{"title":"Salix (Willows)","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe willows gave the world its first painkiller, and they give the early garden its first stir of life. Long before much else has woken, \u003cem\u003eSalix\u003c\/em\u003e push out silvery catkins that the season's first bees work over on a warm afternoon. The bark carries salicin, the compound Greek and Native American healers steeped for fever and ache and the ancestor of aspirin, so a willow is a medicine chest as much as a tree.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMost gardeners picture a willow standing knee deep in water, and many here do love a wet foot, but the genus keeps a few surprises. \u003cem\u003eSalix tristis\u003c\/em\u003e is a dwarf gray shrub of dry ground; \u003cem\u003eSalix integra\u003c\/em\u003e 'Hakuro Nishiki' leafs out dappled pink and cream. Cut a stem, push the cutting into damp soil, and a willow will usually root, the oldest party trick in the family and the reason a single tree can furnish a hedge.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"salix-tristis","title":"Salix tristis","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSalix tristis\u003c\/em\u003e is a dwarf, gray-leaved native willow and one of the most surprising members of a genus most gardeners picture standing knee-deep in water. This small, tidy shrub was originally collected by Woodlanders in Jefferson County, Florida, where the plant grew in pine flatwoods on well-drained, even dry, sandy sites, the opposite of the streambank home most willows keep. The soft, grayish, woolly-hairy leaves and neat, low frame set the willow apart at a glance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe name has a small taxonomic story of its own. Most botanists fold this plant into \u003cem\u003eSalix humilis\u003c\/em\u003e, the wide-ranging prairie willow of eastern North America, but J. K. Small, in his Manual of the Southeastern Flora, separated \u003cem\u003eSalix tristis\u003c\/em\u003e on the smaller size and a handful of technical characters, and the name has stuck in the nursery trade for these dwarf, gray, dry-ground forms. Whatever the rank, the plant is a distinct and collectible dwarf willow of the Southern flatwoods.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike all the willows, the prairie willow carries salicin in the bark, the compound behind the family's long medicinal history and the distant chemical ancestor of aspirin. Indigenous peoples of North America used the bark and leaves of the small native willows to ease pain and fever, a tradition set out in the fields below. Silky little catkins open in earliest spring, before the leaves, feeding the first bees of the year.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden \u003cem\u003eSalix tristis\u003c\/em\u003e makes a neat, small, gray shrub for a sunny, well-drained spot, a genuine rarity for anyone who wants a willow that will not demand wet ground. Use the plant at the front of a native or pollinator planting, in a dry sunny border, or in a sandy naturalistic bed, give full sun and sharp drainage, and enjoy the soft gray foliage and early catkins on a willow scaled for the small garden.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057984639091,"sku":"SALI-TRIS-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1052.jpg?v=1720141027"},{"product_id":"salix-chaenomeloides","title":"Salix chaenomeloides","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSalix chaenomeloides\u003c\/em\u003e, the Japanese pussy willow, is a fast-growing shrub or small tree native to Japan, Korea, and parts of China, long valued in East Asian gardens for the show the plant makes in the depths of winter. Well before the leaves break, the bare branches set fat, silvery-white catkins with a soft, velvety nap, the largest and most striking of any pussy willow, and the branches are cut by the armful for early-spring arrangements.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe catkins reach two to four inches long, far bigger than those of the common pussy willows, and hang thickly along the stems in a display that reads from across a garden. As the catkins mature they flush a soft yellow when the stamens push through, and on male plants that pollen is among the first food of the season for waking bees, since the species is dioecious and carries male and female catkins on separate plants.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike the whole willow tribe, the Japanese pussy willow carries the ancient medicinal thread of the family, for the bark holds salicin, the compound whose chemistry led in time to aspirin. That story, common to the willows and set out in the fields below, sits alongside a long ornamental history and the plant's steady usefulness for cut branches and quick garden screening.