Why is it called Willows End?
There is a simple answer and a longer answer.
The simple answer is a weeping willow tree is one of the dominant features of our property; it is mature and magical, and is well worthy of naming rights. And then we live at the end of a cul de sac, so… Willows End.
For the longer answer…. It’s a bit of a Scotophile story meeting destiny.
UK garden inspiration
Erin spent a year as a college student studying at the University of Glasgow, and has been an admirer of Scotland (and the UK in general) ever since. Many years later (2018), Erin and I toured Scotland together. One evening while staying with a host, we took in our first episode of the BBC’s long running TV program, Gardeners’ World, hosted by Monty Don. Little did we know we’d found a cultural touchpoint.
Back in Seattle, Gardeners’ World eventually became Friday night dinner accompaniment at the Cox household. We fell in love with the engaging Monty Don, as well as the humility and welcoming attitude with which so much garden advice and knowledge on the show is shared.
Week after week, the show visits gardens across the UK with evocative names such as Sissinghurst, Compton Acres, and Longmeadow. We decided we needed a proper British garden name for our humble backyard in Seattle. Giving a nod to the seventy year old weeping willow that rises above our property, as well as our location at the end of a rare urban cul-de-sac, the name Willows End was born. Destiny was still to come, several years later…
Willow destiny
Erin has always been a serial crafter. Share a picture of something, she will deconstruct and figure out how to make it. She sews. She makes paper crafts. She built whole scenes on coworkers cubicles when it was their birthday (back when she had a day job!).
Post-pandemic, Erin discovered basketry. She has always liked collecting beautiful things found in nature. And when she found that she could combine her crafting energy with her love of harvesting and foraging, basketry became her thing. You can make baskets out of pine needles you find laying on the ground? Perfect. You can use dandelion stems and daylily leaves to complete a rib basket? Amazing.
Eventually, Erin stopped working a day job, and started teaching basketry and wild crafts as Field and Forest Crafts. (She has a classroom in NE Seattle; check out her site for upcoming workshops).
At first, Erin didn’t work with a lot of willow, partly due to lack of access to the material. She did start taking classes, though, studying with a few well known willow basket weavers in the northwest. Willow, of course, is famous as a mainstay of basketmaking, and has been cultivated over many centuries to perfect cultivars with good basketry properties. Erin quickly fell in love with willow, both as a material and as a plant. She seeks to master the art of willow basketry, and to teach students, as she has learned from others.
Falling in love with willow was icing on the naming cake for the garden and nursery. Obviously our garden should be called Willows End. It’s destiny. One of us can’t stop talking about willow from the moment she wakes up every day. (Hint — it’s Erin).
The weeping willow at Willows End in 2024
Willow in the garden
You might be wondering, “if your garden is called Willows End, do you grow lots of willow?”
Yes and no. We briefly planted a bunch of basketry willow in a sunny corner of the garden, but realized it would not provide nearly enough willow for Erin’s teaching and crafting. So we have started a willow farm on a rented farm plot out in Carnation, Washington. The initial basketry plot moved out there.
In the course of learning about willow, we have discovered the many excellent garden qualities of different varieties of willow (there are hundreds of species of salix, from alpine ground covers to the majestic weeping trees you probably think of when you hear the word “willow”).
In our garden, we grow three types of willow (as of this writing). One is the namesake weeping willow that gives us joy and shade and movement every day, and then two varieties grown mostly for their winter interest (Red Curly and Japanese Fantail).
Beyond willow trees and shrubs, you’ll also find a number of Erin’s willow creations in the garden. She is experimenting with building living willow fences and harlequins, and also creates waddle fences and natural trellises (these latter made with cut willow stems, ie. not living).
If any of that sounds interesting, come see us. We can send you home with a living willow, a willow peony cage, or some other interesting beautiful plants. Or just a few photos for your Instagram feed. 😉 📸
A living willow harlequin
The weeping willow in 2018 before it lost one of its big lateral branches