Salix Purpurea Hedging

Purple Willow, Salix purpurea, also called Purple Osier, is more of a large, bushy shrub than a small tree. Salix purpurea has magnificent, striking purple young shoots, which provide ornamental value in winter both on the plant and when cut and brought indoors. The catkins are less showy than on some other willows as they appear around the same time as the leaves open so they tend to be somewhat hidden. But the bark is a glory. To produce the best colour, the plant shoudl be coppiced on atwo yearly cycle with half being cut to the ground each spring. This way you will always have heightto the plant and a good amount of young growth.

See our selection of willow hedging plants or view our full range of hedging.

Salix purpurea plants are only delivered bareroot, during winter (Nov-March). All our plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

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 withy 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.

Read our full terms and conditions here.

Delivery: The basic delivery charge for orders of bareroot plants is £6.50 + 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.
We will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.

*Surcharges to the Highlands and Islands still apply.

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.

Shade	Partial Shade
Area	Coastal Areas, Exposed Windy Areas
Soil	Wet
Type	Hedging
Also Good	Autumn Colour

	NUMBER OF PLANTS
SIZES	1-9	10-49	50-249	250-999	1000+
60/80 cm Bareroot	Plenty of Stock£2.35	Plenty of Stock£1.58	Plenty of Stock£1.15	Plenty of Stock£0.95	Plenty of Stock£0.83

Purple Willow

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Salix Purpurea Hedging