IN AN ENGLISH GARDEN.
A FEW MORE WILLOWS.
244
THE ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS
February 14, 19-51
X my last article
I wrote about a
few of the taller-
growing willows.
1 So fore passing on to
the dwarfer species,
I would suggest that
either of the weeping
willows that I men
tioned, Salix babylonica and S. chrysocoma (better
known as S. babylonica ramulis aureis), are good trees
to plant for giving a spot of shade on the lawn. They
have the charm of inimitable grace, and the virtue of
giving quick results. If there is no stream or pond
at hand, you could encourage your willow by forming
a shallow depression, a few feet in diameter, around
THE NETTED WILLOW, SALIX RETICULATA, FROM THE SCOTTISH HIGH
LANDS, IS NOT UNCOMMON IN THE ALPS. QUITE PROSTRATE IN HABIT,
ITS LEAVES ARE ROUNDISH, RELATIVELY LARGE, AND HANDSOMELY MARKED
WITH NETTED VEINING."
Photographs by R. A. Malbv and Co.
the trunk and letting the garden hose flood into it,
copiously and often.
By far the most brilliantly decorative willowin
the matter of catkinsthat I have ever met was
Salix humboltii. I saw it often in Chile, sometimes by
water, but often in terribly dry situations. When in
blossom its masses of brilliant golden catkins suggested
a mimosa in full flower. I brought home cuttings of
this lovely willow, struck them, and planted the
youngsters in the open at Stevenage. Every one
died the first winter. It is, unfortunately, not gener
ally hardy in this country, though it might be worth
trying in Cornwall and other equally gentle climates.
There is, too, an interesting fastigiate form of Salix
humboltii which grows like a Lombardy
poplar. I saw this both in Chile and
in Peru, though I was unable to secure
cuttings. A few years ago, however,
my friend Captain Collingwood Ingram,
when plant collecting in Chile, brought me
cuttings of this odd willow. They rooted
readily, but did no good. Not hardy.
The gold- and the red-barked
varieties of Salix vitellina are grand for
bringing winter colour to the garden
landscape. I use the term garden
landscape because this particular colour
scheme can only be arranged in gardens
which are roomy enough for wide
plantings and broad effects. The method
is to plant the willows as an osier-bed,
and treat them as such. That is, you
plant fairly close together and, by
pruning down hard each spring, form
ever-strengthening stools which will
throw up during summer an ever-stronger
forest of slender shoots, 6 or 8
or io ft. high. In autumn the leaves
fall and reveal the willow wands in
their fresh young scarlet or golden bark.
Seen in the mass, in this way they
make a most beautiful haze of glowing
colours, all through the winter. In
spring the rods must be pruned hard
back, so that the stools may busy
themselves during the summer in
throwing up a fresh crop of wands for next winter's
display. This annual spring pruning, or pollarding, is
most important, for only the fresh bark on rods of the
previous summer's growth gives the warm red and
sunny gold that is so heartening in wintqr. The same
applies to the scarlet-barked dogwood when planted
for winter colour. Left unpollarded for a few years,
By CLARENCE ELLIOTT, V.M.H.
the twig-bark on both willow and dogwood becomes
steadily duller and less effective. It is important,
too, to plant the willows for mass effect. Not less
than a dozen stools in a group to make a really
warming glow.
Among the dwarfer willows there are many attrac
tive species. Some are very attractive indeed, either
for their foliage or their catkins, or both. In fact, the
only willow which I can imagine being a disappoint
ment might be one which was expected to be a male
specimen, but which turned out to be a female. As
I explained in my previous article, the male and
female flowers are carried on separate trees.
The male catkins are golden yellow as in
the Easter palm or pussy-willow. The
female of the species, having no glamorous
golden catkins, only dull grey-
ones, is to the gardener a relatively
dowdy affair. What it may mean
to another willow I would not like
to say. Many species of Salix,
however, are worth growing solely
for their grace, their gleaming,
silvery foliage, or the cheery glow
of their bark in winter.
Some twenty or more years ago
1 collected cuttings of a beautiful,
dwarfish, silver-leaved willow in the
Alps above Val d'Isère. It grew
near the mule-track leading up the
Col d'Isère a track which has
since become a busy motor-coach
road. On the rock-garden it
developed into a pleasant silvery
3-ft. bush. It turned out, however,
to be a female, which was
disappointing. I had set my heart
on golden catkins in addition to
the beautiful silver leaves. Some
years later I found a colony of the same
willow above the Col de Lautaret, took
cuttingsand was disappointed. Wrong sex
again. In 1950, however, I secured a male
specimen. It grew in a swampy corner of
the old derelict Botanic Garden at Lautaret
one of the saddest spots, surely, in all the Alps.
