How To Grow Weeping Willows From Cuttings

Is there a more romantic tree than the graceful weeping willow? The arching stems of its canopy are both delicate and fluid, shivering and dancing in the breeze. One of the many wonderful things about growing these willow trees is how easily they root from cuttings. Give it a try and within a few months, you will have a new willow tree.

The weeping willow (​Salix babylonica​) is one tree that almost everyone recognizes on sight. With its short trunk; broad, rounded crown; and weeping branches, it never passes unseen in a landscape. Although the tree is native to Asia, it is cultivated widely in the United States and has even naturalized in some areas.

This deciduous landscape tree can grow 40 or 50 feet tall, and it does so quickly. This can create weak wood that breaks easily. (Dwarf species are available for smaller gardens.) But the tree's graceful habit makes it enormously popular as an ornamental. It is especially effective when planted along the edges of ponds and lakes so that every swirl of its drooping foliage is reflected in the water.

The weeping willow, like all willows, likes moist soil and warm weather. It will not tolerate cold and is only hardy to USDA plant hardiness zone 6b. Plant it in a full-sun site in acidic soil for best results and watch it shoot up almost before your very eyes.

A deciduous tree, the willow loses its leaves at the end of the growing season without any type of autumn display, but it is one of the last trees to lose its leaves in autumn and one of the first to leaf out in spring. This willow and willows in general are excellent trees to prevent erosion.

Willows seem to have a powerful urge to live. It you've ever cut down a willow, you've seen this lust for life, as a dozen shoots grow around the edge of the cut trunk. In the same way, willows are super easy to propagate from cuttings — so easy, in fact, that explicit directions are not necessary.

Different experts recommend different specifics for when to take a cutting, how large a cutting to take (some recommend 6 inches, some 6 feet), and how to root it. But the truth is that willow cuttings can be taken at any time of the year with a sharp pruner. Placed in water or poked into wet medium, they will grow roots and can be transplanted. Some suggest hardwood cuttings taken in fall, and others suggest softwood cuttings taken in spring. Both will work quite well. Once a cutting develops roots, it is ready for transplant as long as the weather is mild.