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Types And Varieties Of Willow
Types And Varieties Of Willow

Video: Types And Varieties Of Willow

Video: Types And Varieties Of Willow
Video: The Varieties of Willow 2024, March
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Grow willow, big and small

willow species
willow species

In the wild, willows (Salix) are found almost throughout Russia. They cross easily, allowing breeders to produce numerous varieties and hybrids that are widely used in ornamental horticulture.

Currently, such a huge number of different species and varieties of willows are known that you can pick up plants from creeping forms to twenty-meter trees, with spherical and weeping crowns, green, silvery, spotted leaves. There are many options: for any conditions, any size.

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Tall trees and large bushes

Willow Schwerina (S. schwerinii) is more often a shrub than a tree, up to 4 m high in our conditions with long (up to 13 cm) narrow (no wider than 1.2 cm) leaves. Their upper side is smooth, shiny, green, the lower side is silky white, with a turned-up edge. The plant is valued not only for the beauty and shape of the leaf, but also for the openness of the crown, the flexibility of the branches, due to which the weeping effect arises. Willow Schwerina is a winter-hardy and fast-growing species.

White willow (silver) (S. alba) is a large tree (up to 20 m) with a beautiful tent-shaped crown. The silvery form of this willow is especially good. Young lanceolate leaves are silky-white, adults are naked above, dark green, below - silvery. Thin young shoots with silvery pubescence are very effective. The most unpretentious of the decorative willows.

The fragile willow (S. fragilis) is a large plant (up to 6 m) with olive-green branches that easily break from the wind. Differs in endurance and good winter hardiness. However, species are not used in ornamental gardening. Only the garden form Bullata, which has a dense, ideal soft roundness crown, and an adult plant looks like a huge ball, has become widespread. Interestingly, the shoots of Bullat willow are not as brittle as those of the species. A spherical crown can also form on a stem, which in this case needs to be regularly removed. The best balls are obtained from the brittle Bullat willow!

Purple willow (S. purpurea) is a shrub willow up to 4 m high with long graceful thin reddish-purple shoots covered with narrow bluish-green leaves above and bluish-gray below. This willow is graceful and winter-hardy, although it can freeze slightly in frosty winters.

How can you use such large trees in the plots? First, there are large gardens and parks where these willows can grow in a single planting or in tree groups. They are remarkable in the form of a high, powerful hedge at the edge of the site, if it borders on the field. Young willows are planted at a distance of 2 meters from each other, and after a few years a solid wall appears, covering the area from the winds. Secondly, if you don't want to have a big tree, you can always find a saw and cut it down at the right time. As a result of this event, it is no longer a tree that grows, but a large bush. Thirdly, if a large bush is too big (in a small area), nothing prevents you from shortening it over and over again with the help of the same saw. In this case, the spherical shape of the crown of the Bullat willow, for example, remains. And how wonderful a large chic bush of a white-shaped silvery willow looks!

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Low-growing shrub willows

willow species
willow species

Shaggy or woolly willow (S. lanata) under our conditions grows no more than 1 m. Young shoots are yellow-green in color, rather thick. From very large buds, yellowish-olive erect catkins open. Rounded, gray-green leaves are covered with white tomentose pubescence and appear almost blue.

This willow is especially good in the first half of summer when it looks like a neat fluffy ball. She does not like waterlogged soil and piercing cold winds. Regular garden soil in a place protected from strong winds will be fine with her. It should be noted that this willow grows slowly.

In the purple willow of the variety Gracilis (S. purpurea "Gracilis"), thin flexible branches with reddish bark extend from a short central stem almost at the very ground. There are a lot of branches, they rush radially in all directions, forming a regular ball about a meter in diameter. In severe winters, just like the species purple willow, it can freeze a little. Leaves are linear, very narrow, bluish, on the stems they sit close to each other. The earrings are thin, graceful, slightly reddish, but generally unobtrusive.

