Pollard willow: when and how to prune

Pollard willow: when to prune it?

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Pollard in winter, in November–March, when the willow is bare. Choose a day without hard frost: frozen wood splinters, and the bark tears more easily.

Finish before mid-March, when the nesting season starts: little owls, tits, stock doves and sometimes mallards breed in the head and hollows of a pollard willow.

How often you pollard depends on how fast it grows: usually every 3–7 years. Don’t wait any longer, or the head will split under the weight of the heavy branches.

What else to prune in those months? January · February · March · November · December

Pollard willow: how to prune it?

1. Saw off all the branches just above the head, without cutting into the head itself: that is where the dormant buds are that the new branches grow from.
2. Saw thick branches in two stages: first a bit higher up, then just above the head. That way the bark along the trunk does not tear.
3. Work safely: use a sturdy ladder or a stable platform, never saw a branch towards you, and work in pairs. A handsaw is enough for branches a few years old.
4. Also cut off the shoots on the trunk, so only the head sprouts.
5. Plant a new pollard as a truncheon: a straight, fresh pole of 2.5–3 m, set about half a metre deep in moist soil. Let it form a crown at the top for the first few years, then always pollard it at the same height.
6. Use what you cut: pliable rods for weaving, a living willow screen or bean poles, thicker branches for posts or firewood. Fresh rods pushed into the ground take root.

How much to cut, and how often?

• At each pollarding, all the branches come off, in one go. A willow that hasn’t been pollarded for ten years or more is best tackled with help from a conservation group or a tree surgeon.
• Every 3–7 years, depending on growth: on wet, rich soil it grows faster than on drier ground.
• Don’t pollard all the willows in a row in the same year, but in turn, a few each winter. That way there is always shelter somewhere for birds and insects.

What does it mean for wildlife?

• Old, hollow pollard willows are homes: little owls, tits, stock doves and bats breed or roost in the hollows, and beetles and other insects live in the decaying wood. Leave a hollow pollard standing: it will live for years yet.
• Pollarding falls outside the nesting season (15 March–15 August). If you are still at it in the second half of March, look in the head and the hollows first: disturbing an active nest is against the law.
• In April the catkins flower, an early source of food for bees and bumblebees. Leaf beetles live on the leaves, and willows feed the caterpillars of more butterflies and moths than almost any other tree.
• Elder, bramble, rowan or ferns sometimes grow in the head: feel free to leave them. Put the thin prunings on a dead hedge along the ditch, a shelter for hedgehogs, wrens and frogs.

Common mistakes

• Waiting too long to pollard, until the heavy branches split the head open.
• Sawing into the head itself, or a bit higher each time, so long stubs are left standing.
• Pollarding all the willows in a row in the same winter.
• Felling a hollow pollard because it looks dead, when it will live for years and is then at its most valuable.
• Still pollarding after mid-March without looking in the head and the hollows.

Nearby: related pruning guides

• Crack willow
• Osier
• Bay willow
• Weeping willow
• Ash

Similar to: Difference from osier · Difference from crack willow · Difference from almond willow · Difference from purple willow · Difference from peach · Difference from weeping willow · Difference from butterfly bush

Plant profile: Pollard willow · Pruning calendar and basic rules