is my 5 yr dwarf willow tree dying or already dead?
By Rocket
United Kingdom 
the tree has been producing catkins and many leaves for 5 yrs since planting it. this year it was covered in ants and i used a well known barnd of greenfly killer to cure what i'd hoped was the problem. now, it has lost all of its leaves and the branches are just snapping off. i've pruned alot of the dead wood out, but still there seems to be no life left in it. is it damaged beyond repair, shal i dig it up or wait till next year to see what happens? what was a beautiful dwarf tree is now just a stick with a few dead twigs haning from it. please advise.
4 Aug, 2009
Answers
If you scratch the main stem, this may well be still alive however if this tree is grafted at the top as most dwarf weeping willows are,(presumably Kilmarnock?) then this will just be Salix viminalis, which is the usual stock/stem the weeping part is grafted onto. If this sprouts, the tree will be completely different!
Sounds to me like a graft failure. This does occasionally happen to Salix. If no more leaves sprout from the weeping parts, bin it.
4 Aug, 2009
Even if the tree is not quite dead it will take years to come back to full health. I would considerreplacing this tree with a healthy one.
5 Aug, 2009
I would certainly get the whole thing out of there if the bit above the graft has died. If the rootstock has survived - it might well get a grip and pop up from under....and do a take over bid!! Willows rootstock can be feisty and often prove to be a real nuisance. It does sound like Fractal says that your grafted bit has died off. Start again - preferably somewhere different.
5 Aug, 2009
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As SBG would tell you, scrape away the bark from the stem just above the ground if it is green the willow is still alive, if not then it is, in all likelihood dead! Trees can live on their reserves for years as they try to get established. Finally they will either start growing or die
4 Aug, 2009