Harrison’s Brown

This is the name by which we received this willow. We know nothing about it except it may have originated with the Harrisons Nursery in the late 1800’s and is used extensively for basketry in Britain. The foliage is nothing like the other Harrisons selections that are all S. x rubra hybrids (viminalis x purpurea). ‘Brown’ is very different and distinctive; similar to S. caprea x S. cinerea hybrids; short internodes, much more upright and with few branches. So we question the authenticity of this name! Unfortunately Harrisons Nursery is no longer in existence and correspondence with English willow growers have failed to help!

This female selection flowered for us for the first time in 2015 so we hoped to determine its pedigree. Unfortunately we failed to photograph any mature leaves—oops!

If anyone has any knowledge about a willow by this name we would appreciate hearing from you (we’ll trade you cuttings of any other variety for verifiable information).

Note from Aric: the offer for more info is still open!