oh come on ... drama queen ...

all important growth is going on under the ground... thats what rootings do ...

what exactly do you expect in basically 2 moths rooting a woody shrub??.. crikey.. even a willow ...

that it even has functioning green leaves should make you be doing the happy dance.. not complaining its not growing like a fully established 5 year old plant...

ken

ps: if you want to worry about something.. worry about the fact that what few leaves you have.. green tissue appears to be less than maybe 40% .. and then wonder what exactly is feeding the presumed roots to actually grow [no green ..no photosynthesis...] .. now there is something to worry about ... and you better make sure that when the heat of summer hits its in full bright shade ... as small roots and white tissue equals burning.. and possible leaf loss.. and you dont have enough roots for it to releaf again ....

Well I ask because this ladys cuttings look much better in terms of leafing out compared to mine so I thought I might have screwed up.

https://www.petscribbles.com/propagating-dappled-willow-from-cuttings/

Don’t put ideas into his head, Ken. These things just look like that and thrive. It's totally normal.

Well, against my better judgement I clicked the link. I found a stream of waffle, a bunch of misleading statements, no indication of location and a few photos, none of which purported to be three month old cuttings. Ignore ‘petscribbles’ and quit fretting.

Well looks like you guys were right. I’ve just planted all 4 of them today and they grew so much! I planted them in a way it would make a privacy hedge, spaced like 7-8 ft apart. The area gets extremely soggy but Unfortunately it is under the canopy of a large red maple. Hopefully with extra watering they survive there and I will keep watering even after they establish.

Told you so. 😉

Well looks like you guys were right.

==>>> ooo ye of little faith ...

are you sure you need 4 of them that close together???

lets do the usual trick to look to the future ..

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=dappled+willow+mature&iax=images&ia=images

some of the unsheared ones are kinda huge.. but i suppose you could learn a lot about pruning.. by makeing every other one into a tree form ....

after next year.. these will be run it over with the truck plants.. no pruning is going to kill them ... and not much else will ...

thx for the update ...

ken

I have a huge one of these, in full sun..that explains why the leaf margins turn brown and crispy sometimes. Its care tag said ”full sun”. its 6 yrs old and otherwise doing great! Ken, yes, grows like a weed. ive already pruned it 2x this summer and it could use it again! 😄 Thanks for the helpful burn info. i may move it this fall to very bright shade w/ tons of morning sun.

Yup I know they get massive overtime. I took these cuttings from my neighbor(with permission) and I measured its width and it was an impressive 17 ft wide. I hope the regular pruning can control its size. Even if I cut it back hard not sure how much growth a mature one will grow in a year. Also now curious if they even grow well as hedges should they touch each other with new growth even after pruning. Praying on the hope that these things cannot be killed

Touching each other will not bother them in the slightest. Pruning isn’t just for size control. It is necessary if you want the best colour. Annual growth can be a couple of feet if it’s happy, as yours have already demonstrated.

Update: I took measurements yesterday and one of them(in a wetter spot) was 9ft tall by 9.5 ft wide. Thing grows faster than a dawn redwood.

I was going to move my other 2 or 3(near the red maple currently) next to it because they aren’t growing as fast. How much should I space them? The area is about 20 ft wide and its in front of my fence so going to be for privacy. I have 3 more but would all 3 be necessary for a 20 ft space? Or would 2 fill up quickly? What would you do?

To get the best colour this subject needs regular hard pruning to promote lots of young growth. These willows left to grow free form are not particularly dense or shapely and won't make great screening without this pruning. If they were mine I'd plant all of them and coppice or pollard them regularly.

Ok well a couple of questions on the pruning. Can you cut back young plants like mine or are you supposed to wait until the plant matures? How far down do you hard prune it? And if you hard prune it ever year won’t that defeat the purpose of privacy since it won’t grow back to the desired height until summer. I thought of letting the tree grow high enough so that it blocks my neighbors view(they’re elevated on a slope) and then take a ladder and prune it but still be able to have privacy even after the pruning. So say like the tree is 15ft. I’ll prune it down to like10ft. Is that a bad idea?

You are the one wanting them to make a screen. As I said, it isn't a great subject for permanent privacy because of the pruning requirement. The pruning is needed to get the best colour. Coppicing would involve cutting to the base. Pollarding would involve growing up to just above your preferred height and then cutting the top back. I have seen four to five foot pollarded standards of this plant used as a border to a walk. They were cut back every couple of years.

Update. They have grown absolutely monstrously. I’ve never seen a woody plant grow this fast. The same willow from my last pic in my last comment now looks like this. Probably about 12 ft tall. Second pic shows the rest of the 3 willows I transplanted from that dry spot. I think I achieved the dense screen of willows I wanted. Just maybe next year I’ll start cutting them back.