It is now a flourishing small specimen in an
artificial bog in a'deep stone trough in my garden. One
or two of its buds are already splitting, and showing a
narrow gleam of silky silver, promise, I hope, of golden
catkins in a few weeks' time. I have yet to discover
the name of this elusive willow, which for so many
years presented me, as it were, with nothing but girls.
THE GOLD- AND THE RED-BARKED VARIETIES OF SALIX VITELLINA ARE GRAND FOR BRINGING
WINTER COLOUR TO THE GARDEN LANDSCAPE." HERE IS A SINGLE STOOL OF THE GOLDEN-
BARKED, CUT AS MR. ELLIOTT RECOMMENDS TO PRODUCE AN ANNUAL CROP OF BRILLIANTLY-
COLOURED WITHIES.
Salix lanata is my favourite among the medium-to-
small willows. A rare British native, found in the
Grampians, it forms a sturdy, branched bush, 3 or
sometimes 4 ft. high, with large, roundish leaves
clothed with silvery, silky grey felt. The handsome
golden male catkins are up to 2 ins. long. Although
it looks best and most appropriate near water, it does
well in ordinary
garden loam, and is
a delightful shrub
for the rock-garden
if placed with care,
so as not to dwarf
near - by rocks and
throw other plants
out of scale.
The Chinese species, Salix bockii, grows up to
8 or 10 ft. high, and, unlike most willows, produces
its catkins in late summer and autumn. So far 1
have only met S. bockii as quite small specimens
at R.H.S. shows, but there is no doubt that it is a
most attractive thing which deserves to be better
known and more often grown.
Salix magnified, from West China, is a very remark
able species, but, unfortunately, it appears to be rare
in cultivation. A bush or small tree, it looks more like
a magnolia than a willow, with leaves as much as
4 to 8 ins. long and
3 to 5 ins. wide whilst
the male catkins may be
4 to 7 ins. long. I can
only remember meeting
this willow in gardens
three or four times.
Salix herbacea and
S- reticulata, the two
British creeping willows,
are essentially plants for
the rock-garden, where,
without making any show
of colour, they are well
worth having for the
sake of interest and a
certain hard-bitten charm.
Salix herbacea is a
mountain species, and
creeps almost in the
manner of a thyme, with
tiny, glossy leaves
and proportionately small
catkins. Salix reticulata,
from the Scottish High
lands, is not uncommon
in the Alps. Quite pro
strate in habit, its leaves
are roundish, relatively
large, and handsomely
marked with netted
veining. These two Britishers would be delightful
on a stone trough garden, where they would be
conveniently near the eye ofwell, of those who
do not demand blazing colour all the time and
every time.
Once upon a time, long ago, someone wrote and
asked me if I knew Salix boydii. He
had seen a specimen on the rock-garden
at Kew, and his description aroused
my interest. I went to Kew and
f found boydii, which, in spite of its
being a sick and scruffy wreck, greatly
inflamed my interest. Imagine an
ancient apple-tree, between 2 and 3 ft.
high, with roundish, felty grey leaves.
A pigmy tree with only two or three
branchesjust aliveand with one of
its two feet in the grave and the
other half in. In spite of all this, I
got in touch with Miss Boyd, the
daughter of the late Dr. William Boyd,
of Melrose, who had discovered this
astonishing little willow many years
before, near Clova, in the Braes of
Angus, Forfarshire. Later Miss Boyd
most kindly invited me to come and
see her garden and the willow. She
had three or four healthy specimens,
giants about 3. ft. high, and perhaps
fifty years old, one of which she gave me.
From that original gift plantwas ever
such a generous garden gift I struck
cuttings from time to time. But as
boydii never makes more than about
half-an-inch of growth in a year, the
stock of young plants always remained
small, and doubtless it. must for ever
remain a very rare tree.
Salix boydii should be placed in the rock-garden
with the greatest care and tact. It should live among
the dwarfest companions, and well away from the
type of gaudy Alpines which could only look
vulgar in the company of this austere little homespun
Highland gentleman. Perhaps a stone trough rock-
garden affords the safest solution.
THE WEST CHINESE SALIX MAGNIFICA,
WHICH IS A VERY REMARKABLE
SPECIES IT LOOKS MORE LIKE A
MAGNOLIA THAN A WILLOW, WITH
LEAVES AS MUCH AS 4 TO 8 INS. LONG
AND 3 TO 5 INS. WIDE WHILST THE
MALE CATKINS MAY BE 4 TO 7 INS.
LONG."
