How do I root a corkscrew willow?

[Julie K]

Hello everyone!* My current neighbor has 2 beautiful corkscrew willows in her yard and told me I can take some branches for rooting.* We are building a new home on 7 acres and need some trees.* (I plan on planting these trees quite far away from our new home as I've heard they can really mess with water and sewer lines.)

Can someone give* me some good advice on how best to do this?* And also, which other kinds of trees are quick growing and easy to root?* We need a lot of trees and are putting too much money into the house to afford to buy trees right away. *

[backyardgardener]

If I remember correctly, there was a large thread about this on my old mailing list. Do a search here:

http://www.hort.net/lists/seeds-list/search.cgi

http://www.hort.net/lists/search.cgi

[Newt]

Hi Julie,

Congratulations on your new home!* Willows root so easily you can often just put them in water and they are good to plant in a few short weeks.* Sometimes you can just take cuttings in the spring and put them in the ground to root.* Here's some info about them.
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/SALMATA.pdf

Lots of info here on willows. Scroll to the bottom for how to propagate.
http://www.doityourself.com/stry/willows

Do be careful with your selection of fast growing trees as they tend to be softwood, and therefore aren't strong or long lived.* Here's info on trees that might be helpful for you.* These will help you to select northern trees.
http://orb.at.ufl.edu/TREES/index.html
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/treeselector/search.cfm
http://www.mnpower.com/treebook/

More tree info.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/MG/MG08900.pdf
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/WO017
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/Garden/02926.html
http://www.treesaregood.com/treecare/trees_turf.aspx

How to plant, water and mulch.
http://www.arborday.org/trees/video/howtoplant.cfm
http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/pla...ees/f1147w.htm
http://www.treesaregood.com/treecare/mulching.aspx
http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/water/az1298/

How to mass plant seedling trees.
http://www.state.sc.us/forest/refplant.htm

If you join Arborday.org for $10 or $15 (I can't remember which it is), you can get 10 free seedling trees.
http://arborday.org/

Here's a site from the Wisconsin Herberiam that shows what's blooming during the different seasons.
http://www.botany.wisc.edu/wisflora/blooming/

Your local extension service should also be a wealth of info.
http://www.uwex.edu/topics/

Newt