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Tuesday, March 13, 2018

The resilient and not so resilient tree

Amazingly the River Birch, laid low by the weight of snow


has sprung back to its previous shape once the snow was removed.


The Lilac at center survived pretty much unscathed, as did the Dogwood behind and to the right of the old well. It recovered its normal shape, even though the snow covered branches were touching the ground


The Golden willow, back center looks to have come through undamaged, 


but on closer inspection, one of the main stems, left, has bent passed the point of no return. As this is a fast growing willow, I will probably cut out the bent branch and select a couple of well placed shoots from the multitude that will grow from around the cut, to bring it back to shape. 

The Hawthorn fared even worse. I will cut back all the broken branches and see how it grows back. This tree has fearsome thorns, so I may raise the crown above the highest broken branch for ease of grass mowing.


The silver leafed willow also incurred some damage, but once the damaged branches are pruned, it will soon regain its beautiful appearance.


Willows are easy to propagate from cuttings, simply push the clean cut branches in to reliably moist soil, and you will soon have rooted young trees, like these seven willow cuttings that I struck in spring 2017 and will be ready for planting out this spring.











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