Salix species ( derived from another thread)

[Robert G]

Cohan,
You are talking about www.bluestem.ca and you are right the focus is the larger salix. Also if you can get cuttings I would, salix seed is very short lived and often not viable.

Mark,
Your photo and hardiness confirmation has definitely made sure that Salix hylematica is added to my list. Thank you.

John,
Do you know if Maria's mont echo email still good? I know here site is closed. I was going to leave her a message in hopes that she still has some and would be willing to part with them. She is only three hours away. It is too bad, both her and Kristl were the best part of an annual 'rare and unusual plant sale' here. I suspect it will not be anywhere as rare or unusual this coming year. It is good to here S. x boydi is hardy for you, my odds are improved.

[cohan]

Cohan,
You are talking about www.bluestem.ca and you are right the focus is the larger salix. Also if you can get cuttings I would, salix seed is very short lived and often not viable.

hmm, maybe that's why no one has seed listed? although i see lots of other shortlived seed on lists... there is still certainly enough viability of seed for them to spread very widely in nature, but of course it needn't be a high percentage if there are thousands of seeds blowing about.. i wouldnt mind either if i got only a few plants from a pod or two!
bluestem sounds right, i was digging in my favourites list, but didnt come up with it when i was posting yesterday..

[Lesley Cox]

Salix hylematica may be around as S. furcata.

Salix seed doesn't come in pods, the mature catkins just disintegrate and shed the finest of fluff. Although there must be billions released, one is never conscious of the seed in the atmosphere as one is, for example, of thistledown.

[johnw]

It is good to here S. x boydi is hardy for you, my odds are improved.

Robert  - As mentioned before  - maybe last year    - there is very big x boydii at Les Jardins de Métis in the Gaspé where it gets very cold.  It must be 60 years old.  I don't know if it can take summer heat & humidity but sure worth every effort.

Rain, snow, rain, snow, rain, snow in the forecast, starting tomorrow and ending Tuesday morning.  Winter in Canada.  Roads forecast to be treacherous.

johnw

[cohan]

Salix seed doesn't come in pods, the mature catkins just disintegrate and shed the finest of fluff. Although there must be billions released, one is never conscious of the seed in the atmosphere as one is, for example, of thistledown.

i know pod isnt really a good word, as in closed, or hard, i just think of them as pods, since, on the local species which are everywhere here, it seems to be  kind of a big wooly lump..i havent seen the fruit on any of the arctic/alpine species;
i checked my wildflower book to see what might be a better term for willow fruit, the term they use is capsule!

[maggiepie]

Rain, snow, rain, snow, rain, snow in the forecast, starting tomorrow and ending Tuesday morning.  Winter in Canada.  Roads forecast to be treacherous.

johnw

Ours doesn't stop until Thursday   
I read today that some guy is calling it the storm of the decade, I sure hope he's wrong!!

[Lesley Cox]

I've discovered just today that Salix x Boydii will NOT TOLERATE PROLONGED DRY PERIODS. My 60 year old plant (I was given it when it was at least 30), has died!!! I've done my best to drown it and I'll leave it in case there is some regeneration at the base, but I'm not hopeful.

[johnw]

I've discovered just today that Salix x Boydii will NOT TOLERATE PROLONGED DRY PERIODS. My 60 year old plant (I was given it when it was at least 30), has died!!! I've done my best to drown it and I'll leave it in case there is some regeneration at the base, but I'm not hopeful.

Sad news Lesley.  Hopefully it will sprout from the base. Sixty is just too young.

johnw

[maggiepie]

Good luck with the Salix x Boydii, Lesley.
I hope you get some regeneration.

[LucS]

Looking trough my database of photos taken in my rockgarden in 2009, I found a few salix species
that are creeping and slow-growing: salix alpina from the Tatra, salix nivalis ssp nivalis from the Rockies,
salix retusa var. serpyllifolia from S-Europe, salix uva-ursi from Newfoundland & Greenland and the natural
hybrid salix reticulata x herbacea from the Tatra.

[Paddy Tobin]

Luc,

They all look so positively well-behaved.

S. hylematica, here, once covered several square metres before I brought it back into control.

Paddy

[Paul T]

Until these SRGC forums, I'd never even heard of dwarf groundcover Salix species.  Amazing things you learn here.  I'd imagine that some here in Aus would have these, but not something I recall ever seeing on a list (although whether I would have noticed before, or just tuned them out as trees/shrubs, is entirely debatable.  ).

They look rather cool.  Thanks for opening new horizons everyone. 

[maggiepie]

Until these SRGC forums, I'd never even heard of dwarf groundcover Salix species.  Amazing things you learn here.  I'd imagine that some here in Aus would have these, but not something I recall ever seeing on a list (although whether I would have noticed before, or just tuned them out as trees/shrubs, is entirely debatable.  ).

They look rather cool.  Thanks for opening new horizons everyone. 

I couldn't agree more, Paul!!

[cohan]

LusS-thanks for those--i like every one of them
here you can see some of the willows that i saw in the mountains this summer, i don't have any more than tentative ids for any of them..
i'm especially fascinated with those that are completely flat in habitat, though i dont know if they stay so flat in the garden?
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=3923.60
reply #67, pic 5 --this is a low bush, not flat..
reply #72 has a couple of species, the super flat-reticulata? and a slightly taller (just a few inches) species with different leaves...this is just below the columbia icefield, below the tree line, but not by too much..

[Lori S.]

Salix  Boydii and Salix reticulata are also good willows ideal for a trough. Don't know about hardiness.
Susan

Both hardy here.

johnw

Even more telling, both are hardy here.  The latter is a native alpine.