Not right now, of course. I’m daydreaming about spring. In December. Not a good sign.
I’ve got a long, skinny lot. It gradually slopes down in the back, and the very back of the property has some scruffy brushy bits, with the back border being a tiny trickling stream. The stream was originally the sewage route for the street, ending in “Hidden Pond” out in the woods. (formerly a cesspool) Yum!
Last spring I learned that this section of the yard is spongy and swampy well into July.
In front of the brushy shrubby stuff are two old blue spruces that someone started to cut down and then stopped (long story) so they’re missing their branches halfway up. There are a few locust trees, and a bumper crop of poison ivy that keeps me from doing much with the brushy stuff. The spruces are going to have to go. The tree I’d most love to replace them with is a weeping willow.
Everyone tells me, “Don’t plant weeping willow! They’ll demolish your sewage lines!”
Sound advice, thought I, back when I thought the sewage lines ran back through the yard. Turns out they don’t. Our brand spanking new plastic sewage lines (another long story) run up by the garage 175ft away from the spruces and slightly uphill. The neighbor’s lines also don’t run anywhere near my proposed site. It’s also well away from any buildings and there are no power lines back there.
So given that the tree would be in a swampy area with a stream ~20yds away and no sewage lines around, would this be a safe place to plant? Does anyone have any real horror stories about weeping willows? 'Cause I really really want one, but I know the heartbreak of poorly thought-out trees.
I’ve had them at a couple places I’ve lived. They’re pretty trees but they seem to grow fast after 3 or 4 years. The leaves in the fall aren’t much of a hassle since they’re so small. Make sure you don’t plant them near a well either.
Yeah if it’s far away from any structures (fucks up gutters) and far from anyone’s pipes (really fucks up pipes) then go for it. They are beautiful trees IMHO.
I grew up with one in the middle of my front yard (less than 1/4 acre). It was beautiful and magnificent. I used to play under it all summer and climb all through the limbs. I grew up without air conditioning but the willow provided a ton of shade for the house.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t as nice for my parents as it was for me. It ate up the sewage pipes quite regularly, it was hard to mow around the roots and the branches and leaves clogged up the gutters pretty good - even next door.
My parents took us on vacation one summer and we returned to a gaping hole in the front yard. No more willow
It was devastating for me but as a homeowner I appreciate their decision now.
Go ahead and plant one - it’ll only cost you about $6000 to remove it in about 10 or 15 years - which you will do because otherwise it will rot and fall on its own. Been there - done that.
Willows look great, but they are real pain in the ass. The leaves are impossible to rake, simply because branches fall with them. You may go for a year or so without a problem, but at the first windstorm, your yard will be filled with springy, brittle branches that reach your knees. Forget about raking – they clog up the rake the first time you try to do it. You have to pick up all the fallen branches by hand, and there are hundreds of them. And you can’t really rake until the branches are all picked up.
Willows also attract aphids, so any car parked beneath them will get covered with “sap” (actually, aphid shit).
The roots are close to the surface. If you clip them with your mower, they grow bigger. After a few years, it’s like mowing in a maze.
Where you describe, it might be possible, but expect to still spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning up after them.
On a city lot I’d say don’t plant them. I love them but they have many problems. The aphids will drop on anything below them for at least a month, and aphids leave dark red everywhere they get smashed. Your looking at thousands dropping out of a tree everyday. You will always be cleaning up branches. they are soft wood that breaks during winds, and the roots will rise above the soil. Large sections also will die off at times. They are great for an area you don’t care about maintaining super nice, especially if you want to remove water. The leaves and small twigs I mulch with the mower and dump the bag on the garden bed. The mulch is mostly gone by August. A mower with a bag is the only way to collect the leaves and twigs. Rakes don’t work.
I have nothing of real substance to add (as usual) except I had no idea my all-time favorite tree was a genuine pain in the ass for its long-suffering owners.
Still I say go for it. There is nothing to compare with the sight of this lone, majestic, arboreal spirit quietly reposing with its tentacle-like branches lazily drooping earthward.
They’re great trees for climbing. We lost ours in the '87 storm.
Digging out the bulk of the trunk really demonstrated that whatever you see above ground, inverted, is what needs to exist below the surface. Plant, by all means, but plant well away from anything that ever might be built on!
Check with your homeowner’s insurance company too. Due to the tendency of weeping willows to fall down and cause damage injury*, it has been known to affect homeowner insurance rates/deductible. Willow trees are susceptible to breaking and falling due to shallow roots. Occasionally the city here recommends that homeowners have them cut down if they are considered to pose a risk.
