Japanese willow Hakuro Nishiki – description, planting and care rules

Arborists have professional jokes about the peculiarities of their work; they call different types of care and pruning of trees the haircut “Kare”, “Gavroche” and similar analogues from the practice of hairdressing salons. There is even a “semi-box” – this is when a one-year-old or two-year-old willow with shoots of about a meter is sheared to a 30-centimeter “hedgehog”. This is usually done in the spring, when the tree has already awakened from the winter cold, but the active movement of juices has not yet begun. Although it is not customary to touch the willow for the first four years: during these first years of life, growth trends are clarified, the vitality of the tree and the influence of environmental factors on it are determined. In practice, it looks like studying the soil below it and the proximity to the root system of the aquifers.

If anyone has ever seen a willow growing at the very edge of the water and how it is reflected in stagnant or slowly flowing waters, it will agree that there are few more pacifying pictures. And tune in to a contemplative mood.

After the obligatory spring pruning of a four-year-old tree, further, depending on the type of willow, you need to observe its vegetation. In some willows, the active growth of branches continues after spring pruning, then you need to take the pruner even in summer. Although, in the normal state, only dead and little viable shoots are cut off from these trees in the summer.

A willow tree that is properly cut and trimmed has one surefire indicator of health: it has a dense, glossy bark without spots or blemishes. It is green in the first year of life and gradually acquires all shades of brown in the second and subsequent years.

In parks, different varieties of this tree are grown. These species require special formative pruning.

когда обрезать иву

Growing a tree

Willow is grown in a place open on all sides, which has a neutral or slightly acidic high-humus loamy soil.

The tree does not particularly like excessive moisture. If the soil around it is too wet, then the roots slow down their development. This, of course, is reflected in the surface of the tree as well. Willow has enough natural precipitation, so there is no need to water it additionally. An exception would be a prolonged drought. During these periods, watering is allowed once every 10 days. It is advisable to spray the crown of the tree with sprayers at the same time as watering.

In order for the tree to develop well, it is provided with proper feeding. Rotted organic matter is used. It is brought in together with the digging of the trunk ring. It is recommended to add a bucket of organic matter and up to 100 grams of mineral fertilizer to one plant. Willow is fed in spring and autumn.

The willow is not touched for the first four years. In subsequent years, pruning of willow is recommended for the purpose of its formation. If this is not done, then the crown becomes sparse and not dense, which is why the decorative appearance is lost. This raises the question of how to prune willow correctly? Let’s consider this with examples of the most common types of wood we have.

Willow white

Strong, disease-resistant and cold-resistant species with a shapeless, chaotic crown. The branches are straight, little branching, from the shoots they tend downward. It is capable of forming its crown completely independently, but in the process of its growth, branching often begins, with the formation of powerful breaking forks. They introduce asymmetry (sometimes significant), which breaks the conceived idea of ​​the landscape designer. Therefore, the most common practice for shaping the appearance of a white willow is standard pruning.

The stem is a tree with an artificially formed appearance. Outwardly, it looks like an even trunk, on which excess branches were cut off from year to year and the buds forming the lower part of the crown were removed. After several years of work on the appearance, a smooth, without forks, a trunk with a crown of a geometric shape (most often spherical) is obtained.

But the willow tree is extremely disobedient in terms of preserving the appearance that was given to it. After a couple of weeks, the ball of the crown lets down the freely hanging lower branches with their long, mobile leaves at the slightest breeze. A characteristic “willow” look with weeping branches is acquired.

When forming the crown, arborists act radically: they remove every single bud, which hatch on the trunk below two meters. And above this mark, too, not all the embryos of the branches leave. This forms the skeleton of a tree, from which crown-forming branches will grow in the future.

