English Black Willows

We have them on our farms in the Red River Valley in North Dakota, and they were planted by our forefathers when they homesteaded or bought their farms, sometimes over 100 years ago.

I wanted slips of the branches this summer, about a dozen of them, to plant at several sites to start heirloom willow trees with. Only one has survived, and it is already 2 feet high at the house in Bloomington.

I noticed that these willows never seem to propagate young trees, though the branches this spring were covered with seed.

It could be the original willows were planted from branches and that the seed is sterile. I would like research that.