A summer or two ago, a woman was killed and three others taken to hospital when a willow suddenly fell over and landed on a garden party.
We had one in the backyard when I was a kid. There’s nothing worse than being told to go cut your switch. They don’t feel so good smacking the backs of your legs! Fortunately for me, the tree was blown over in a storm.
If I were you, I’d do some research into varieties of weeping willow. Being the ornamental tree it is, no doubt there are varieties commercially available that have a couple of the above mentioned problems bred out of them.
For instance, there are at least two major varieties:
Salix x sepulcralis var. chrysocoma, and
Salix sepulcralis 'Erythroflexuosa ’
and a couple more.
If a plant nursery, even one in another state, sells the variety you are looking for, a sapling of willow is very hardy and can be shipped well, even across a distance.
Wow, I don’t remember there being any of these problems with the weeping willow we grew up with. Man, I practically lived in that tree! I was up there so much, my dad built me a platform to sit on, way up high in it.
It was my and my sister’s job to rake and mow the yard (front and back), and whereas the sweetgum trees and their evil, miniature, Medieval morning star weapons were godawful, and I shudder at the memory of having to pluck all the bag worms off the juniper bushes, I have no memory of hating cleaning up after the willow.
Someone called the horticulture experts on the radio awhile back and asked this question. The experts were very diplomatic. They brought up all the issues mentioned in this thread. They didn’t tell the homeowner not to plant a willow, but they gently discouraged him. They said the best/only place to put a willow is a long way from the house, from other structures, and from sewage pipes, in an area that doesn’t need maintenance, like near a farm pond.
That’s sort of why I think it might be okay. (gee, that’s a ringing endorsement)
This portion of the yard is for the most part unusable due to the swampiness and general ick that’s back there. It’s not a manicured city lot with a alley behind it - it’s poison ivy and mud and fallen logs and brambles the remains of what appears to be a makeshift garbage dump. “Throw it in back in the weeds and it disappears!” Oh, and a massively overgrown apple tree that the deer love. I think putting a big, fast growing tree back there would be the nicest way to screen that part of the yard from the rest of the yard. I just don’t want to cause trouble. Hmm. . . will have to think on it some more. I’m also considering an American sycamore, but they’re not half as pretty. . .
And the property *was *a farm until sixty years ago when someone got the great idea to knock down the barn and build subdivisions on it. But I got the farmhouse!
My advice is from the fact the yard has always had willows. I deal with the clean up all the time. Since it’s not near the buildings and you still want one enjoy the tree. The most important thing is it’s not where it will damage a building coming down.
A couple alternatives for damp areas are poplars, and Shagbark hickory trees. Popular are fast growing and drop less than a willow. Hickory nuts are delicious, but you may not see the tree get old enough to harvest nuts.
I have a curly willow in my front yard that is just beautiful. We don’t have any sewer pipes to worry about, and it’s on the other side of the house from the septic system, so I’m not much worried about the roots. The tree grows like a weed and is absolutely gorgeous in the summer, and I love the spiraling branches. I can’t wait to until it gets big enough that I can cut off a branch and make a walking stick out of it! I haven’t noticed any need to clean up after it, but even with 2 acres of lawn (and 4 of cornfield) and a crapload of silver maples, we have not had to rake the lawn once in 5 years because of the winds we get here. If we get aphids, they won’t survive for a week with our gigantic army of Asian lady beetles.
Ours is quite close to the house but is in a sheltered spot. If it falls onto the house and crushes it, it will just create an opportunity to build a new, better house, right?
How about a bonsai weeping willow? Same tree, none of the fuss. Well, fuss of a different order.
I would say, with your backyard situation, go for it. If you like the tree, it sounds like the perfect setting for it – a bit boggy, and well away from the house.
Make sure you don’t have any sewer pipes running nearby - Willows are notorious for having invasive roots.
Maybe you should try a Whomping Willow instead.
Willows love water, so on that basis it’s a good choice. The smaller willows also like water (Arctic willow -Salix purpurea ‘Nana’, purple willow - Salix purpurea). The arctic willows are very nice, hardy shrubs that you could plant in a grouping. Of course, the weeping willows are just gorgeous trees, and you have a good location for one, so I say go for it.
ETA: You should probably get some advice from a good greenhouse when you’re ready to buy - make sure you get the right species for you. There are almost always varieties of trees and shrubs available.
