Willow Cuttings - Floral & Ornamental Varieties for Planting

There’s nothing like a fresh bouquet from your farm or garden in the dead of winter! Grow these willows for beauty in both your landscape and your home. Choose a variety of colors to mix and match gorgeious winter display. All these varieties are grown for their winter bark colors, unusual forms, or late-winter to early-spring fuzzy catkins.

Varieties & Traits:

Blackskin (Salix myrsinifolia 'Blackskin') A superior willow with textured green foliage and shiny black stems that are beautiful mixed with yellow and red willows or dogwoods in dried arrangements. A gorgeous landscape plant in summer or winter that also produces long rods for basketry. Dries to a reddish black.

• Uses: basketry, floral arrangments, landscape

• Mature Height: 4-6 feet coppiced annually | 8–12 feet unpruned

• Deer Resistant: No

• USDA Hardiness Zone: 3+

Curly (Salix pendulina f. Erythroflexuosa / Corkscrew Willow) Whimsical, twisted, coiled branches with bright orange yellow color during the winter that add year-round interest to a landscape. Popular for floral arrangements, crafts, and indoor display vases. Even the leaves curl slightly, which adds unusual texture to the summer landscape. We don’t know the exact strain of curly willow we carry, as we got our original from a family member who didn’t know the exact cultivar.

• Uses: crafts, floral, landscape

• Mature Height: 6-10 feet coppiced annually | 25–35 feet unpruned

• Deer Resistant: No

• USDA Hardiness Zone: 4+

Fantail (Salix udensis 'Sekka' / Japanese Fantail Willow) A mix of both straight and unusual branches that flatten into wide, twisted, ribbon-like shapes. A conversation piece in the landscape and sought after for modern floral designs. All branches produce beautiful fluffly gray catkins in spring that can keep in dried bouquets for over a year.

• Uses: floral, landscape

• Mature Height: 4–6 feet coppiced annually | 15 feet unpruned

• Deer Resistant: No

• USDA Hardiness Zone: 4+

Flame (Salix fragilis f. Vitellina 'Flame') A beautiful bright-orange stunning winter landscape plant that makes a great addition to winter holiday bouquets or a substitute for red-twigged dogwood. Dries to a warm copper-orange that adds colorful accents to basketry and woven projects. Can tend to be branchy in some conditions especially the first few years.

• Uses: Basketry accents, winter landscape interest, privacy screens, windbreaks

• Mature Height: 5–6 feet coppiced annually | 8 feet unpruned

• Deer Resistant: No

  USDA Hardiness Zone: 3+

Lemoine's Improved (Salix caprea 'Lemoine's Improved') Vigorous upright stems with multi-colored, fuzzy catkins that are more densely packed than other pussy willows and bloom later in the spring to extend the season. An excellent choice for striking cut-stem displays.

• Uses: floral, pollinators

• Mature Height: 4–8 feet coppiced annually | 10+ feet unpruned

• Deer Resistant: No

• USDA Hardiness Zone: 3+

Mt. Aso (Salix gracilistyla 'Mt. Aso' / Pink Pussy Willow) A Japanese pussy willow that opens in late winter with pink, fuzzy catkins that bring unexpected color to the cold season. It is a compact grower that works well in smaller gardens, cutting beds, or containers. Can be cut early and forced to bloom indoors for beautiful, rosy-pink Valentine’s boquets.

• Uses: Floral, holiday boquets, landscape, ornamental

• Mature Height: 3-6 feet coppiced annually | 6-10 feet unpruned

• Deer Resistant: No

• USDA Hardiness Zone: 4+

Rabbit's Foot (Salix leucipithecia 'Rabbit's Foot') A relatively new pussy willow that produces the largest, fluffiest catkins of any we know. Masses of thick, silvery-white catkins cover the tall branches in late winter, providing a high yield for stunning boquets. Our favorite pussy willow!

• Uses: Floral, pollinator, structures, weaving

• Mature Height: 4–10 feet coppiced annually | 15-20 feet unpruned

• Deer Resistant: No

• USDA Hardiness Zone: 4+

Roadside (Salix ?) A beautiful yellow willow we found along a roadside, hence the name. Roadside is a vigorous grower with long yellow branches. Roadside willow has a truer yellow color than Hutchinson’s Yellow, which has a hint of orange, but it has more side branching and we’re still waiting to see if that decreases in different conditions or as the plant gets older (similar to some other willows).

• Uses: Coarse basketry, structures, biomass, hedges

• Mature Height: 4–8 feet coppiced annually | unpruned height unknown

• Deer Resistant: No

• USDA Hardiness Zone: 4+

Showtime (Salix caprea × cinerea S365 'Showtime') A pussy willow bred for commercial floral cuts. Bears large, prominent catkins on long, straight stems. It provides clean, upright wood that is easy to bundle and arrange.

• Uses: Floral, landscape

• Mature Height: 4–6 feet coppiced annually | 10–15 feet unpruned

• Deer Resistant: No

• USDA Hardiness Zone: 3+

Winter Glory (Salix leucipithecia 'Winter Glory') Offers multi-season interest with beautiful red buds and bright coral-colored bark in winter, followed by large, fluffy catkins in late winter. Early blooming, long stems, and a quick grower for a high production of beautiful stems every year.

• Uses: Floral, landscape, pollinators, structures, hedges

• Mature Height: 4–6 feet coppiced annually | 15-20 feet unpruned

• Deer Resistant: No

• USDA Hardiness Zone: 4+