Ohio Darin]

I purchased a Dappled willow from a nusery as a potted ornamental plant. I planted it in the summer in our landscape and that first spring I probably got 50 cuttings off it. This year is the second full year and will probably get over 100 cuttings. I gave maybe $30 for the bush in a 2 gallon pot. Not sure of your timeline but you only need a little to then make your own.

 

[Spike_Horn_Shooter]

Bumping this thread to 2025, Planning for some hybrid willow cuttings on both sides of my 100 foot road accross the swamp. Maybe some dogwood too. How many should I plan for? Can I "get away" with planting into the existing grasses in the swamp? (monoculture of swamp grass about 2 feet high) Not sure I can do this work myself....may hire some high school kids to help me. Pic to show the grass I have to deal with. suggestions and ideas are
helpful....thanks!View attachment 85847

Rather than plant into the grasses....could I plant into the sand....just where it meets that swamp grass?? Maybe a treatment of roundup before planting the cuttings?

Foggy,

I tried planting into existing grasses - zero percent survival after year 1. They just didn’t take. I’d run a 3’ weed mat where your road meets the swamp. I think in the 45 degree angle of the road will be too dry or you will need longer cuttings increasing cost.

The weed matt will keep the plantings clean and free from weeds for the foreseeable future, and you’ll never have to weed whack that area.

 

[Foggy47]

Foggy,

I tried planting into existing grasses - zero percent survival after year 1. They just didn’t take. I’d run a 3’ weed mat where your road meets the swamp. I think in the 45 degree angle of the road will be too dry or you will need longer cuttings increasing cost.

The weed matt will keep the plantings clean and free from weeds for the foreseeable future, and you’ll never have to weed whack that area.

^ Thanks for this advice. Been concerned on what to do here. I have a sickle bar mower that could cut the grasses to about 4 or 5 feet from the road bank. Then could hit it with glyphosate and run that suggested weed mat along the same path.....and finally plant the cuttings into the junction of the road with my swampland.

Not sure of the weed mat yet....but does this sound like a reasonable plan? I suppose I need 200 yards of weed mat. Source??

 

[sandbur]

^ Thanks for this advice. Been concerned on what to do here. I have a sickle bar mower that could cut the grasses to about 4 or 5 feet from the road bank. Then could hit it with glyphosate and run that suggested weed mat along the same path.....and finally plant the cuttings into the junction of the road with my swampland.

Not sure of the weed mat yet....but does this sound like a reasonable plan? I suppose I need 200 yards of weed mat. Source??

Would black plastic be a cheaper alternative? You would still need some landscape staples like with fabric.

I planted a small area with black plastic and then used a crow bar to punch a hole. Pushy the willows in thick end down and snipped off with about 6 buds buried and two exposed. I just grabbed willows from a nearby bush.

I had round upped the area the fall before.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Bumping this thread to 2025, Planning for some hybrid willow cuttings on both sides of my 100 foot road accross the swamp. Maybe some dogwood too. How many should I plan for? Can I "get away" with planting into the existing grasses in the swamp? (monoculture of swamp grass about 2 feet high) Not sure I can do this work myself....may hire some high school kids to help me. Pic to show the grass I have to deal with. suggestions and ideas are
helpful....thanks!View attachment 85847

Rather than plant into the grasses....could I plant into the sand....just where it meets that swamp grass?? Maybe a treatment of roundup before planting the cuttings?

I'd think you could plant into the bottom edge of the sand. That entire grassy area looks like a great spot to plant some tamarack as well. I bet they would thrive in that open sun. I see LOTS of rubs on tamaracks. They'd grow quick and help fill in that low area. I see places around me that seem like wet bogs that have tamarack growing in them.

 

[Foggy47]

I'd think you could plant into the bottom edge of the sand. That entire grassy area looks like a great spot to plant some tamarack as well. I bet they would thrive in that open sun. I see LOTS of rubs on tamaracks. They'd grow quick and help fill in that low area. I see places around me that seem like wet bogs that have tamarack growing in them.

That always surprised me too. I do have other nearby bog areas where tamaracks are thriving....but not in this bog. Not sure why that is. May be worth a try.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

That always surprised me too. I do have other nearby bog areas where tamaracks are thriving....but not in this bog. Not sure why that is. May be worth a try.

In my bog, the wettest areas are filled with the swamp grasses like you have. The slightly drier areas have tamaracks and black spruce. The driest areas have a mix of tamarack, black spruce, wetland shrubs and young birch. If you don't already have tamarack or black spruce growing there, I'm guessing it is too wet (unless for some reason your bog was cut in winter or burned recently to prevent tree growth).

I would reconsider hybrid willows as they were not winter hardy enough to survive my Rusk County place. They would live a year or two, then winterkill back to the ground level and repeat until they eventually died. i'd look for willows already growing in your area and use them as a cutting source. Cut a truckload of them when they are dormant, and press them into your planting location and keep your fingers crossed.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

@Foggy47 I planted a row of hybrid willows the past two years at my place in pretty wet ground. Was mostly reed canary grass and sandbar willows growing there. I just mowed a strip with the flail mower and rolled out 4' weed mat fabric in a straight line. Then i cut little slits in the fabric and dibbled in rooted cuttings. They have taken well but i didn't protect them so they have gotten browsed hard. Not enough to kill them but they are not getting tall.. The seedlings from cold stream farms are priced like cuttings (64 cents ea if over 100) and i think have much higher odds of doing well but are more involved to plant. https://www.coldstreamfarm.net/product/hybrid-willow-salix/

This is best pic I could find from a few weeks after planting this spring.

 

[Bill]

@Foggy47 I planted a row of hybrid willows the past two years at my place in pretty wet ground. Was mostly reed canary grass and sandbar willows growing there. I just mowed a strip with the flail mower and rolled out 4' weed mat fabric in a straight line. Then i cut little slits in the fabric and dibbled in rooted cuttings. They have taken well but i didn't protect them so they have gotten browsed hard. Not enough to kill them but they are not getting tall.. The seedlings from cold stream farms are priced like cuttings (64 cents ea if over 100) and i think have much higher odds of doing well but are more involved to plant. https://www.coldstreamfarm.net/product/hybrid-willow-salix/

This is best pic I could find from a few weeks after planting this spring. View attachment 86125

My only caution with landscape fabric is you must go back later and cut the fabric away from the tree or it will girdle them as they grow. I've used it and plastic. The problem with plastic is when deer step on it they poke holes in the plastic. Nothing is perfect......