DescriptionPlanting InstructionsAfter CareDelivery & Guarantee
Purple Willow Hedge Plants - Delivered by Mail Order from the Nursery with a 1 Year Guarantee
Purple Willow, Salix purpurea, also called Purple Osier Willow, a large, bushy shrub with striking purple young shoots, which provide ornamental value in winter.
Purple Willow is suitable for rough country hedges up to about 5 metres high
Browse all of our other varieties of Willow trees & hedging for sale.
Purple Willow hedge plants are only delivered bareroot, during winter (Nov-March).
All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).
Spacing a Purple Willow hedge:
Plant Purple Willow hedging at 3 plants per metre, 33cms apart.
General description of Purple Willow plants:
The catkins on this variety are less showy than other willows, maturing slightly after the leaves have burst and blending in with a modest yellowy-green colour. The female catkins become a bit more ornate after pollination, as their seed filled fruit become spiky (like a very stout lavender seed heads), eventually releasing loads of miniscule wind borne seeds. These need wet soil to germinate, so won't be an issue for most gardens. They have the typical long, narrow leaves of the willow family, with a slight blue-ish tint to them that makes an excellent backdrop to other plants or as a surround for a water feature.
To be honest, we don't really recommend purple willow for clipped hedging. It's a great screening plant, but if you want a reasonably neat hedge that will tolerate very wet soil, use dogwood plants instead.
That said, purple osier willow and common osier willow are the only willows that you could sensibly use to make something resembling a normal hedge.
History & uses of Salix purpurea
Being a small, very vigorous willow, this is one of the favoured types for supplying withies - stems of various sizes for making wicker objects. Osier is an old name for both the withie and the plant.
Willows have shallow, wide ranging roots and are great for preserving river banks and other loose soil.
All willows are excellent for bees, butterflies and moths.
Growing Purple Willow plants:
Purple Willow is a shore lover and will thrive in sandy, salty soil as long as it is nice and wet, but also do well on drier soil if it is fertile. Unusually for willows, it prefers an alkaline soil and is fine on chalk. It needs plenty of sun.
Prepare your site before planting:
Native hedge plants like Purple Willow are very tough. The only essential preparation is to kill the weeds in a strip a metre wide along the planting site: improving the soil should not be necessary. If your soil is exceptionally poor and dry, then digging in some well rotted manure and/or compost is worthwhile.
Watch our video on how to plant a country hedge for full details.
Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting.
Hedge Planting Accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Roundup weed killer.
You can buy a hedge planting pack with sheets of mulch fabric and pegs to hold it down.
If you are planting in an area with rabbit and/or deer, you will need to use a plastic spiral guard for each plant, supported by a bamboo cane.
If your soil quality is poor, we recommend using mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of new trees and shrubs.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.
After you have planted your Purple Willow hedge, the most important thing to do is water it in dry weather. You will also need to weed around the plants. Watering should be thorough, so the ground is soaked. Let the soil almost dry out before watering again. Watering & weeding will be necessary for at least a year after planting.
To coppice Salix purpurea and harvest its stems for weaving, let your plants settle in for a year and then cut them down to less than 30cms tall the following winter. Cut them back like this every winter to encourage a steady supply of useful stems. If you cut them back every other year, you will get thicker, less flexible stems to provide supports for sturdier items.
Special notes on caring for Purple Willow hedges:
Purple Willow is a very tough hedge plant that shouldn't need special attention once it has established. If you didn't use a mulch fabric, it is beneficial to mulch around the base of the hedge each year with well rotted manure or compost.
Hygiene & Diseases:
Dead, damaged or diseased wood can be pruned off as soon as it appears.
Disinfect your pruning tools between every cut if there is any sign of disease.
Burn or dispose of any diseased material, do not compost it.
Read our full terms and conditions here.
Delivery: The basic delivery charge for orders of bareroot plants is £9.49 + vat, which increases to £12.55 + vat if you add any pot-grown plants, standard trees or fruit trees to the order.
Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
You can choose the delivery week that suits you during checkout and we will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.
Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.
Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.
Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted hedging must be watered in dry weather while it is establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week if there is no heavy rain.
Our nursery has been supplying container grown and bareroot hedging plants to gardeners, farmers and town planners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying hedging plants online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.
Your 12 Month Guarantee
If any plants die within a year, we replace them if you have followed our instructions. You only pay for
the delivery of the replacements.
Place an order for £250 excluding VAT and delivery and we deliver it for FREE!
Bare-root Plants are only delivered in the winter season, from November to March. Pot grown plants can be delivered all year round
Advantages of Bare-root plants:
You pay less for the same size plants.
You can carry and plan them easily.
You only plant them in winter, so they need less maintenance after
planting. The rain will water them for their first few months.
You get the biggest selection: Many trees are not sold pot-grown.
They are "asleep" in winter - this is the best time to transplant any tree.
They use fewer fertilisers & fungicides, less water and fuel in their production & delivery.
Advantages of Pot Grown plants:
Pot grown plants can be delivered & planted all year round.
Plants with tender roots & larger specimens must be delivered in pots.
Plants in pots can be kept for months longer if there is a delay in planting.
Our Advice to You:
If you can't wait to get planting, order Pot grown plants now.
If you are not in a hurry, order bare-root plants for delivery this winter. Simply add them to your basket and choose a winter delivery date that suits you during checkout.
This will reserve your plants before they sell out.
We won't charge you until the day before delivery, so cancelling your order is always easy.
If you are only ordering chemicals and other small items, delivery is £3.50
Our delivery charge for most bareroot plants is £9.49 + VAT.
If your order contains any standard sized trees, fruit trees or pot-grown plants, then the delivery charge is £12.55 + VAT in TOTAL.
If you live in the Scottish Highlands or the Isle of Wight, there will be an extra charge of £15 + VAT on top of the appropriate basic charge, as listed above.
If your order is over £250 exc. VAT, there will be no delivery charge.
If you are uncertain, just add items to your basket which will calculate the basic shipping charge for you.
