That’s easy - make a regular willow tree & be mean to it - it will weep!![}:)]
After this thread ran the first time I tried a couple. It is a fall project. I took seed stems from a very tall grass plant. I sprayed them green and while they were wet, wrapped them around a piece of pipe. I let them dry several days. When I took them off the pipe, most stayed bent. I then took florists tape and wrapped several dozen together into a tree using the tape as truck. I started at the top and worked down, adding many more stems at each layer. There are about 50 stems in each tree. I have not made any since, but I think that with practice I could do better.
I did try some last fall, but I did not spray and bend them the day I picked them and they all broke. Here is my one pic,
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The problem I see is that the trunks of the weeping willow protos are all wrong. A big Weeping Willow has a short thick stump of two, three, or four trunks growing out near the base. They don’t usually grow straight up, they angle out to the side, so actually the branches are not always that long, its just that because the trunk leans outward, branches are closer to the ground. And with three or so trunks, it will create the thickness of the crown while bringing the branches lower to the ground. I am still looking at materials to work with yet, but I too want to make one. Tomorrow I may go in the woods and check out some fronds of princess pine and see if they can be picked at, or altered some how. Up here in Northern Wisconsin we are still being threatened with snow showers.
Ohhh by the way, if you have any sewer systems on your railroad layout, don’t plant them next to them. The root system of the Weeping Willow raises heck with sewer pipe. Just a thought.