La puce wrote:
Hullo. For a couple of years we wanted to do a living willow dome.
I'm
ready for it. My apple tree is going to the lotty and I'll have
enough
room for it now in its place. It's my winter project, or at least
one
of them... From what I have read and searched all I find are kits,
sculptures and I think they want my money above all else. As
anyone
done one and my questions a- is a matting necessary? Do I really
need 10m of free ground around it? Should I be best growing my own
from cuttings (I'll use the lotty to grow the willows) and coppice
it? Is 6ft/8ft branches to do my dome enough, what kind of ties
should I be using and finally can I mix two variety for colours the
salix alba britzensis and the vitellina? Thank yous!

I never actually got round to it, but the one I planned had no
supports at all -- just the trees themselves, at about one-foot
intervals. They'll need to be a heck of a lot more than 8 feet tall
if you want to get inside the dome, and by the time they get big
enough, the main trunks will have lost their colour. I'd never buy a
kit: just take lots of cuttings (now's the time). I don't see why
there has to be that much space around it.

There's a lot on the Web if you Google "willow dome".

--
Mike.