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFast, hardy, and easy, \u003cem\u003eSalix chaenomeloides\u003c\/em\u003e makes a fine informal screen, a streamside or pondside shrub, or a cutting-garden plant grown for the winter catkins, and the strong roots help hold a damp bank. Give full sun to part shade and steady moisture, cut some stems hard each year for the biggest catkins on strong new wood, and enjoy one of the earliest signs of the turning year.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057984737395,"sku":"SALI-CHAE-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-1051.jpg?v=1720141030"},{"product_id":"salix-nigra-webb","title":"Salix nigra 'Webb'","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSalix nigra\u003c\/em\u003e, the black willow, is the largest native willow of North America and a common deciduous tree of Southern wetlands, but 'Webb' is a strikingly different, vase-shaped form that gathers those loose, streamside branches into a small, dense, upright tree. The habit sets the selection apart at once, tidy and shapely where the wild black willow sprawls, while keeping all the toughness and easy water-loving vigor of the species.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe story behind the plant is a piece of nursery history. This unusual form was introduced by Woodlanders after occurring as a single tree on the farm of Mr. Charles Webb in Madison County, Florida, one of those chance wild variants a sharp eye caught and a nursery carried into cultivation. Nearly every 'Webb' in gardens traces back to that one Florida tree.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike all willows, the black willow prospers along stream banks and in low, moist ground, and carries the family's ancient medicinal thread as well: the bark holds salicin, long steeped by Native American and European healers for pain and fever, and the distant chemical ancestor of aspirin. That heritage, common to the willows, is set out in the fields below. Slender yellow-green catkins open in spring, feeding early bees, and the strong roots hold a bank as few trees can.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden 'Webb' makes an excellent small, dense shade or specimen tree for a pond edge, a streambank, a rain garden, or any low, wet spot that needs quick cover and soil holding, where the neat vase shape suits a smaller property better than the rangy wild willow. Give full sun and moist to wet ground, and enjoy a well-mannered native with a genuine Woodlanders provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057984966771,"sku":"SALI-NIGR-WEBB-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-229.jpg?v=1720141033"},{"product_id":"salix-integra-var-albo-maculata-hakuro-nishiki","title":"Salix integra var. albo-maculata 'Hakuro Nishiki'","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSalix integra\u003c\/em\u003e 'Hakuro Nishiki', the dappled willow, is an elegant small willow grown above all for the show its new growth makes in spring. As the shoots unfold, the glossy leaves emerge splashed and mottled in pink and creamy white, so freely that the whole plant reads as a soft cloud of blossom-pink from a distance, before the variegation settles to green and white through summer. The Japanese cultivar name, roughly white-dappled brocade, catches the effect exactly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe species behind the selection is native to Japan, Korea, and neighboring East Asia, a fast, easy, water-loving willow, and the dappled form keeps all that vigor. Small, insignificant catkins appear in spring with the leaves, but no one grows this plant for the flowers; the foliage is the whole point, and a hard prune in late winter forces the brightest, pinkest new growth on vigorous fresh wood. Many gardeners grow the plant as a shrub, though nurseries also graft it high onto a stem to make a small mop-headed standard.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLike the whole willow tribe, the dappled willow carries salicin in the bark, the compound behind the family's ancient medicinal reputation and the distant chemical ancestor of aspirin, a thread set out in the fields below. That heritage sits quietly behind what is, in the garden, purely an ornamental plant.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFast and forgiving, \u003cem\u003eSalix integra\u003c\/em\u003e 'Hakuro Nishiki' makes a wonderful waterside cover, a bright informal hedge, or a foliage accent for a moist, sunny to lightly shaded spot, lovely reflected at a pond edge or lighting a damp corner where darker leaves would sink. Give steady moisture, cut back hard each late winter for the best color, and let the pink-and-white spring flush do the work that flowers do for other shrubs.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057985196147,"sku":"SALI-INTE-ALBO-MACU-01G","price":23.