Re: Pussywillows
- To:
- Subject: Re: Pussywillows
- From: M* T*
- Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 01:42:00 -0500
Well, not actually about perennials - sorry Chris - but for years I
had S. melanostachys. Only the very new stems have a red/purple
cast, they turn brown with age. Majority of stems on a shrub will be
more beige in color.
The catkins do start out black, have red anthers and then show
yellow. They dry well and make nice bouquet material - lovely shrub.
Gets, if not pruned back hard, quite large. Did, once or twice,
pollard mine, but basically let it grow and it reached a good 10 feet
tall and maybe 5 feet in diameter.
Sent cutting grown bits to numerous people over the years and if any
of them read this and still have it, would love a cutting back as my
shrub died - willows are subject to a lot of diseases and not always
long-lived.
Mine lived for over 10 years on the top of a berm in what started out
as a fair amount of sun, but got increasingly shady as the years went
by. Still, they prefer moist soil and sun to really flourish. Very
easy to root from cuttings as all the Salix are.
Have two other Salix....S. purpurea 'Nana', the Arctic blue leaf
willow, a relatively small shrub with silver-gray leaves on long,
vertical pliable stems, often used for basket making. Have never
noticed catkins on it. Not an astounding plant, but I enjoy
it....would probably be happier in more sun and wetter soil. The
other one is S. caprea 'Pendula', a weeping rather dwarf form with
small, beige catkins on warm brown stems...can be used as a ground
cover.....nice little plant, esp. when draping itself over the edge
of a raised bed or wall.
Salix is a genera that has always fascinated me...keep meaning to get
more of them.
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor: Gardening in Shade
-----------------------------------------------
Current Article : Online Nurseries 2000 - Woodside Gardens
http://suite101.com/welcome.cfm/222
------------------------------------------------
Complete Index of Articles by Category and Date
http://www.hort.net/mtalt/article-index.html
------------------------------------------------
All Suite101.com garden topics :
http://suite101.com/category.cfm/gardening
----------
> From: Regina S. Moore <rmoore@esrl.lib.md.us>
> Date: Saturday, March 18, 2000 5:57 PM
>
> 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."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