Both the height and shape of the pruning are established early in the life of the tree. The thing is that in adults over 4-5 years old, wounds heal poorly after removing large branches. What can be considered a “big branch” of a willow? This is an outgrowth from the trunk with a diameter of 4-5 cm.With the diameter of the trunk itself being 8-10 cm, a spot of sawing wood in half the diameter of the main trunk can become, if not a fatal wound, it will cause the formation of a poorly overgrown hollow in this place – a ready entrance for rot and fungal infections.

It happens that the moment for the formation of the crown is missed, and a powerful branch has formed. Remember that you will only be able to hire a professional to correct this forked shape once. If the situation repeats in a few years, it will be easier to uproot the willow and plant a new one in its place.

Flowers of white willow appear in April or early May, are fluffy yellow-green formations called “seals”. White willow reaches its maximum growth at 15-20 years. The height of the crown at its highest point can reach 25 meters, and the diameter – 20. This often makes this tree the center of a complex and spectacular dendrocomposition.

pruning willow weeping

обрезка ивы плакучей

Weeping trees. Pruning, crown shaping

Probably every summer resident dreams of a tree, which will be the accent of the entire garden, decorative all year round. It can be a tree with a weeping shape. It looks amazingly graceful and romantic and delights you in spring with flowers, in summer with a cascade of leaves, in autumn with bright colors of leaves and fruits, and in winter with beautiful branches.
Weeping trees near ponds or in a Japanese garden are especially spectacular (there a weeping willow or maple is an integral element of the garden that sets the mood). They can be the perfect backdrop for a flower garden, form romantic alleys, or serve as a shady, cozy canopy for a bench.

Goat willow (kilmarnik)

It has an interesting crown shape – in the form of an umbrella. It grows slowly, looks compact and neat. Resistant to frost, which is why it is used practically throughout the territory of Russia, except for the polar and subpolar regions.

You can buy goat willow in nurseries and botanical gardens, where they usually sell ready-made standard tree forms. This is a cultivated species grafted onto a cleaned trunk, quite viable and hardened. It is not demanding for the pruning forming the crown, it is enough just to prevent strong thickening and reaching the branches with the leaves of the earth.

Read: How to properly prune thuja, caring for an ornamental plant.

Annual pruning of goat willow is usually reduced to the fact that up to half of the branches are removed, which should ensure the airiness of the crown. If the pruning was correct, then by the end of the growing season, that is, by autumn, the lashes that have grown down should reach the ground with the tips of the leaves.

The outermost lateral shoots of the goat willow should also be removed. If this is not done, the total mass of the branches will become impenetrable for sunlight, which will create a musty atmosphere inside the crown. The remaining branches in the fall, on the eve of wintering, are shortened to half their autumn size. The kidneys, which will appear below the vaccination, are also removed.

The height of the tree depends on the grafting site.

Description of the plant

There are many forms of wood in nature. They come in both huge species and small shrubs. We have about 100 of them.

Japanese willow Hakuro Nishiki - description, planting and care rules

Japanese willow Hakuro Nishiki - description, planting and care rules

Willow is interesting for its decorativeness. It has a transparent and transparent crown that reaches 25 meters. The trunk is strong with gray bark. At first, the crown of the tree has a columnar shape, which over time becomes spreading and wide. The branches are thin, very flexible. Their bark is light, green, and purple. The shoots go up, and the side ones hang down. On them, petiolate leaves are alternately located. The shape of the leaf is elliptical; some species are characterized by a long and narrow leaf. The color of the foliage is dark green, the bottom is lighter or bluish. The flowers are inconspicuous in the form of earrings. Their flowering begins before foliage growth in early spring. The fruit is formed in the form of a box with small seeds, pubescent on top. They are capable of being blown over long distances.

Mourning willow

A hybrid of Babylonian and white willow. Cold-resistant variety. It has leaves in the crown of a bright emerald hue with separate yellow strands-shoots. It looks very decorative.

