Why Willow Makes the Best Plant Supports

Willow has been woven into plant supports on British smallholdings for centuries, and there is good reason it has never fallen out of favour. The rods are long, straight and extraordinarily pliable when prepared properly, yet they dry hard and hold their shape for years. A woven obelisk or hoop looks far better than anything galvanised you can buy, and it costs nothing but a morning's work if you already grow a few willows along a boundary or in a damp corner of the plot.

The traditional weaving willows are the ones to aim for. Common osier gives long, strong rods that are perfect for obelisks and bean frames. Purple willow is finer and more flexible, ideal for the tighter work on hoops and small grids. Named varieties such as 'Britzensis', 'Black Maul' and 'Dicky Meadows' are all reliable croppers and worth planting a stool or two of each if you plan to weave regularly. Even a rough stand of goat willow will do at a push, though the rods are stiffer and far more likely to snap when you bend them.

Grow your willows as a coppice stool. Cut them hard every winter and they will throw up a fresh crop of long whips year after year, for decades, with no feed and very little attention.

Cutting and Sorting Your Rods

The window for cutting is between leaf fall and bud burst, roughly November through to late February. This is when the sap is down and the wood is at its most supple. Cut on a dry, frost-free day so the rods go into store clean.

• Use sharp secateurs or a pruning saw for thicker stools, and cut close to the base, leaving two or three buds to regrow.
• Take rods of one, two or three years old — anything older is woody and brittle.
• Strip side shoots and leaves as you go, running a gloved hand down each rod.
• Sort your harvest into lengths: long rods (1.5–1.8 m) for uprights, medium for weaving, short offcuts for ties and small hoops.
• Cut the thicker end cleanly at an angle so it will push easily into the soil later.

Bundle the rods with baler twine and stand them upright in a bucket of water, or lay them in a shallow trench and cover the butts with damp soil. Kept like this they will stay workable for weeks.

Soaking and Preparing

Freshly cut rods can be woven straight away, and this is by far the easiest way to work. Rods that have been dried and stored need soaking to bring them back. Submerge the bundles completely in a water butt or trough, weight them down with a brick or two, and leave them for a full seven to ten days in cold weather. Warm water speeds the process, but cold is kinder to the bark.

You will know a rod is ready when the bark feels slippery and slightly slimy under your fingers and the rod will bend into a full circle without cracking or creaking. Test one before you commit a whole bundle. Once soaked, wrap the rods in damp sacks or a piece of old carpet and use them within a few days — leaving them wet too long invites mould and blackens the bark.

Weaving a Simple Obelisk

An obelisk is the most useful support you can make and takes under an hour once you have the knack.

• Select eight rods of roughly equal length, around 1.5–1.8 m.
• Push the thick ends into the ground in a circle about 30 cm across, spacing them evenly. Soft ground after rain is ideal.
• Bring the tops together and tie them firmly with a short length of soaked willow, twisting the ends to lock the knot.
• Starting about 20 cm from the ground, weave a horizontal band around the uprights. Take a long, thin rod and pass it alternately in front of and behind each upright, working all the way round.
• Add a second band every 25–30 cm as you climb, pushing each band down snugly as you go so the whole frame tightens.
• Tuck the finishing end behind an upright rather than tying it off — willow grips itself.

Plant it over a young clematis, a climbing rose or a courgette and the frame will disappear under growth by midsummer.

Hoops, Grids and Smaller Supports

For herbaceous plants that flop — peonies, dahlias, hardy geraniums, asters — a woven hoop is the answer. Bend a single long rod into a circle and twist the ends together, then push three or four short legs into the ground to lift it. Alternatively, twist two rods around each other to make a stronger, more decorative ring.

A simple grid frame works well for sweet peas and climbing beans: push in uprights, then weave horizontals across in both directions to make a square mesh. This is far stronger than it looks and will carry a heavy crop without sagging. Small offcuts make excellent plant ties, which are soft on stems and rot away naturally at the end of the season.

Making Your Supports Last

Left outdoors in contact with soil, a willow support will give you three to six years of service. The base is always the first part to go, so stand obelisks on a brick or in a large pot of gravel if you want to extend their life, or bed them on a layer of hazel pegs. Bring what you can under cover over winter and keep them dry.

Never treat them with preservative — willow is meant to weather to a soft silver-grey, and treated rods look wrong and can leach into the soil. When a frame finally gives up, snap it into the compost heap or burn it and weave a fresh one on a wet January afternoon. That cycle, cutting and soaking and weaving through the dormant months, is one of the quiet pleasures of smallholding life.