Following your requests for American artist Rose Berlin's delightful 'Pussywillow Kitties' design to be extended to other items, we are now pleased to introduce this adorable design as a delightful metal wall plaque, with a choice of two sizes.
Alas, it was not to be! Today, the variegated pussywillow sprawls to cover a space twenty feet wide. It’s irregular habit is unsuited to any of the more civilized parts of the garden, but here, at the edge of the swamp the pussywillow is most appropriate. Here, it can scramble without a care. In competition with the most aggressive neighbors the pussywillow seems an indestructible force.
The leaves are variegated, but the branching is not dense enough that the foliage is shown off to great effect, and in swampy ground I seldom travel back far enough to appreciate the variegation at all. The prominent feature of all pussywillows, of course, is the furry catkins that develop in late winter to reach their peak in late February in my garden. On the variegated pussywillow the catkins are longer and narrower than on the more common shrub, but still these are reason enough to grow this unruly plant so long as it is placed in an appropriate location.
Can I recommend the pussywillow? Yes, so long as the planting spot is similarly well suited as the damp, otherwise useless area where this one is planted. It must be given plenty of space, but with adequate moisture it requires nothing more. Then, you are free to muck about in your rubber boots to cut a few branches to bring indoors for the winter months.
I don’t always find the right spot for a plant, but it’s fortunate that the pussywillow is perfectly suited to this wet area. There is no other plant that would work as well, and I prefer having the pussywillow rather than nothing at all.
