This is my favorite Pussy Willow. I thought you may want to take a look at JBs Blog and see how beautiful it is all year round. I bought three of them a few years ago and now I have some large, beautiful plants all grown from cuttings from those three. These are truly a wonderful shrub to have in any yard or garden.



They come in a deep burgundy and turn coal black. If you cut them and put them in water they eventually turn a beautiful green and get fuzzy. So many different beautiful colors and tones from one little plant. Amazing to me.




The plants are just as beautiful year round in the garden.

That is beautiful! And one of my favorite plants here.

Have you had any experience with fan tail willow? I really want one of those to use for decorating in the house.

Polly, do you have a picture of the willow? We have some curly willow here that my neighbor who is a wholesale flower farmer grows and gave me some cuttings. They are beautiful and hardy here in NJ. I just started some cuttings and planted them around the barn. If you direct me to a picture I will tell you if we have anything like that here. They sound really nice.

It is Salix sachalinensis 'Sekka'

Very flattened stems

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4...

They are beautiful, No, I do not have any of those. I did purchase some Pink Pussy Willow this past year and they all made it. When they arrived bare root and almost dead, I was reluctant to even keep them. I put them in water for a day or so, then planted them individually in pots. A few months later they had nice green leaves on them, so I put them out for the summer in the ground. They are doing so well, I am going to leave them there to mature. I want to look into the Salox sachalinensis "Sekka". Do you know if that is patented? I want to check into that before I purchase any. I just do not have room for anything I can not reproduce and sell.

It is not patented. Since you're selling cut I think it would be a nice addition. I know at the recent garden show I went to stems were pricey, a small but tall bunch for 10.00. I should have bought a bunch, as I probably could have put it in water and got one of them going.

I'll have to look and see where they sell it.

Thank you Polly. If I have time I will let you know what I find. I am up to my neck just now with jasmine cuttings and 102 deg. heat in the greenhouse. Sometimes I wonder if it is all worth it. I used to be able to work out in this heat, but since they put me on BP and Cholesterol meds I can not take the sun. I am very dark to start with and it is not the burning, it is the heat.

I'm looking too.

Now, my husband is on BP and cholesterol meds, and he's always freezing. I had the A/C blowing on me last night and he had the electric blanket turned on, on his side.

OMG that would send me into a fit if I was cold all the time. I sleep without covers most of the time because I can not stand being warm in bed. But, I do not like being cold in the winter.. I have central air and my bedroom is usually colder than the rest of the house. Not sure why. They put me on this stupid beta blocker, plus Crestor, plus the BP med and they make me feel tired that is all. I hate meds. I am going to be 83 in August and that is all that is wrong with me so I feel good about that. I do have arthritis in my hands and back but I ignore it. LOL

If that's all that's wrong at 83, wow! And you still sell? At the market?

No, I sell only on the internet and ship from here at the farm. I sell to the market which is just down the street. They have a yearly contract on my daffodils at wholesale price. I cut every morning and bunch if they want them bunched and deliver them. Yes, I am active but I think I have stayed healthy being active.

Gardening and sales of plants is such a nice life, isn't it?

Yes it is, it is almost as rewarding as breeding parrots. I did that for ten years among other things and then when I sold my farm and downsized, I had to give that up. Since I moved to my daughter and SIL's farm (built a place of my own on it) I decided tropical house plants would be my next hobby. Little did I know when I learned to propagate them and sell them on eBay and other places that it would be such fun and I would meet so many nice people. I am not making any money but I have made hundreds of really nice people. At my age, that is good. Since my traveling days have pretty much ended. I did my traveling as a young professional and it does not interest me now. There is no place like home!