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.Labels: leaves, shrub
