If you plan on starting plants from cuttings, use of a rooting hormone make success MUCH more likely and will increase the number of successful rootings.
Willow trees grow in our area (check the river banks...) and obtaining a small handful of stem cuttings is easy and quick.
http://www.attainable-sustainable.net/rooting-hormone/Note the use of boiling water to extract the hormone. This can be done with cold water and in this case it helps to have the willow stems mashed down to very small pieces. Think of using your home blender to reduce the stems to near sawdust.
[edit] there is one reason to use boiling water on the willow shoots, it will kill some of the possible bacteria and mold spore which will be on the bark.
If you plan on using your rooting solution immediately, this will not matter very much, but if you want to store the solution for any length of time, it should, at least, be refrigerated and perhaps frozen, if you have that option.
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