Salix Kilmarnock perished.
somapop
Posts: 71
Hi folks (again - twice today!).
I purchased a Salix Kilmarnock a good year or two ago and it started to look very welcome in our garden.
Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago I noticed a bit of dry leaf curl with a bit of die'ing off on some leaves. I immediately set about drenching it with water (this was around the time of the very hot spell) which is something I tend to do with newly planted trees etc, but considered this well established. It's West facing and just next to my shed under/to the side of an apple tree (but gets full light for most of the day). Despite drenching the roots and tree every day, I think I can now safely say it's dead (all the leaves dried up and the stems/branches had that wrinkled look). The tree when pulled via it's trunks feels like the root system has shot.
Clearly too late for this to be saved (it's still in the garden) but I was wondering if there's any indication as to how it may have perished? The hot days (without rain) main culprit? A disease (nothing noticeable on the branches, leaves or trunk)? Position/type of soil? A shame as we both love Willows, especially the cascading branches full with leaves in the summer (part of me wants to replace like with like, but there's very chance the same thing will happen again (not many other places left in the garden to plant another one).
Any advice would be most welcome!
Many thanks.
Posts
Willows really need a lot of moisture ... we had a dry winter and spring and your tree is close enough to your shed to be in a rain shadow, and I suspect the apple tree may be more established and is therefore getting first dibs on any moisture that's going in that area.
I would have been giving that a bucket full of water at least twice a week from early March onwards, and more in the recent hot dry spell
.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
^^ Thanks Dove - looking like it was the lack of water/moisture rather than any obvious disease (that that these trees are prone to)? Certainly appeared extremely thirsty rather than anything else.
Worth giving it a try with a new Salix? One of those trees that scream 'summer' to me personally...!
Many thanks.
Have you tried scratching a bit of bark off to see if there's any green beneath? My mum bought two of these, back in the spring, left the pots on the patio, and went on holiday
. Came back to shriveled twigs 
. She gave one to me and it's growing again.
This is it today......
I simply stood it in a planter with no drainage holes (but has a leaky crack halfway up) and kept it well watered. The leaves were brown dry crisps when I got it, I pulled them all off and it's grown new ones. Yours might recover too. Never had one before, and I'm no expert, maybe I was just lucky. ???
^^ Interesting! I'm almost certain it's gone to Willow heaven...but perhaps I could dig it out, pot it and sti it in water to see if anything thrives! I'll try scraping back the trunk a little also.
I'd also forgotten to prune the crossing branches in the winter...so that and the me not watering it enough has taught me a lesson!
I'll wait till this wet spell passes and dig it up - I did read a few stories of these trees miraculously returning to life
Many thanks.
These things are weeping tops grafted to a standard stem of another willow so no point scratching the stem for signs of life if the grafted part is dead. In my experience, these things require vast amounts of water and are short lived anyway. Ours keeled over after about 5 years and a friend's lasted just 4 years - in Belgium which has rainfall like the Lake District so definitely no shortage of water.
There are far more attractive small trees you can grow that will last longer and be more ornamental.
Thanks - the grafted part looks at though it's 'flaking off' and I suspect no amount of water will ever revive this...I'll give it one last weekend with a few soaks then have rid.
Could you recommend any of the small, ornamental trees?
Many thanks!
Have a look at Trees such as one of the smaller forms of sorbus such as Kashmiriana, acer palmatum 'Ozakasuki'; acer palmatum Sango Kaku
^^ Will do - many thanks Obelixx.