The wood is similar to the weeping willow we have around here, but instead of drooping twigs, the branches grow rather upright - some a bit straigher, but many the bend and curve. Some, make my walking stick seem straight.
The florists here, like using the smaller ends of the twigs for flower arrangements.
Some people grow fields of them, and pollard them at a few feet off the ground to sell commercially to florists. Many hispanic (Mexican) workers who moved to Oregon and Washington from California, often prune the bigger ones for free, as a way to get twigs to sell to florists.
(And their pruning is not pruning - its butchering. No need to chop the tops the way they do, even if its for harvesting) |