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Pussy Willow - where are the catkins?!
standbyme40
Posts: 23
Hi, I purchased three pussy willow trees last year and they are in their second spring now. Just like last year, they are sprouting very healthily into leaf. However, I bought these trees as I had read that they are a great source of pollen for early Queen bees. Are my trees doing what they should be? Do the catkins come when it is more mature, or have I got the wrong kind of pussy willow for it to be any use to bees? I've attached two photos.
Thanks!
Phil.
0
Posts
Hi
Have they had any catkins at all ... the female trees have green catkins which don't have yellow pollen - that's only on the male catkins which grow on separate trees.
https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/native-trees/goat-willow/
Edited to say - yes, when I enlarge your first picture I can see female catkins.
They'll strike really well from cuttings - go into the countryside - really rural area - and find a hedgerow bush covered in male catkins and cut a few small sprigs (I'm sure no one will mind as long as you don't take arms full ) and stick them in some damp ground when you get home. Most of them will grow.
Last edited: 01 April 2017 10:37:54
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
So I've got female trees which are of no use to bees?!
Great!
That's what it looks like ............ sorry
What is worse, they'll produce fluffy seeds which will drift around your garden on the breeze and grow wherever they land in your garden and those of your neighbours 
I know what I'd do with them
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
me too Dove. I have some females here. Willow snow we call it, gets everywhere, swirls round on the kitchen floor under the table
In the sticks near Peterborough
I hope Standbyme didn't pay good money for them
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
yes. I doubt if they're seed raised when you wouldn't know what you'd got til they flowered. No reputable grower would do that would they? They'd use cuttings and label them male and female.
In the sticks near Peterborough
One would hope so Nut
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I paid very little for them thankfully! any ideas where I can buy male trees from?