On Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:50:59 +0100, Janet wrote:

I've seen that happen to Kilmarnock willows very often in west Scotland,
in waterlogged soil when wind catches the tree.

Probably what happens is that the head is so dense, wind pressure rocks
it easily in wet soil, snapping more and more of the finer roots, until
there's just not enough root anchorage left to support the weight of
topgrowth.

Janet

Thanks Janet. Must admit I hadn't appreciated that Kilmarnocks were so
shallow rooted as mine.

This one was sheltered though. What surprised me on digging was to
find only two big roots - nothing else was longer than about 4 inches
and when I cleaned the earth off the ends there was no sign of
breakage. I've now chopped off the top to uncover the plants it fell
on and the remaining trunk is like a door hinge with the two roots
freely pivoting. One runs for at least 2 feet as I've uncovered it
that far. Weird.

I'm not going to try planting anything else yet but am toying with
putting another Kilmarnock there in the autumn - as Spider says, the
catkins are a valuable food source in the spring. In the meantime I
can do a bit of soil replacement and try and improve drainage in the
hope of encouraging a few more big roots on the newbie.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.