People before animals

So had ours! Your DD obviously did a good job with yours, Galen!

Aka

Your are correct about the willow.

The Somerset Levels/Moors are famous for their willows/withies. Basket making, fencing, thatching and even coffins etc. are a large part of the Somerset economy, along with farming.

Willows/withies are very eco friendly as they absorb carbons and are very hardy. t
There are many species of Willows. The willow is pruned by a method called 'pollarding' this produces the new wood called the withie. I presume that the flooding will do no harm to them as they absorb water but I am sure everybody knows that.

Deciduous tress virtually shut down in the winter AKA

We had a contorted willow which was a beautiful little thing but grew and grew like Topsy and was over 40ft and too near the house. Had to have it chopped down. I did give my sister a cutting, when I visited her last year the cutting was a splendid 30ft tall teenager, I was quite emotional

for tress read trees

I've always wanted a contorted willow!
So good for flower arranging.

The twisted hazels, Corylus avellana 'contorta' are slow growing. We have one which is fifteen years old and near the house. The catkins are wonderful for flower arranging.

I had to have my twisted willow taken down last year too. It was huge. Sad, because I bought it from a DIY chain thinking it looked sad, and when we took it out of the sacking we found it had been left with hardly any root. My late DH nursed and nurtured it, and it recovered and flourished. I felt bad about having it felled but I'm sure he'd have understood.

Flower Gallen.

Contorted.

Just ordered a contorted hazel!

I need another witch hazel to replace the one that perished in the big autumn clear-up of my garden. They cost the earth but are so good to have in flower in the winter.

Shame to get rid of it- hazel can be coppiced right to the ground and start again- and coppiced again, and again- as it gets too high

My mother gave me my contorted hazel for my 50th birthday so I'd have 'something to remember her by.' I laughed at the time and she's still with us but I will always treasure it.

Any straight suckers that appear need to be removed at the base because the tree will revert to a straight hazel if they are left. They make good plant stakes for a border though.

I have a hazel that twists and turns like a corkscrew so perhaps it's a contorted hazel. It was here when we moved in 6+ years ago but hasn't grown much. Can you get dwarf ones?