While the tradition is to plant cutting in the the Spring, my environmental background lead me to research that planted  willow cuttings in the fall in order to restore Riparian banks along rivers and ponds. So risking only the time it took to gather heirloom cuttings from road allowances all over the township, we planted hundreds in the late fall just before the ground froze.  I had leftovers that were in buckets of water in the garage with little natural light and guess what happened! They rooted wildly in the water buckets over the weeks left alone there.

So I went to the dollar stores for galvanized metal buckets in order to find affordable ways in which to pot these cuttings and let them grow all over the house where ever there is a a window. I wanted small pots so they could sit on the window sills and look nice in the house. Maybe one day we will build a greenhouse. I have used soil for seedlings and no chemicals because willow has its own growth hormone.

I have meticulously labeled each pot with where I found the willow, so if it dries to a nice colour, I will know where to go back for more.  I am enjoying preserving the species that have been growing wild here for years and hope to identify what kinds I have as they grow. I will update you along the way on how they do in pots and in the spring we will plant them in tilled soil.

Varieties found along road allowances in the Blue Mountains.

Look at the lovely colour variation when dried! It might change some as cutting are planted in new soils etc.