Corkscrew willow

I have an interesting dilema that I would love input on! Last March, 2006, my 22 year old daughter passed away suddenly. Her untimely death has been very difficult for me. As I tried to deal with my grief, I poured all my energy into creating "Erin's Garden" . It is filled with a variety of plants and shrubs,(mostly purple, as that was my daughter's favorite color) that were either purchased or donated by family and friends that also wanted to help remember Erin by creating her garden. During the weeks following her death, the arrangements that I had at home from the funeral began to die out and as I began to discard the "spent" cut flowers, I pulled a few bare curly sticks from the foliage and they had rooted. i had no idea what they were, but, out of curiosity, stuck them in the ground to see what happened. Much to my surprise, they grew! And a friend, while visiting in mid spring informed me that they were corkscrew willows! They were beautiful. Grew to about 10 ft. Problem...I put them next to my deck! And now I don't know whether to leave them alone, or transplant them. My worry is that they will not survive being moved, as they have become very sentimental to me. I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee. does anyone have any suggestions for me????

mhigdon, my heart goes out to you. I lost a daughter four years ago and I remember those first years of learning to live in spite of the fact that everything in my world had changed. Gardening is my lifeline and I don't know what I would do if I couldn't dig in the dirt. Kris was an environmental biologist and loved wildflowers so I planted a wildflower meadow in her memory. "Erin's Garden" sounds lovely. I have a corkscrew willow that I planted in my yard several years ago. I learned after it grew too big to move that I probably planted it in the wrong place. I read that they can really mess up a septic system and wouldn't you know? that's where I planted it! Not right over it, but much too close. It has grown rapidly from a small plant to a 15-20 ft. tree. I'm not sure how sensitive they are to being moved, but I do know that they can be somewhat temperamental. I had a friend who had a fully grown one that was 10 or 15 years old and for no apparent reason it suddenly died. Maybe someone else will be able to help with your question about transplanting. You probably don't have a septic tank if you live in Chattanooga, but remember not to plant them anywhere near your sewer pipes. Their roots are supposed to be quite extensive.

My fear if it's close to your house would be that the roots are going to get into your pipes so I definitely think you ought to move it before it causes problems for you. It sounds like it rooted very easily when you first planted it--why don't you try cutting some branches off similar to what this tree started from and try to get them to root the way the original branches did, then once you've planted them and are sure they're going to make it then attempt transplanting the original tree. That way if it doesn't survive transplanting, you still will have a tree.

That's what I was going to suggest, ecrane.
The other problem with willows is that they are weak wooded. They tend to get a lot of die back. you wouldn't want any of those branches falling on your house either.
When you are planting the cuttings, They will still be your "Erin Trees." But I would suggest you move them to the back property line or at least 50 ft. from the house.

This message was edited Mar 9, 2007 10:19 PM