Last year Ron ordered and we planted pink pussy willows along the banks of our creek at THF. The instructions were quite clear – weeding was essential. Yeah; we kinda skipped that part. But I hold Ron responsible. I told him we needed to weed, but he would have none of it. Just wanted to get them planted so he could move on to the next project. The result is what you might expect. Not a total loss, but at least half of our plants did not survive. Come spring 2017 we shall see if any of them are still alive.
His plan was to grow them to sell for Valentine’s Day.  In a small flower vase with our red twig dogwood branches, he is convinced it would be a winner.  Doing more research on pussy willows I have  discovered that Palm Sunday is also known as Willow Sunday in the Eastern European Christian Churches. Instead of more traditional palm branches, pussy willows are blessed and then taken home the same way palm branches are.   Palms not being something easily grown in the colder climates of Europe.  This gives us another market to explore.  Utica, NY has a strong Polish community as does Syracuse.  But Buffalo, NY is very big into an “interesting” Polish tradition.  Dyngus Day celebrates the ending of lent and beginning of Easter. On the Monday after Easter, boys who wanted to attract the attention of their favorite girl would throw water on them and hit their legs with pussy willows. The girls would throw dishes in return the next day.   These days water pistols are used instead of buckets and apparently everyone is considered a target.

So this year, Ron decided to take another shot, ordering them again from the Vermont Willow Nursery but taking some precautions.  This time, when he got them in he planted them in large potting containers. We kept them in our backyard under our pine tree so we could keep an eye on them.  They were up high so our rabbits were not able to eat them.
By May 18th we had buds or leaves showing on almost all of our cuttings. This is looking promising.  By November they were strong and ready for planting.

I thought we were going to plant them in the same spot as last year.  You know, with willows liking water so much.  But Ron wanted to plant them in our field, next to our elderberries.   We can keep a better eye on them and it will be much easier to control the weeds.  So out came the rolls of weed cloth again.   Once again we had to work around the wind.  Luckily we have “rots of rocks” laying about the place that we used to tack the long sheets down.   We marked off the spacing and Ron got busy cutting slits in the cloth.  Then Jo and I dug the needed holes.  Not so easy.  The rocks, of course were and issue but we had also forgotten to bring an actual shovel with us.   The ones we had on site were too big.  We found a cheap little trowel and made the best of it.  Because the field had been planted with winter wheat, it was a bit easier to do the actual digging.

Did I mention that it was cold?  And the wind was not making it any warmer.    My elderberries to the right of us are still looking pretty good heading into fall.  We didn’t have too much damage from our deer.  Fingers crossed that they continue to stay away next year.

The trowel tended to bend every time we used it and we took our gloves off as they got in the way.  That made for colder fingers but we worked quicker as a result.  Ron had to get involved with his pry bar when we hit another big rock.   Which happened more times that we liked.

Cannot really see the bushes that well yet.  Especially against the growing wheat.   But in a couple of years, they should be lovely.  We hope.  I have always liked pussy willows, but have never seen the pink ones.   I will give the man his due.  Once he has an idea, he seldom gives up.  I am looking forward to spring.  Will Ron’s persistence pay off?  We shall see.