Back At It

Today is my first day back at work (at the nursery), after three weeks off for the Christmas holidays.

Photo "Weeping Pussy Willow" (Salix Caprea Pendula)

I had just learned how to do a "side veneer" graft before our break. Today I checked out the progress. We had started with grafting a few different Salix (willow) varieties. I was astounded to see that both the scion wood (the new variety grafted to the top) and understock (the stem we want to support the new scion wood) have budded and started to leaf out. This is great because now we can start to see if the graft has taken. If not, the scion wood is starting to collapse. If it has collapsed, we have the choice to re-graft or throw out the understock.

Salix is a wonderful variety to learn on, as it is very easy to graft. Salix is also considered a "weed" plant, as it is simple to grow. This morning we removed the lower shoots off of the understock to draw the energy to the scion wood. We left 4-5 "suckers" (side shoots) nearest to the top to help drive the plant in the right direction. When all is said and done, we will have a nice assortment of, but not only, Salix standards.