The enormous growth of a weeping willow is often underestimated. While the tree was still an attractive eye-catcher a few months ago, six months later it can become a disruptive factor in your own garden. If the weeping willow does not grow as expected, this can also be due to an unfavorable location. In both cases, you should then transplant the deciduous tree. On this page you can find out up to what age this is possible and how you can best proceed.
Above a certain size, weeping willows can no longer be moved
time
It is best to transplant a weeping willow outside of the growth phase. A frost-free day in autumn is ideal. If, on the other hand, the tree is in the process of budding, the change of location would sap its strength.
However, the age of your weeping willow and the resulting size is much more important than the time of year. Older specimens can no longer be moved due to their massive root growth.
Reasons for transplanting
- heavy leaf shedding
- complaint from the neighbor
- Danger from falling branches
- too dry soil
- too little light
- Weeping willow takes away the light from other plants
- Roots lift rocks or sidewalks
manual
- Dig a sufficiently large hole at the new location.
- Put compost in the soil.
- Expose the root ball.
- Be careful to damage as few roots as possible.
- You still have to cut through some rhizomes with a spade.
- Lift the weeping willow tree out of the ground.
- Place the tree in the dug hole.
- Fill in the remaining hole with soil.
- Water the weeping willow well.
Encourage renewed sprouting
It is perfectly normal for your weeping willow to weaken a bit after transplanting. If you have chosen a suitable location and only cut off a few roots, it will soon recover. In order to encourage sprouting, it makes sense to cut back the weeping willow heavily. Thus, the roots need to support less above-ground growth.