Very nice Josh! I need to chop mine in half as I think the upper portion is dead.... But yours is coming along great!

Hey Josh,
My only critique would be that i'd like to see one leader and some movement in the lower trunk. More like an informal upright. Too bad you can't stick that bad boy in the ground for a while and really let it grow wild. Had a bunch of them and curly willow we stuck in the ground near the stream in the field, went from pencil size to 3-4 inches in a few years. Keep up the good work and have fun.

Bob

Thanks, Bob!
I've really committed to this highly symmetrical form - straight trunk, double-leader.
Basically, I prune it down like this a few times a season. Next Spring, it will be moved
into a larger container...not a substitute for in-ground growing, but better than the
current confinement. Pruned yesterday:

{{gwi:11088}}

So do these naturally start to weep with age? Or is it more with size? It looks like the long branches in one of the pics started to weep, so maybe it is just the longer the branches start to weep. Know what I mean?

Hi, Josh. I agree with Bob's assessment a little upthread. You need movement in the lower trunk and in any noticeably straight sections of the rest of the plant. I would also not style the plant with competing leaders. Most of the believable willows I've seen are in the slant style, with a few in what you might call a weeping broom style - like a Moe haircut, if you're old enough to know what I'm talking about.

I spent 2 days at the MABA convention this weekend, and I was a silent observer in K Shaner's Jap weeping willow workshop. All the trees were done in the slanted style. She had a tree done in the weeping broom style I mentioned on display in one of the hotel lobbies by the exhibit - a very nice tree, as you would expect.

If you're committed to a twin trunk, I would simply girdle the trunk immediately below the bifurcation, lop off a few roots on the bottom, and plant in a deeper pot to eliminate that straight section of trunk, which would immediately make it more appealing to the eye. Better yet, simply split a pot to go around the existing trunk (after girdling) and fill it with soil. The roots will grow so fast you'll have that chore accomplished by spring. That 'slingshot' look is confusing because as your eye moves up the trunk, it stops at the crotch of those branches & doesn't know which one to follow.

The subordinate trunk could be the daughter or a low, slant branch that cascades below the pot, but it won't be the easiest thing to pull off so it looks believable because the mother will have branches cascading into the daughter.

I would also start wiring any branches not considered sacrifice branches.

Al

Very good advice! Thank you, Al!
I think I will shorten it, and begin wiring.

This tree will never look "natural," as it were.
Too stiff. I'd actually like the tree to be nearly two-dimensional, similar to a flat raquet.
All the whips and foliage would be three-dimensional sprays, of course.

Josh

Hi Josh,
Nice tree! I will be looking forward to seeing it's progress! Always love to see what you are up to!

Al's post sounds like you have some fun/work cut out for you. ;)

Al~I won't confess my age, but do know the hair cut you are reffering to. LOL!

Talk to you guys later.
JoJo