Hi folks I have a 25+ year old willow tree in my back yard that I'm planning to be married under this September. Unfortunately there are two large, dead branches that are rather unsightly. I would like to prune them but am afraid to kill my tree. Is there any advice you could offer to as to the best way to go about his? As you can see in the picture the dead branch on the right seems to be rather prominent going all the way to the base of the trunk... thanks in advance for anything you can offer!
You would have to do more than prune out half of a willow to kill it. We can't see much in this photo actually, but have someone who is okay with a chainsaw cut off the old bad bits. It should recover quickly and probably will grow enough new green shoots and leaves to loosely fill out the gap created with the dead bit gone. By September, even the whitish stump will have aged enough to be less noticeable. New Hampshire, right? It would make a difference if you were in other parts of the world.
Yep, just prune the dead wood out. You can if necessary (which it isn't here!) cut a willow right down to a stump and it'll regrow fast - they're almost impossible to kill.
