Wonderful Willow
As a local-only florist in Maryland, I take what I can get in the winter. Branches and sticks are plentiful right now. With all the wonderful woodies available to me, I'm not missing warm weather blooms. I get all sorts of flowering branches and interesting sticks in my shop this time of year. My growers are starting to force quince right now. It won't be long until I can order cherry, forsythia, apricot, star magnolia, witch hazel and peach - all with blooms. Sticks without flowers have already been selling well this season especially red twig and Harry Lauder's Walking Stick. My favorite winter woody of all is willow,
There are many varieties of willow. I will buy them all. I will use pliable curly willow sparingly throughout the year. These thin and wispy shoots are unrestrained in my designs providing movement and excitement. Sturdy fantail willow with its Seussian twists and grooved textures on a flat stem always draws attention. Most popular, though, are the familiar straight lines and fuzzy catkins of common pussy willow.
Salix discolor is the willow most often found in flower shops with its relatively thick brown stems and silvery catkins. I definitely carry them, but I also sell several other lesser-known varieties of pussy willow. French petite (my grower's invented name) is a much smaller and delicate willow. It has thin, flexible stems with cute, little, light-gray catkins. I also have some colorful willows. Mt Asama is marketed as having pink-tinged catkins. The color is there, but it's subtle. There's no mistaking the jet black catkins of salix gracilistylus melanostachys. There is nothing else like it in my shop.
I use pussy willows in all types of arrangements. I'd prefer to take advantage of their length in tall arrangements but I don't always have the opportunity. I end up cutting the sticks down to fit into tabletop vase arrangements. Pussy willows preform well out of water. They are a stand-out component in a dried arrangement or wreath. I think Martha would be tickled making a wreath solely of pussy willow while listening to Noah Kahan next to a fire in snowy New England.
