BC Living
You’ve Gotta Try This in February 2025
Recipe: How to Make Pie Crust from Scratch
Valentine’s Day Drink Recipe: Hy’s Love Is Love Cocktail
Nature’s Pharmacy: 8 Herbal Boutiques in BC
How Barre Enhances Your Flexibility
Top Tips for Workout Recovery
Inviting the Steller’s Jay to Your Garden
6 Budget-friendly Holiday Decor Pieces
Dream Home: $8 Million for a Modern Surprise
Local Getaway: Hideaway at a Mystical Earth House in Kootenay
9 BC Wellness Hotels to Relax and Recharge in This Year
Local Getaway: Enjoy Waterfront Views at a Ucluelet Beach House
B.C. Adventures: Things to Do in February
5 Beautiful and Educational Nature and Wildlife Tours in BC
7 Beauty and Wellness Influencers to Follow in BC
11 Gifts for Galentine’s Day from B.C. Companies
14 Cute Valentine’s Day Gifts to Give in 2025
8 Gifts to Give for Lunar New Year 2025
For seven years I have been pruning the weeping willow, Salix babylonica from the centre outwards and upwards, so that we could sit under the shade of its branches. Mission accomplished and all was well until last winter, when a sudden snow dump on the outstretched branches split a main trunk down the centre.
Being a feature tree in the middle of the garden, I was loath to lose it.
In March we watched with alarm as a friend, John, proceeded to reduce the once whomping willow to a shadow of its former self, leaving only the main trunk and four branch stubs.
(John was handy climbing the tree swinging a running chainsaw – but don’t try this at home, hire a licensed professional!)
It took two months for any sign of life to return, which it did in the form of lots of shoots emerging from the main trunk. These shoots quickly developed into long whips. In September we pruned off the lower whips to reveal the main trunk of the tree. Instantly our whomping willow looked fantastic, because the branches were now weeping, as they should!
I have now come to the conclusion that to get the best effect from a weeping willow they need to be ‘pollarded’ in this fashion.
Click here to return to the Victory Garden Program.
Use the comment form below to leave Carolyn your questions and feedback.