The home gardener’s guide to planting, caring for and propagating willow hybrid trees!

Tall, majestic willow hybrid trees (Salix x matsudana x alba), grown close together, can provide a privacy screen from traffic or nosy neighbors. The formation is also an ideal wind break. If you don’t like raking leaves, however, you should know that the hybrid willow tree is deciduous and will drop its foliage in the fall.

About Willow Hybrids

The willow hybrid tree is a fast grower and will reach over 70 feet tall. The tree generally grows 6 feet a year but has been known, under optimal conditions, to grow 20 feet in one year. Because they are disease-resistant they live long lives–about 70 years.

Planting the Willow Hybrid Tree

Mail-order hybrid willows are generally delivered as bare root plants. It will be in a dormant state but it still needs to be planted immediately to avoid having the roots dry out. Soak the roots in a bucket of tap water for three hours before planting.

While the roots are soaking you can get busy digging the planting hole. The hole needs to be three times the width of the rootball and the same depth at which the tree was growing in the nursery.

To find out how deep it was planted, look carefully at the lower part of the trunk for a ring. This is the soil line and it indicates the soil level at which the tree was growing and how deep you need to dig the planting hole.

Place the hybrid willow tree’s rootball in the hole and throw in two or three shovel-fulls of soil. Run the hose into the hole to fill it with water. As the water drains, it will settle the soil around the roots and remove any air pockets that may be trapped in the soil (these can cause root drying). When it has completely drained, finish filling the hole with soil.

Create a water well around the base of the tree. Mound up some soil until you have a 2-inch high, 5-inch thick wall. Form the soil into a ring, 2 feet away from the tree’s trunk, going completely around it.

Fill the ring with water and when it drains, place a 2-inch layer of organic mulch in the ring, keeping it 6 inches from the tree’s trunk. Whenever you water, which should be once a week during the tree’s first year, fill the ring with water.

Watch your willow hybrid carefully, especially during the summer. If the leaves begin to droop, the tree isn’t getting enough water. Keep the planting area moist.

Hybrid willow spacing

If you are planting more than one hybrid willow tree for privacy screening, decide how dense you want the screen to be. The closer together you place the plants, the denser the screen. Three to five feet apart is a good rule of thumb for a dense privacy screen.

Fertilizing the hybrid willow

The hybrid willow tree needs to be fertilized in early spring, as soon as you see new growth, and then again in early summer. Use a 10-10-10 fertilizer, at the rate listed on the label. Sprinkle it around the tree at the dripline and then water it into the soil.

Hybrid willow cuttings

Willow hybrid trees can be started from cuttings, either softwood or hardwood. Stick the softwood cutting into pots filled with equal parts of perlite and coco coir. Ensure that several nodes are buried beneath the planting mix.

Collect hardwood cuttings from among stems that have ripened between November and March. Choose stems that are from 7 to 10 inches in length and between one-half to one inch thick. Plant them in the same manner as instructed for softwood cuttings.

Although we’ve seen advice online to use a rooting hormone with hybrid willow cuttings, studies say otherwise. Rooting percentage “is not promoted by rooting hormones,” according to Michael A. Dirr of the University of Georgia and Charles W. Heuser, Jr. of Pennsylvania State University.

Keep the soil moist, but not soggy. Your new tree should start forming roots in about two to three weeks but it may take up to one year. Patience, my friend.

You can find hybrid willow trees for sale (cuttings) on Amazon.com.