Basket Willow

The young stems range in colour from a striking yellowish-green to red.

BASKET WILLOW (Salix petiolaris)

This multi-stemmed shrub is commonly found in a wide variety of wet habitats, including wet meadows, ditches, lakeshores and riverbanks. Great for erosion control. Mature stems rarely get larger than 1″ diameter. The young stems range in colour from a striking yellowish-green to red. Basket willow is not colonial – it spreads only by seed. As the name suggests, basket willow has a long history of being used for making wicker baskets and is arguably the best of our native willows for this purpose.

Grows with bog birch, sandbar willow, cord grass, northern reed grass, graceful sedge, Sartwell’s sedge, wild mint, wild iris, bugleweed and hemp dogbane.

Available in spring as 8 – 12″ bare root cuttings.

$3 each, minimum order of 15

Life Cycle: perennial
Sun Exposure: sun
Bloom Period: April – May
Height: 3 – 20 ft
Soil: wet