Hi Renee — Your best bet is to trim out from the very end of any green stems so that the plant doesn’t think it needs to revert to all green. It isn’t uncommon to get some green stems here and there — but — if your bushes are mainly green, it might be a good idea to start them over and coppice them with a hard pruning. However, it also sounds like you’re doing that as well. After I coppiced mine, I was able to have the shrubs put out mainly variegated leaves. It has been quite a multi-year process, but I think it was worth it. I hope this helps!

Thank you for the detailed I formation.
I have had my bushes for over ten years and noted that unless I vigorously cut back the shrub, the leaves are just green, not dappled. Why is that? What can I do to assure I get variegated leaves?

Whoo-hoo Beth — that’s awesome to start seven cuttings! I’d let them grow a bit before doing any trimming or pruning. Let them establish some roots first. The ones that I started in water — which you can see on my Dappled Willow Cuttings video — I trimmed once I potted them, since I already had decent roots on them. But they were slow to begin growing again. If starting cuttings in pots, perhaps wait until even Spring before cutting them at all. Waiting that long won’t damage the plants at all. I hope this helps! And keep me posted on how the cuttings are doing!

Hi Cindy, I think you will be successful using those small branches to propagate new shrubs. There’s really no special instructions other than what I outlined in my article. Take the longest branches/stems you can, as I imagine when they grow out of the trunk, they aren’t that long. The good news is they don’t need any rooting hormone, since the Willow family contains a lot of auxins which are essentially what rooting hormone is. So whether you start them out in a glass jar, or stick them directly into a pot, you should be fine. Just be patient, and if starting in a pot — make sure to keep them out of direct sun and that they get enough water but not too much to drown the delicate roots as they begin to form. At this point of the Summer, the heat can do a number on them. I hope this helps! Keep me posted!

Hi Dominic, I planted the first Dappled Willow in the backyard in 2010, and then took cuttings over time and eventually ended up with our giant living wall — which I coppiced down to the ground in March 2021. Just one year later, we have beautiful 5-to-6 foot shrubs again! You can check out my Dappled Willow Guide to see pictures of how the tall Dappled Willow started out…and I also have a video playlist on my YouTube channel where you can see several videos all about these wonderful shrubs! I hope this helps!

Yes, Dappled Willow love water, so they should do well on your land. Yes, my Dappled Willow is quite a distance from my house, but I’ve never measured the exact distance.

How long did it take your dapple willow wall to get that big?