NH Pussy Willow Update

In an effort to socially distance myself yesterday, I discovered a surprising natural phenomenon. This mild winter has caused the local pussy willow population to spring ahead!

Usually, you won't see this type of budding until at least a week into April but alas here they are.

I wouldn't categorize them as full bloom yet or even 'ready to pick', but for those of you that harvest them every year as a Granite State tradition, I would certainly monitor your local trees.

As far as I can tell, clipping these branches once the buds look like giant Q-Tips isn't detrimental to the health of these trees, in fact, the opposite is true.

Yearly clipping of the trees around my folks property has only made them more prominent.

As you can see from the photo above, the 'catkins' are quite plentiful and it looks like sooner than later, I'll be out here with my shearers gathering the 2020 crop.