pira

About two weeks ago the arbourists came to remove some bushes and trees in my tiny backyard. They were old, overgrown and filled with deadwood to the point that it was simpler to just get rid of them and start again.

The 45+ year old lilacs were cut to the ground and their young allowed room to stretch and fill out. An arctic willow that was two stories high and had basically become a trash tree, was just pulled out while the ancient pussywill was cut down to root level. The latter had become dangerous and needed to be dealt with before it hurt anyone.

I was sad though, since I really love pussy willows ~ the irony is that the 3 story high tree only put out pussies on the top and I never had a chance to cut any for display in a vase. In fact...I didn't even know it WAS a pussy willow until a few years after we'd moved here. I'd happened to glance into the backyard at the right time and look up...waaaaay up, and noted the tips of the branches shadowed against the sky were oddly...lumpy.

I forgot to ask the guys taking down the tree for a few branches for rooting. To my dismay, they'd done a very good job cleaning up the yard after their work. But as luck would have it, not a *perfect* job ~ because I found a small twig with 3 pussy paws on it, stuck in the branches of the climbing hydrangea a few days after the tree had come down.

I brought it inside, trimmed the bottom and stuck it into a vase with water, hoping that Mother Nature would be her opportunistic self....and throw off roots.

A week later one of the three catkins fell off. :(

Oh no. I'd been too late. It had dried out!

But...I kept it in the vase, topping off the water in hopes that there was a slight chance that the willow would do her thing. Then a few days ago one of the remaining little bits of fur popped into bloom. Hope was renewed! A few days later, white roots started to sprout from the submerged branch.

HAH! Mother Nature I lurv the way you just don't give up! *^__^*

I will finally get my own eyelevel pussywillow for clippings in the backyard!