purpurea ‘Nancy Saunders’

I first saw this delightful selection in a charming English nursery: Pan-Global Specialty Plants in Gloucestershire and founded by Nick Macer. Nick very kindly allowed me to wander around his nursery and garden to photograph anything I wanted. This male selection makes a medium-sized, somewhat rounded shrub with slender, shiny red twigs in winter. The 1in male catkins appear in pairs on opposite sides of the stems; start gray, red anthers burst out of the fluffy gray covering before turning yellow with pollen. Bees love this willow as it produces so many flowers with so much pollen! It is amazing to me how names like this and ‘Irette’ were given feminine names when they were male selections! The lovely mature bluish leaves are preceded by translucent juvenile leaves with hints of orange and pink. It is a handsome shrub for the garden and can be used in small gardens if pruned right after flowering in early spring. Best if coppiced every two to three years if you want lots of slender rods for basket-making. After coppicing the next year this willow produces lots of 4-5ft fine rods 1/4in at the base and about 1/8th at the top.