Corkscrew Willow: how NOT to prune!

Sometimes, people send me photos of trees which make me say "D'aaaawwww!" in a soppy voice. 

Or which feature something beautiful and stylish, which generates approval, and a warm smile.

Sometimes a photo will make me do that thing which I believe is called "pursing the lips" (kind of the exact opposite of a warm smile, presumably) to express vexation with an undertone of disapproval and possibly dismay, which usually leads to an article on How To Do whatever it featured, in the hopes that other people won't make the same mistake.

And sometimes I get one which just makes me screech "Whaaaaaaat!!" in disbelief.

Had one of those yesterday. (*laughs*)

Consider yourself warned, I am about to insert it: it's a corkscrew willow - that's usually Salix babylonica var. pekinensis 'Tortuosa', sometimes just Salix babylonica 'Tortuosa', or sometimes Salix matsudana 'Tortuosa'.  A tree of many names (experts can't quite agree whether it is one species with two names, or two different but very similar species), which also has at least three common names, those being Curly Willow, Corkscrew Willow, and Contorted Willow.

This one belongs to Derek (*waves*), it got a bit too big, he got a bloke in to prune it and - in his own words (that's Derek's own words, not those of the butcher pruning bloke, who probably thinks, to this day, that he did a good job), "I had a guy prune it towards the end of the summer. I think he went a little too far with the pruning"

Brace yourself, here it comes:

(Poor thing.)

Under the general heading of Crimes Against Horticulture, you have to ask yourself - what on earth is that? Is it a tree, a shrub, a tangled mess? (Sorry, Derek!) 

Taking a deep breath, and muttering "Calm, calm" to myself, let's take a look at it.

It clearly used to have a single main stem or trunk, which was brutally chopped off halfway up the window.

Then there is a secondary large branch coming out at an angle, from about knee height, by the look of it, which was hacked off at about waist height.

 There was also another largish branch, even lower, as we can see in this photo, right:

The branch - visible as a round white area, facing us - was sprouting out at ankle height, and has been cut off flush to the trunk.

So that's the situation:  it was a small tree, it's quite close to a building and to a fence, it had presumably grown a little too large for comfort, as willows are fast-growing, even the decorative ones.

Now, the good news is that willows are almost impossible to kill by pruning, and because they grow so fast, it is actually quite easy to re-shape them, to re-style them, to retrieve them if someone has been a bit heavy-handed with the pruners.

The bloke who pruned it had presumably been told to reduce it, and he took the easy route and just lopped off three main stems.

As you can see in the photos, there is a mass of thin, spindly growth all over what is left of the tree, plus a clump of really good strong shoots, popping out at ground level, on the right-hand side of the trunk: you can see them as the batch of thick, green stems, in the photo above.

Now, to be fair to him, I don't know how much growth there was at the base of the tree before he got to work: a lot of those skinny little stems are quite brown, which suggests that they are not fresh growth from last year, but are older. 

In which case, he was faced with something which was already closer to a bush than a tree, so he may have thought it best to cut down the tree part, and leave it as a bush.

Or, all of that growth has appeared subsequent to the pruning, in which case he failed to advise the client that the willow would respond to hard pruning by throwing up a mass of shoots from lower down, and that the owner would need to check the tree weekly, and remove all of these shoots, in order to restore the tree to a "tree" shape, rather than a "bush" shape.

So what can be done?

Firstly, I would suggest the owner needs to decide if they want a bush, in that position, or a tree. 

If space, or light requirement, dictates that a bush is better, then I would cut out the remaining "trunk" as low down as possible, ie treat it like a coppice. Every year or two, probably in early spring, I would then re-coppice it by cutting off all the growth back down to the lowest point, and letting it regrow.

This will produce a mass of more-or-less upright curly shoots, all pretty much the same size, so it will be a tidy shape, with fresh green foliage: easy to maintain (no skill required!) and every time you cut it, you will become very popular with your local flower arranging group, who will pounce on the offcuts with delight.

If, however, a tree shape would be preferred - maybe in order to keep it to a more narrow shape - then it could be treated as a semi-pollard, ie shoots are allowed to grow from the point on the main trunk where it was cut, ie the top:  and from the end of the one big side branch - again, where it was cut. 

But all other growth must be removed, to keep the trunk clear.

This - left - is the primary school rendition of what it would like like: dark green represents the existing trunk and light green is the new growth.

To do this,  all of those spindly, skinny stems need to be carefully removed, as close as possible to the trunk, including those thick green ones at ground level.

This will restore it to being a tree, and although it will initially look like a dead tree, with no branches, it will quickly re-sprout.

However, the owner will need constant vigilance, to remove all new shoots other than those in the desired locations, ie the cut ends of the main trunk, and of the side branch. 

This means going over the tree once a week, and looking for buds, or little sprouts of growth, and rubbing them off - literally, just rub off the bud as soon as you see one. This does the least amount of damage to the tree, it removes the unwanted growth before it wastes a lot of energy in growing, and - best of all - when you rub off a bud, it rarely re-grows. 

Whereas if you let the buds grow into proper shoots, and then cut them off, the cuts will immediately produce two or more shoots, rather in the style of the Hydra of legend, so you will be making even more work for yourself, plus you will be forcing the tree to waste a lot of energy on those shoots.

By the end of the season, the tree should have a cluster of new shoots at the ends of those two points - the main stem and the one side branch - and will be starting to look more like a tree.

As for the future life of the tree, the owner can assess it, as it grows, and next time it is starting to look a bit too big, it will be a simple job to thin out those permitted shoots, thus keeping the tree to a reasonable height, but not having to chop it so drastically.

 

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