Pussywillows
- To: perennials@mallorn.com
- Subject: Pussywillows
- From: R* S* M*
- Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 17:57:26 -0500
1. When visiting the Lewes, DE, library yesterday I saw a beautiful bouquet
of pussywillows at their desk. The staff person I queried about where they
came from (a florist? the library grounds?) didn't know. Here is the
description -- is anyone familiar with which species/variety it could be? I
have looked in last year's Heronswood catalog and didn't recognize it. Even
if I did, about half theirs are only offered on-site and that's no good for
me here on the East Coast :( .
The catkins and stem bark were light beige or cream, not gray. The catkins
were fairly fat and about 3/4ths inch tall, and spaced about 1/2 to 3/4ths
inch apart, so there wasn't much, if any, twig space before another catkin
clung to the stem. No pollen had begun to show yet.
2. At the Philadelphia Flower Show, the sales booths were offering cut
branches of "black" pussywillows. These were ordinary yellow-brown-ish
colored stems with coal-black pussywillows. This doesn't agree with what I
read about in Dirr for Salix melanostachys: "stems...a rich purple black
color ... male catkins open a deep purple-black kwith brick red anthers and
finally show yellow."
Can others on the list tell us about the pussywillows they grow -- for
instance, Heronswood sells S. magnifica that's supposed to have 8 inch erect
catkins of female flowers -- is this true? Does anyone have S.
chaenomeloides with "3 inch silvery white catkins blushed with pink stamens"
(Heronswood) or S. gracilistyla "1-1/4 inch long male pinkish or reddish
tinged catkins"? (Dirr)
Help ! <:-o and TIA,
Regina Moore, Centreville, MD
Zone 7A, where all the Magnolia soulangiana turned beigey brown last night.
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