willow » Willow Basketmaker

Planting willow

Apr 232009

willow cuttings

What to do with those willow cuttings? Willows are usually propagated by planting hardwood cuttings directly in the soil. This method works especially well with willows grown for basketry and other garden uses. Dunbar Gardens sells cuttings about 11 inches in length like the bundles in the photo above. On the farm, I usually find that an 8 inch cutting is adequate.

planting willow cuttings

I till the soil in advance and then simply insert the cutting into the ground with the buds facing up.

new willow planting

These basketry willows are planted in rows that are 32 inches apart and spaced 8 inches in the row. After the photo was taken, I trimmed some of these cuttings back to two or three buds remaining above ground.

planted willows leafing out

Success rate on the willows generally is quite high. I have had some disappointments. For example, Salix purpurea x daphnoides does not seem to root quite as easily and S. purpurea ‘nana’ has very slender wood which makes rooting in the field more challenging.

second year growth

A frequent question is what to do the second spring? I cut back most of our willows to within an inch of the ground level like in the above photo. This pruning will encourage the growth near the base. The stool is going to get a little higher each year that the willow is coppiced; so it is important to start low.

Anniversary basket

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Apr 142009

casserole basket

A gift of willow is suggested for the ninth anniversary. We have had several inquiries over the years for anniversary baskets. These have included a flower gathering basket, a small berry picker, a Celtic rope coil, a trivet, and a potluck basket. Somehow the potluck or casserole basket seems like an appropriate gesture for a relationship that is nine years in the making. Bringing a casserole to a potluck is all about family, friends, community, enjoying memories, and looking to the future. Although it wasn’t an anniversary gift, Katherine recently made this willow basket to fit a casserole dish. She has been weaving a similar basket, but this time she gave it a more rectangular shape to better fit a common casserole dish.

Spring Retreat

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Mar 282009

Katherine Lewis potato basket class

Katherine recently attended the Northwest Basket Weavers Guild Spring Retreat. She was the teacher of two classes at this annual event. Over 100 basketmakers came to take classes, weave, and socialize from March 18-22 at the Pilgrim Firs Conference Center in Port Orchard, WA. Katherine had two full classes. The first was an Irish potato basket. Check out the lovely colors in this traditional basket in the photo above. The willows are all from Dunbar Gardens. In the center of the photo holding her basket above her head is Alex Keggan who often helps Katherine in her classes. The other class was a willow square tray. The stakes on these are scallomed on the square base. Those borders and corners can be a real challenge.

some of the square tray class

Katherine was joined at the retreat by her friend and fellow willow basketmaker Kelly Wilson from Courtenay on Vancouver Island in Canada.

Katherine & Kelly

Mud room baskets

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Mar 282009

Mud rooms are a great place for baskets. That room just inside the back door where you keep your hats, gloves, overcoats, and boots. Katherine has made a number of willow baskets by commission for such a purpose. They are usually square baskets for efficient space use on shelving. One of the challenges is getting equally sized baskets. Although dowels are used on the corners, they are no forms or jigs used; just hands, eyes, and a ruler.

The set above is made from Green Dicks or Dicky Meadows willow grown here on our farm. Besides color and size, there is also a choice of handle styles. The ones above have an inset handle on two sides. The set below of red and green baskets have roped handles on one side. The handles are still made from willow; “roped” just refers to the technique or style. The customer wanted a roped handle on one side for pulling the baskets out from their place on a shelf, but not on the other side so that they can be pushed in flush with a wall.

This set was for a family of six. Wonder if they had a cat too?

St. Patrick’s Day

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Mar 172009

Joyce country style skib

Catkins

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Feb 272009

Blue Streak catkins

Mention willows and many people first think “pussy willows”. Usually people think of the large catkins that are produced in the spring on Salix caprea, S. cinerea, or S. chaenomeloides, but many of the willows produce attractive catkins. Willows are dioecious, which means that male and female flowers are born on different plants. In addition, depending on the species, catkins are produced before leaves (precocious), at the same time (coetaneous), or after the leaves have formed (serotinous). So it goes without saying that there will be a lot of variation in how different cultivars flower and their ornamental quality.