In park areas, this tree can be grown up to 5-6 meters high, and this is not the limit. The main thing in the existence of a crown of this size is timely and accurate pruning with the initial formation of a trunk with a height of 1,5 to 2 meters. For this, the central shoot is pruned, from which the lateral branches begin to grow intensively. As it develops from year to year, straight branches begin to shoot upward from the crown, which should not be removed – they, under the influence of their own gravity, will soon begin to tend downward, forming cascade-tiers.

After that, the formation of a decorative form can be considered complete, and all tree care is now reduced to thinning the internal volume so that air and light can enter the crown. But don’t prune too deep when cutting off branches in the immediate vicinity of the trunk! Such manipulations act very unfavorably on the mourning willow. The main emphasis on strengthening the branches is the outer branches of the willow, which form a crown in width. For decorative purposes, they are the most important.

pruning a spherical willow

обрезка шаровидной ивы

Babylonian

The “progenitor” of the mourning willow, one of its hybrid forms. In its natural state, it can grow to gigantic sizes, reaching 20 meters in height with a trunk diameter of up to one and a half meters.

Naturally, a cultivated tree will not be allowed to grow to such a size: it does not form such a thick trunk, or chaotically located branches stretching upward. In this respect, the Babylonian willow will be similar with proper care and timely pruning of the mourning willow. It also develops cascading, stepped forms and branches reaching the ground (or water), descending even from the middle tiers.

The color of the bark of the branches is from pale green to purple. The color of the bark of the trunk is light gray. It is moderately resistant to cold weather, therefore it prefers to settle in the valleys of large rivers, where the climate is softened by an abundance of water with an actively evaporating surface, on the shores of large reservoirs or lakes. Although after frostbite, such a willow is actively recovering, freezing of thin shoots is not fatal if it is short-lived and not every year. The birthplace of the tree is North China.

For planting, it is better to prefer male specimens: they are easy to recognize by earrings, on which fluff will not form during the flowering period in spring.

During the first 5-6 years, young seedlings need to be sheltered from the cold with agrofibre. Naturally, with free growth, without pruning and cutting, there will not be enough covering material, therefore, during these years, a stem is formed from which skeletal branches will grow. The root system is covered from freezing with a layer of fallen leaves, the insulating effect of which can be enhanced by spreading dense black polyethylene under the trunk in a circle.

The Babylonian willow has the same features as the others: it is able to independently take care of the extraction of water for itself. To this end, the tree has the ability to grow in itself an extremely ramified, powerful root system. The main thing is to plant a seedling near the water’s edge.

The Babylonian willow is such a “water crust” that in lowlands with a high level of groundwater, it is even capable of performing the function, if not of a pump for pumping out this water, then at least of a drainage system. A mature, developed tree during the growing season from April to November is capable of pumping out of the ground and evaporating with its foliage up to hundreds of cubic meters of water. It has been noted many times that if a tree growing in a lowland perished, or someone inadvertently destroyed it, then a significant swampiness of the site soon set in.

how to cut a weeping willow

как обрезать иву плакучую

Planting and care

For planting a willow seedling, choose a site on the shore of a reservoir or a small hill, where the soil is both loose and fertile. All varieties of twisting willows need abundant watering. The root system will not be damaged by a short bay, but drought can cause serious damage.

Care consists mainly of shaping scraps. They are carried out in late autumn or early spring before the start of sap flow. The formation of the crown of a twisting willow consists in the removal of branches that cause thickening. Pruning shears are cut off shoots that are frozen, dried, broken, spoiling the appearance of the tree.

The plant is demanding for lighting; it is not recommended to plant it near tall trees with a dense crown. Willow looks best in an area free from other trees, surrounded by green grass or undersized ground covers.

The willow is brittle

A small tree, rather even a shrub. Habitat – very wet soil and even slightly flooded areas. At least he likes to settle in floodplains of rivers, where he successfully copes with the functions of drainage plants.

The crown is soft, rounded, like a cloud. By autumn, green foliage acquires a beautiful lemon-yellow color, which looks great against the background of floodplain or swampy meadows.

