I’ve been putting my topiary skills to the test with The Willow Wand®
The idea of using willow to create a living sculpture is nothing new. I’ve visited many gardens with willow arbours and other structures but willow topiary was something I’d not come across.
The Willow Wand®, launched in the UK in 2017 by Simon Read, uses willow from Somerset that’s coppiced using traditional methods and then handwoven to produce the ‘wands’.
I was given three of these to try out – all slightly different types of willow producing plants of different heights and with trunks of different colours.
Each wand is made up of nine woven pieces that produce a beautiful twisted stem. I must admit, they did look a bit like a bundle of sticks but plant them up and they begin to shoot quickly.
The most important thing is to keep them well watered. Willow is notoriously thirsty and, if you’re growing them in pots, regular watering is even more important.
In fact, the wands should are never dry out and I was advised to put them in a bucket of water, if I couldn’t plant them immediately.
In order to keep the stem clear, new shoots that appear below the decorative tie at the top should be rubbed off. The shoots above the tie are what you shape into a crown.
How thick that crown will be depends on how often you cut back and encourage new shoots. Prune hard and you’ll get a dense topiary top.
Clipping is also used to get the shape but the Willow Wand® shouldn’t be pruned between late August and the following spring.
My willow wands are still a long way off the finished effect but are beginning to take shape.
They’re not the easiest topiary to manage in that they do need consistent attention – if only in watering, which has been challenging in the recent heatwave. However, their speed of growth means they are forgiving of poor pruning and the different shades and twisted stems make a refeshing change from box.
You can find out more information about the Willow Wand® here.
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