- Brilliant Orange-Red Young Stems in Winter
- Fabulous Winter Interest
- Extremely Fast Growing
- Shrubby Screening Plant
- Adaptable Plant Tolerates Poor and Wet Soil Types
- Perfect Snow Fencing Plant
- Great in Windbreaks
- Cut Colorful Stems for Holiday Decorations
Need a sure cure for a boring, brown winter landscape in your yard? How about a huge burst of bright color to chase away the wintertime blues?
The orange-red new stems of Flame Willow (Salix x ‘Flame’) will light up your garden all winter. The color lasts from late fall until early spring.
This shrubby Willow acts a lot like a Red Twigged Dogwood to deliver fantastic winter interest, but it can be pruned all the way down to the ground each year in spring.
This is one tough plant! Grow in full sun to part shade with ample moisture and watch it take off.
Did we mention how fast it grows? Let’s say you have a less-than-desirable view you want to screen. Use this as a wonderful multi-stemmed plant. It will really take off like a rocket if it gets planted in wet, well-drained soils.
Flame Willow is a shrubby Willow that gives you quick screening because of their fast growth. They grow many stems with fine-textured, green foliage that is lighter colored on the undersides. In the fall, the leaves turn yellow, but the real show is the orange-red color on the younger stems.
They are actually shockingly colorful in fall and winter. The stem color intensifies as the plants wake up in spring. Once the new leaves emerge, the stem color subsides to grassy green again.
You don’t have to stand for a brown landscape in the winter anymore! Plant amazing Flame Willows in your yard this year and enjoy the view all winter.
How to Use Flame Willow Tree in the Landscape
Flame Willow is a fantastic screening plant for those of you who are impatient. The fast growth rate is almost beyond belief once it gets established. Block out that garage or that neighbor that has lots of stuff in their yard. Flame Willow is the fastest way to screen out the neighbor’s house.
Flame Willow is perfect for snow fencing along a long driveway. You’ll boost your home’s curb appeal and keep drifting snow from accumulating on the drive. Plant them 3 feet apart on center, measuring from the center of one to the center of the next.
Do the same to create a quick privacy screen. Plant it where you can see it, because the fall color will wow you throughout the winter months. It makes a wonderful living fence or border. You can use this fast growing Willow as a backdrop to your mixed shrub border. Include some in your windbreak and shelterbelts for a bright pop of color.
It could be your fastest way to a Garden Room. Imagine a modern outdoor dining room with living walls of beautiful Flame Willow! All this in the space of a season. Incredible!
Tips for Care
Plant these adaptable plants in full sun or partial shade. Flame Willow will perform even in poor soils. Ensure that your plant receives a moderate amount of regular water. Flame Willow are great bordering a lawn with automatic sprinklers, or in a low spot in the yard that periodically floods, then stays a bit moist after a rain.
Many like to use this plant as a cut back shrub. Simply cut all of the stems down to the ground each year in early spring. Then, stand back and watch established plants put on six feet of growth or more in a single season!
As the stems age, they offer less color, so keep your plants bright and colorful with a regular schedule of rejuvenation pruning. You can either cut the entire plant down to the ground, or selectively remove the oldest stems down to the ground in early spring. Don’t worry, you’ll be impressed how fast new shoots pop right back up out of the crown.
These new shoots display the brightest color, so give your Flame Willow a regular haircut. Use the older branches around the yard as fun, low woven border fencing.
Pound thick wooden stakes in the ground at the edge of the bed, and weave thick handfuls of the long branches first to the front and then behind each stake. Really, nothing could be easier. It’s a special way to edge your perennial garden beds. You’ll love the homemade charm!