 |
Wonderful black catkins with brick red anthers that add curiosity to the earliest days of spring. It was the perfect thing for a former garden, and cuttings of it have followed me around
ever since, without ever finding quite such a perfect location again. The species comes from Japan, Korea and China. This form with black catkins is a selected cultivar from Japan, introduced to Europe in 1950. It is bound to have a Japanese cultivar name and I wouldn't be surprised to see it restored over the next few decades. Be prepared for 'Kurome' or 'Kuro-yanagi' to resurface. I am constantly delighted by the enthusiasm and good-will of nurserymen who introduce these wonders to gardens. Perhaps it is the excitement of novelty that leads them to describe it as growing to about six feet when they mean that it grows to about six feet in the first year. I haven't quite grown to six feet yet (let's put a bold face on it) and when I stand next to it in full flower I look like a midget in a swarm of bees. To put it simply, it grows larger than its considerable reputation. Christopher Newsholme says: "A more stiffly erect form than the species, with thicker glabrous branchlets; leaves glabrous bright green and thicker texture than S. gracilistyla pure species; male catkins floriferous with glabrous catkin scales mainly black, with red towards the apex; anthers dark orange becoming pale yellow when mature. The appearance of the black male catkins on the naked stems in March with the subsequent revelation of the anthers is spectacular." Trees and Shrubs online adds: " A striking willow introduced to Europe by Messrs J. Spek of Holland in 1950." |
|
| 11th March 2007 | ||
