purpurea ‘Lambertiana’

‘Lambertiana’ has broad leaves that provide ample privacy throughout most of the year while sharing the same deer resistant trait common among purpurea. It’s also been observed to have resistance to insects. This would be an ideal candidate for diversity in streambank restoration efforts. We hope to offer this as stakes in the future so check back!

See the Plants for a Future Profile for ‘Lambertiana’ here.

The first cuttings we received as ‘Lambertiana’ were not true to name and looking at the photos of all the other North American growers that offer this cultivar no-one has the true selection. However, in 2017 we were allowed to take cuttings from the amazing woody plant collection of the Arnold Arboretum in Greater Boston. They were labelled Salix purpurea AA 1045-79-D. We have been growing and selling it under that name, but in 2017 we found out that the Arboretum had received this plant as Salix purpurea ssp lambertiana, but had chosen not to list it as that selection. After reading European Public Garden and nursery descriptions of ‘Lambertiana’, I realized that this AA selection is identical to what is grown in Europe.

This selection has been around since at least 1804 and below is how it it described in the Checklist for Cultivars of Salix by Dr. Julia Kuzovkina: This epithet most likely corresponds to S. purpurea f. lambertiana (Sm.) Wimm. (1866); syn. S. lambertiana Smith (1804), S. woolgariana Borrer ex Hooker (1830), S. purpurea var. lambertiana (Sm.) D. Koch (1837), S. purpurea var. latifolia Kerner (1860), S. purpurea ssp. lambertiana A. Neumann ex Rechinger f. ). A cultivar with stout purple stems and broad obovate-oblong leaves (Rehder, 1927). Leaves are serrate for almost entire length (Bailey & Bailey, 1976). According to Stott (2001), a basket cultivar with green stem.

So what is special about this male cultivar, apart from botanical differences? It is very robust and is the most pest resistant selection of all purpureas we have grown (25). It produces a large spreading shrub unless it is coppiced; this can be done every 1-3 years to limit its growth and to produce lots of long rods for structures and sculptures. It is by far the best willow for streambank, riverbank, pondbank and lake shore remediation because of it’s vigour, pest resistance and deer resistance (like all purpureas)!. Far better than the USDA developed ‘Streamco’ that is much less vigorous!