This variety is a favourite of my teacher Joe Hogan. He loves it for making traditional creels, log baskets, and so on. It is a fantastic all around willow excellent for: hoops and ribs of frame baskets, borders of shoppers and log baskets, and the finer rods as weavers for every basket imaginable.. It is quite resistant to rot after soaking due to tannins in the bark, and so one can steam the rods many times to ‘perk it up’ if it gets a bit dry. Steams a gorgeous chocolate brown colour. Lovely for rope handles (bark doesn’t peel much). This is one of my favourite willows to work with!

strength: uprights, creels, log baskets, garden structures, hoops for frame basket, ribs for frame baskets, nice ‘woody’ yet soft rod

colour: dark bluey-brown, steams to chocolate brown

size: 5-11 foot