The greening of the willows! It’s just more evidence that we’ve left winter behind and are heading full speed into spring. The leaves on the ‘Hakuro Nishiki’ dappled willows are emerging.
And so are the catkins! The catkins are the reproductive mechanism of many plants like willows and birches. Willows are dioecious and have separate male and female plants. If you want your willows to produce seeds it takes two to tango! Soon the new leaves will begin to get a reddish color at the tips and the dappled foliage will make them into a garden feature.
These pictures are from the Japanese dappled willow I pruned last year. I didn’t take a picture of the whole plant this spring, at least not yet. You wouldn’t see much of the form without more leaves.
I do hope winter is leaving quietly.. I so enjoy all of the newly emerging leaf buds and blooms.
I'm so totally amazed & thrilled as each bud or bloom appears as it is an indication that Spring is here.
We are in a cooler time just now. It has been rather warm.
Hi Dave, Is your Hakuro Nishiki a bush or grafted onto a trunk? I have the bush and my sister has the grafted tree – which is beautiful, as you might well imagine! 🙂