Pruning is done already in the third year of life, a standard form is preferable, in which the tree will not be allowed to branch. Especially it is necessary to pay attention to cutting off the shoots stretching into the crown – they can create an airtight network of branches and foliage, in which pests will very quickly start.

But along with thinning the central part of the array of branches, it is imperative to trace the branches that stretch upward, which are also undesirable. Mainly the lateral part of the crown is left, and in the fall, newly formed buds are additionally cut off on these branches.

Recommendations for breeding willow at home

Willow planting

Посадка ивы
To obtain a new tree or rakita bush, vegetative methods are used – cuttings, layering and grafting.
When grafting, use green twigs, cutting out their middle, the length of the stalk should be 15–20 cm. The bud at the top should be removed and the leaves from the bottom of the stalk should also be removed, the upper ones should be shortened in half. The stalk is planted in a nutritious substrate and wrapped in plastic wrap or placed under a cut plastic bottle – this will create the conditions for a mini-greenhouse. It is important to periodically ventilate and moisten the soil. However, rooted seedlings are planted only in the second year, so that they spend the first winter in the greenhouse.

In order to propagate the willow by layering, you need to dig up the root shoots in early spring, which have already formed their roots. Then they are treated with a fungicide and planted in a new place according to all the rules.

There are varieties that should be grown on a trunk – choose a plant with the required height and then graft a varietal willow scion.

Purple Lighthouse and just purple willow

Two related willows, which differ slightly in the green tint of foliage and flowers during flowering: in purple willow, they are oblong, purple, and in Lighthouse, they are yellow-pink.

In shape, the crown with its long straight radial shoots growing from the center resembles not even a ball, but an explosion. So clearly from the central trunk of the tree, evenly straight branches with gray-green leaves, slightly silvery from the inside, are directed in all directions.

The task of the arborist is to cut off extra buds from these straight radial branches, so that the bush will retain its original “explosive” shape for the next year.

Purple willow, with constant care, usually does not exceed 5 meters in height and the same in width. In the purple willow Lighthouse, these parameters are slightly less – 3 by 3.

pruning willow hakuro nishiki

обрезка ивы хакуро нишики

Willow twisting in landscape design

No one will be left indifferent by a variety of photos of winding willows in the landscape design of garden plots. These trees look great all year round, even in winter, so they will be a great decoration for any garden.
Willow Matsudana has a thick, winding trunk and thin brittle branches. This is due to the uneven thickening of the branches and trunk during the growth process. Young shoots are slightly pubescent, olive-colored, over time they become naked and brown. The deep reddish-brown color of the branches is especially noticeable in winter, when the plant is dormant. The decorativeness of the Sverdlovsk willow lies in the broad-oval crown, which consists of several thin trunks with twisting, slightly weeping shoots and twisted leaves.

Japanese willow Hakuro Nishiki - description, planting and care rules

Japanese willow Hakuro Nishiki - description, planting and care rules
The tree looks great both alone and in a group. Used to create decorative permanent and seasonal compositions. The decorative twisting willow near the pond looks great. The dense crown is a wonderful shelter from the sun’s rays and an excellent backdrop for lawns.

Willow has a very well-developed root system, so such trees are often used to strengthen sandy soil and the banks of artificial reservoirs.

Purple Mint

The smallest variety of purple willows, at a height of less than 1,6 meters. Flowers during flowering in May are light green, oblong in shape. The branches are red-brown, the foliage is gray-green, in autumn it turns yellow-green, and falls off in this form.

The crown in its natural state takes a semicircular shape, but with a very uneven distribution around the circumference. Therefore, the task of those who take up cutting the tree will be to give the crown a mushroom shape.

In the radial branches of the purple Nana willow, it is also advisable to cut off the extra buds that can form lateral extra shoots penetrating the crown in all directions – only radial ones should remain!

Variety of species

Willow is a very common plant. More than five hundred species of wild willow grow from the tropics to the Arctic Circle; those that grow next to a person have received individual names. So, the willow (large tree), rakita (shrub), vine and willow (low shrubs) are widely known.