Sekka catkins

Sometimes you get a package deal like these catkins on this Japanese variety that has ‘fasciated’ stems. Other times the catkins are small and almost inconspicuous like the ones below.

Forbyana catkins

For some gardeners, the catkins are the whole reason for having the willows. The catkins are just an extra benefit for us. There is nothing like a cool, sunny day in February or March with the catkins popping on the willows. A little later and a little warmer, the anthers will start to open and bees will emerge to visit the flowers. That’s when I realize I better get working and get the willows cut before they leaf out! Right now I still have the time to admire the black catkins of melanostachys against the blue sky.

Salix gracilistyla var. melanostachys

Skib for Groundhog Day

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Feb 022009

Greetings from the Skagit Valley on Groundhog Day. Or is it Candelmas? Or a celebration of the Irish Goddess Brigit? Or Saint Brigit? It is certainly a point in the year when we are thinking about the coming of Spring. Indeed the willow is beginning to swell its buds. Some of the earlier varieties are even showing their first catkins. I thought I would upload these photos Katherine took of a potato basket, or skib, being made. She took a series of step by step photos to use as a handout for an upcoming basketry class. An Irish basket seems appropriate to the day (since I don’t have any “Brigit’s crosses” to show – Update: we do have a Brigid’s cross post now). There are good photos and descriptions of skibs in the Irish basketmaker Joe Hogan’s book “Basketmaking in Ireland”.

potato basket

Willow cuttings

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Jan 272009

willow cuttings from Dunbar Gardens

We have been growing willow for basketry since 1994 at Dunbar Gardens. As Katherine became interested in willow basketmaking, she realized she would need to grow her own materials since very little cultivated willow was available to purchase in our area. In addition, it gave her more choice in selecting the size, color, flexibility and other characteristics of the willow she weaves with. As a result, we have tried quite a number of species and varieties of Salix here and currently have 60 varieties growing. We have planted over ten thousand willow cuttings on our Skagit Valley farm. Willow is easy to propagate in most soils. An eight to twelve inch cutting taken from a dormant one year old rod is planted directly into the ground in Spring. March thru April is an ideal time to plant. We have willows that are useful for basketry, garden trellises, living fences, furniture, and ornamental hedges. Willow is a very useful family of plants!

We have a list and descriptions of some of the varieties that we have had success with on our website. We are now cutting our willows and will begin shipping orders for cuttings next month.

Oyster basket

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Jan 262009

Replica (on left) of traditional French oyster basket

Two willow baskets for packing oysters. The basket on the right belongs to Jon Rowley of Seattle who picked it up from a basketmaker in France back in the 70′s. Jon came by Dunbar Gardens after seeing my photos of Katherine’s baskets on Flickr.com. He brought his oyster basket along and left it with Katherine to check out. Jon works with Taylor Shellfish here in the Puget Sound region and has a vast knowledge and appreciation for oysters.

The basket is a traditional form used to pack oysters to market (baskets were then returned stacked in each other). Katherine made the basket on the left as a copy. (Not bad for a first go!) She admires the efficient design of the original – a stake on each side becomes the handle, the border narrow on the back, the hinges made from one piece, the slewed base, and no waling which makes the shaping and corners more of a challenge. She did find a short description of a similar basket in “La Vannerie – l’osier” which is a French basketmaking manual. We have put Katherine’s version to use as a kitchen potato storage basket

basketmaker's perspective

Winter color

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Jan 202009

basketry willow in sunset glow

Winter on the farm. Clear day brings some lovely yellow and orange colors out in the basketry willows. I took this photo just before the sun set. The variety in the foreground is Salix purpurea ‘Dicky Meadows’. This variety is at the top of our list for usefulness in Katherine’s basketry and good production in the field. Of course, I can’t enjoy this view too long. I have to harvest all these withies before spring! These basketry willows are coppiced to the ground every year. The willow in the photo is one year’s growth. The slender, unbranched, pliable rods are what make the plant so useful to basketmakers. There is plenty more information about our willow growing at Dunbar gardens on our website page that describes the willow cuttings we offer for sale.

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Planting willow

Anniversary basket

Spring Retreat

Mud room baskets

St. Patrick’s Day

Catkins

Skib for Groundhog Day

Willow cuttings

Oyster basket

Winter color

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