all warm and fuzzy about the world of willows

IMARCHED UP THE HILL and stuck my face in a stand of twig willows and dogwoods the other day, starved for some color in this relentlessly mud-toned non-winter. The world looked really bright and shiny through their gold and red twigs, and then I remembered the giant pussy willows (Salix chaenomeloides, cut and stuck in a vase, above) down by the road and went to pay them a visit as well. Time to sound another cry in favor of these easiest of plants–and offer a new source of an incredible variety of willows, in particular.

The noted plantsman Michael Dodge (remember the yellow-fruited viburnum named for him?) is kicking off his second season of Vermont Willow Nursery, selling easy-to-root cuttings of Salix. There are 80-something species and varieties in his current availability list, with a footnote that there are more than 200 in his collection (though some in short supply)—in case the 80 didn’t satisfy. He keeps telling me this is his little retirement project, but it looks suspiciously more full-blown that that. Can a gardener every really control him or herself? (Besides via the website, you can reach him by email at vtwillownursery [at] me [dot] com.)

Dodge sells 8-to-10-inch dormant unrooted cuttings in bundles of five for $12.50 a bundle, shipped March into May (and again in fall for warmer zones). He also ships bundles of 6-foot cut rods for making “fedges” (fences crossed with hedges—get it?) and willow structures, and sells cut stems to florists. He reports that with Valentine’s Day approaching, the pink types of pussy willows are selling very well, like S. chaenomeloides ‘Mt. Aso’ (inset photo from the Vermont Willow Nursery website, left).

“There is nothing easier to propagate than most willows,” says Dodge.

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