Harvesting Colourful Willow at Chester Hope

The final two Salix Purpurea varieties to be cut and sorted at Chester Hope this season are Packing Twine and Brittany Green. The rods provide a delightful contrast in colour. The Packing Twine rods are bright green with a lovely sheen when freshly cut; the Brittany Green rods are a vivid dark red. Only sixty-four stools of the latter variety remain to be cut and processed! (There are around five thousand stools at the plot). The images show the bundles of rods following sorting for size, and in the site store.

At the western end of the willow plot, the first leaves appear on the Endurance shelter-belt rods. The leaves of this variety dropped last December, confirming that this variety is in leaf for around 300 days a year.