Salix caprea (Pussy Willow)

Salix caprea (Pussy Willow) is a rounded large shrub or small deciduous tree boasting broadly elliptic dark green leaves adorned with a felty coating of fine gray hairs underneath. Before the foliage emerges in late winter or early spring, male trees produce a showy display of fat, silky, pinkish gray catkins, 1-2 in. long (2-5 cm), which become yellow when ripe with pollen. Female trees produce longer green catkins. This willow is among the first flowering plants in the spring, the catkins providing a high quantity of pollen and nectar as a food source, to bees, insects or birds. Pussy Willow can be used as a windbreak and hedge. In early spring, its flowering branches are in high demand.

• Grows up to 12-25 ft. tall (3-8 m) and 12-15 ft. wide (3-5 m). May be cut to the ground every 3-5 years to keep a smaller shrub size.
• Performs best in full sun in moderately fertile, medium to wet, well-drained soils. Thrives in moist soils, but tolerates somewhat drier soils better than most other willows.
• Easy to grow, easy to care for and deer tolerant. Keep an eye out for aphids, caterpillars, leaf beetles, sawflies, willow anthracnose diseases and a rust.
• Propagate by softwood or hardwood cuttings.
• Prune as needed in late winter to early spring.
• Native from Europe to northeastern Asia.