Most species have a transparent crown, narrow leaves, flexible shoots and inflorescences in the form of earrings. For the manufacture of hedges, the following types of willow are traditionally used:

  • Holly (willow). A small (up to 10 m) tree with a rounded crown and twig-like branches. The plant is characterized by rapid growth, undemanding to the ground, prefers sunny places, frost and drought resistant, tolerates gas pollution well. It is used as a living fence; a single willow on the lawn also has a picturesque view.

willow hedge

ива живая изгородь
Norway willow Source farmer-online.com

  • Silver (white, willow). The tree looks impressive, reaches 25-30 m in height, has a spreading crown that falls down. The underside of narrow leaves has a silvery edge; in windy weather, the tree looks very impressive. Breeders have bred several varieties that can be planted in the form of a green fence.

hedge willow

ива для живой изгороди
Silvery willow Source plantfinder.ir

  • Purple. A graceful shrub with thin branches, reaching a height of 2-4 m. The color of the leaves ranges from bluish-gray to silvery-green, the color of the earrings gave the name to the plant. Purple willow is undemanding to growing conditions, but does not tolerate waterlogging. Photophilous, can grow in urban and arid conditions, on soil with little salinity. The bush is a honey plant and attracts bees during flowering, which can be a disadvantage when choosing a variety. The purple willow fence will do its job for a quarter of a century.

Willow purple Source farmer-online.com

  • Spherical (brittle). Cultivar with a spherical, spreading crown and grayish-green foliage. Early honey plant, lives up to 75 years, retains decorative effect in winter due to the light yellow color of the shoots. Willow is unpretentious to soil and light, frost-resistant, suitable for hedges. Branches break off in a strong wind, so it is often mixed with other species.

hedge willow

ива для живой изгороди
Iva spherical Source i.pinimg.com

  • Babylonian (weeping). One of the most beautiful trees with long shoots hanging down to the ground and a crown that turns yellow only in winter. It grows up to a height of 10-12 m, loves moisture and light, is not afraid of frost, blooms after the leaves open up.

Babylonian willow

This might be interesting! In the article at the following link, read about the spruce hedge.

Heat-loving willow varieties

Tortuous

Shrub willow, with strongly twisted branches. The foliage is dark green, and the color of the bark of the branches is golden, which is very well manifested when the branches are twisted. This species is planted in decorative labyrinths of park areas or as green dense fences.

Pruning must be done while maintaining the growth characteristic of this tree (no higher than 2 meters) and in such a way that two adjacent branches retain the ability to twine around one another. That is, observing the pairing of their growth.

Crisp

Dwarf willow, like Tortuosa, grows no higher than 2 meters. The leaves are dark green, shiny and of an unusual shape – in the form of rose flowers growing at home, in pots.

Although krispa does not tolerate frost, they cannot kill it – the tree is very viable and quickly recovers. Frost can only negate the pruning made in the previous fall, preventing the formation of a decorative geometric shape of the crown.

Hakuro-Nishiki Whole Leaf

The variety will take root well only in the southern regions of Russia, or in arboretums with protection in the form of frame modules with polycarbonate, which protects the plant from frost. Which is quite possible, since thanks to the process of pruning and shearing, the crown of this large willow bush rarely grows above 2 meters.

It has an unusual color of foliage: it has white-pink-green leaves, with a clear localization of flowers throughout the area. Hanging shoots. The general impression of the bush, especially from a distance, is that it is white-silver, smoky, and only coming closer, you can see the true picture of the tree’s color. It blooms in May, flowers are yellow-green.

When pruning, the emphasis can be made on any part of the plant: if you cut off the upper shoots, we get a sprawling bush with a predominance of width over height.

The whitish color of the crown makes it possible to combine the Hakuro-Nishiki willow with varieties of plants that have a dark green color. Such as garden or wild honeysuckle.

Anna Evans

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