Matsuda willow varieties Tortuosa (S. mat-sudana Tortuosa) is distinguished by strongly twisted branches. In the south it is a tree, in the middle lane there is a shrub, and in our country it is practically a herbaceous plant. It freezes annually almost to the level of the soil, but over the summer it grows back, forming a very beautiful openwork crown about one and a half meters high. The undersized group of Matsuda willow looks very exotic and elegant, and the twisting shoots are good for winter bouquets. Shoots for bouquets can be cut in the fall, without waiting for freezing in winter.

Sverdlovsk willows

willow species
willow species

A unique combination of beauty and resistance to difficult climatic conditions is characteristic of interspecific willow hybrids obtained by the breeder Veniamin Ivanovich Shaburov. He began work on hybridization in the 60s of the last century in the Urals, where he managed to get hardy and winter-hardy varieties of weeping willows, spherical, with twisted shoots. Later, the work was continued by his daughter - IV Belyaeva.

Sverdlovskaya Winding 2 is a tree with a winding trunk and bizarrely curved branches. Crohn narrow pyramidal, medium density. According to the descriptions, the height of the trees reaches 10 m, but I have not seen any adult specimens. Our tree has grown 3.5 meters in three years. Young greenish-gray shoots appear glossy brown in the sun. The twisting leaves are light green with a barely noticeable bluish tinge. This willow is good at any time of the year, easily tolerates pruning and shearing. Here she lives in a very windy place, but she never froze, although the temperature in winter dropped to -38 ° С in January 2006 and to -32 ° С in February 2007.

Sverdlovskaya Sinuous 1 - tree up to 4 m high, with a spherical, loose crown. Young shoots are red-brown, branches are olive-colored. Lanceolate leaves are light green on top, gray on the back. Shoots, branches and leaves are highly sinuous. It is surprising that the tortuosity of the shoots is also combined with weeping. The tree looks light and airy, it winters well, and does not need to be formed.

Improved Schwerin is a tree with a narrow pyramidal, openwork crown. Shoots are yellow-brown, strongly weeping. In addition to the weeping crown, it is valued for its beautiful, long (up to 30 cm) belt-like leaves. In summer, they are green on the upper side, and bluish-silvery from the bottom. In autumn, the leaves do not fall off for a very long time, retaining an unusually bright yellow color. Young trees need to be tied to a secure support and crown formation.

Ideal - according to descriptions, this tree is up to 10 m high. Its crown is wide oval, openwork. The leaves are green, long, lanceolate. Shoots are olive or brown, branches are long, drooping, strongly weeping. It grows quickly, but young plants in the first years of life require an obligatory garter to a solid support, otherwise they simply creep along the ground due to their pronounced weeping. Unfortunately, the age of our Ideal willows is still 3-4 years old, so it is difficult to talk about the size of adult plants, but there is no doubt that they are weeping and wintering.

The Weeping Gnome is a low (up to 1.8 m) standard tree with a very weeping, rather loose crown. Leaves are lanceolate, gray-green with light pubescence, about 5 cm long. Annual shoots are yellowish-brown, long, hanging down to the ground. Young plants in the first years of life require a tie to a support to form a straight, stable stem.

Globular Dwarf - a little less than one and a half meters high with a spherical crown on a very low trunk. Leaves are green, lanceolate, about 5 cm long. Annual shoots are thin, very shortened, therefore small lanceolate leaves are located very tightly to each other. Together, this creates the appearance of a dense green ball.

Snow Globe is a willow variety with a spherical, openwork crown. Young shoots of amazing light gray color. The leaves are very narrow, bluish-green. The stem is not formed. This willow looks very unusual.

What are the Sverdlovsk willows valued for? First of all, for the variety of crowns and sizes. You can find anything you want: from small balls to weeping trees with twisted shoots. They all winter well. The disadvantage of a number of weeping forms is the need for a garter, but this is quite possible to put up with.

Willows are very unassuming and varied. They easily put up with the high standing of groundwater, ordinary garden soil, needing watering only during drought. True, they prefer well-lit places and are responsive to the introduction of organic matter. Willows with a closed root system can be planted at any time of the growing season: from April to October, and with an open root - only at the very beginning of spring, it is better even before bud break. Autumn planting of open-rooted willows in our climate is very problematic, as it leads to significant losses in spring.

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