You can hard prune (pollard) the branches at end of winter but do not coppice (cut down trunks) or you will lose the tree form you paid extra for.

And if the dappled willows are only the part at the top of the stem, with the trunk being another kind of willow (this is likely) then you cannot coppice without losing the dappled willows entirely.

Don't worry about the stubs...they'll look funny at first but will quickly fill out this spring.

It should come back nice and white (the one pictured is the shrub form).

{{gwi:329493}}

Ideally, this pruning or pollarding process should have been started before the topgrowth was allowed to get so large and unruly.......5" diameter branches are pretty darn big to be cutting back to nubs. But it can be done -- willows can typically be cut to the ground and still resprout sucessfully, although with a tree-form shrub you don't want to get that severe, as bboy states. It just may take a season or two before it resembles the tidy "little balls" or lollipops you saw in the photo.

Thanks guys! I will never let them get so unruly ever again!

I have a tree like this as well, but maybe not quite as large. We have pruned back the last few years and this spring early we had a windstorm and lost a limb at the grafting site. It’s a well established tree, but it took a hit. We had to prune back quite a bit of damage. We also had a brief start to spring when things in the yard began to bloom and then it snowed again and again. The pruning took place prior to any new growth but now we only have about half of the tree sprouting and not progressing well. Should we wait through this season to see what it does? Is it in shock of some kind? We love the tree and would love to save it.