Salix integra ‘Pendula'
integra = entire, untoothed
Waterfall Willow
This is a fabulous weeping selection of the Smoothleaf Willow and it's one of the most exciting willows to reach my attention in the past 3-4 years. The lovely folk at the Chicago Botanic Garden swapped cuttings with me and this is one of the treasures I received. The CBG has an amazing plant in their rock garden area by the waterfall and it cascades down the rocks as does the water. In the nursery I staked a couple of stems in a vertical position and have 4ft plants that cascade almost perpendicularly down. I intend to move one into a container next spring and I'm sure it will be just so grand! Cuttings taken in the spring of 2014 at CBG spread horizontally to 5ft across in a new nursery area and the handsome foliage makes this a real winner.
USES: a highly ornamental garden shrub in a large rock garden and fabulous in a container (I believe). It is so weeping it even acts as a groundcover. 'Twould be great cascading over a high stone wall. I've seen photos of this top grafted on some straight willow by English nurserymen who like that sort of thing.
Typical S. integra foliage with opposite, smooth, almost oblong leaves.
Darling little red foliage buds against brown stems. Weeping stems, with the buds pointing down, make it look like the photo is upside down!
Here's one of the young plants in the nursery that I trained upright on a stick in the nursery. I plan to transfer it to a large container next spring! Unfortunately one of my helpers coppiced two of my other trained specimens!
An amazing photo of two or more plants perhaps trained on a fence of S. integra 'Pendula' taken in Gmina Końskowola, Poland by Józef Babij and used with permission.
This amazing plant is in the Waterfall Garden of the incredible Chicago Botanic Garden.
In 2015 I visited in May and saw this plant in leaf for the first time. It was everthing that I had anticipated!
Below is the same plant in winter!
This is one-year's growth after sticking in 10in cuttings the previous year.
This is vigorous even though it's a weeper, it makes a great and unusual ground cover!
We'd like to try it as a ground-cover as it's so dense that it would shade almost any weed.
This is the top of the plant in the Chicago BG.
Such lovely foliage, it reminds us of Hypericum calycinum, St. John's Wort>
Young growth glowing in evening light!
below: after a rain shower; it rains every time I go to Chicago!
Female catkins of the Waterfall Willow. They are not conspicuous and not showy.
Every selection of Salix integra has female catkins: 'Flamingo', 'Hakuro Nishiki' and 'Pendula'!
We have one plant of the species, but it hasn't flowered yet and don't have enough to offer it yet!
WillowWorld
of Michael Dodge