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/DETA-522.jpg?v=1720141036"},{"product_id":"salix-sp-rubykins","title":"Salix koriyanagi ‘Rubykins’","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe willows gave the world its first painkiller. Willow bark, steeped by Greek and Native American healers alike for fever and ache, carries salicin, the compound nineteenth-century chemists refined into salicylic acid and, in time, aspirin, which still wears the genus name buried in the chemistry. This particular willow comes by a quieter trade. \u003cem\u003eSalix koriyanagi\u003c\/em\u003e is the Korean basket willow, the name meaning just that, long grown across Korea, Japan, and China for slender rods woven into baskets and furniture by hands that wanted something straight, supple, and strong.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Rubykins' is a red-flowered female selection of that old working species, made by the Illinois willow man Bill Wandell, and the plant keeps the basket willow's virtues while adding a show. In earliest spring, ahead of the leaves, the bare stems line themselves with small ruby catkins set in neat opposite pairs, an arrangement most willows never trouble with. The foliage follows, narrow and lance-shaped, flushed pink as it opens and settling to a cool blue-green that holds all season. Come the cold, the bare branches turn a warm yellow, so there is something to look at in nearly every month the plant is out of flower.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e'Rubykins' wants damp feet, happiest at a pond edge, a rain garden, or any low wet corner, and answers a hard yearly coppice by throwing long pliant rods, good for weaving or for cutting an armful of catkins for the late-winter table. A willow that earns a place three seasons running and turns ruby in the fourth, which is more than most shrubs of the same size will promise.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePhotographs courtesy of Lakeshore Willows and Missouri Botanical Garden.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42057985294451,"sku":"SALI-RUBY-01G","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/SalixRubykinsWoodlnaders1.jpg?v=1760386830"},{"product_id":"salix-eriocephala","title":"Salix eriocephala","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSalix eriocephala\u003c\/em\u003e, the heart-leaved or Missouri River willow, is a graceful native shrub, sometimes a modest multi-stemmed tree, of riverbanks and wet meadows across northern and eastern North America. The plant rises on several trunks clad in coarse gray bark, reaching roughly eight to a dozen feet in the garden and more in wild thickets, and the epithet \u003cem\u003eeriocephala\u003c\/em\u003e, meaning woolly-headed, points to the soft, silky catkins that give the willow much of its charm.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn early spring, before the leaves, silky catkins open along the bare stems as one of the first stirrings of the season, quiet heralds of pollinator life that feed the earliest bees. The leaves that follow give the plant the name heart-leaved willow, rounded at the base and tapering to a lance-shaped tip, thick in texture and softly hairy beneath, finely toothed along the edge, and shed each fall.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a plant of wet places, at home along riverbanks, marshes, wet meadows, and flood-scoured prairies, with a strong root system that stabilizes banks and reads the floodplain's rhythm of ebb and flow. The willow is a useful plant as well as a wild one: the flexible stems have long been cut for basketry, the bark carries the traditional medicinal value of the willow family through its salicylic compounds, and the leaves host the caterpillars of the mourning cloak butterfly, \u003cem\u003eNymphalis antiopa\u003c\/em\u003e, while the early catkins feed emerging bees.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the garden \u003cem\u003eSalix eriocephala\u003c\/em\u003e earns a place at a pond edge, a streambank, a rain garden, or any damp, sunny spot that needs quick cover and soil holding, and the fast growth suits coppicing and restoration work alike. Give full sun and moist to wet ground, cut back hard when denser growth or fresh stems are wanted, and enjoy a willow that heals, crafts, and anchors in equal measure. For the fuller story, Woodlanders tells it on the nursery blog, \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/blogs\/the-node\/the-woolly-headed-willow-salix-eriocephala-and-the-intelligence-of-the-floodplain\"\u003eThe Node\u003c\/a\u003e. Photographs courtesy of Trees Canadensis, Donald Cameron, and RW Smith.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Woodlanders","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43516138553459,"sku":"SALI-ERIO-01G","price":33.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0605\/7505\/5987\/files\/SalixeriocephalaTreesCanadensisWoodlanders4.jpg?v=1755271767"}],"url":"https:\/\/woodlanders.net\/collections\/salix.oembed","provider":"Woodlanders","version":"1.0","type":"link"}