A third-generation independent plant nursery and garden center a few minutes’ drive from downtown Nashville. Trees, shrubs, perennials, houseplants and more. Open for onsite sales 7 days a week, 10AM to 5PM. Spring mail order is closed, but check back in early September to place your fall orders.
Salix Nurseries is a family owned and operated willow breeder that sells hybrid and native willow cultivars as well as traditional species in multiple sizes and forms, as well as bare root stock. They are a member of the Tennessee Arboretum Alliance and a founding member of the Willow & Cottonwood Coalition, a group that works together to support conservation initiatives for riparian areas across the nation.
Willows and their slender, pendulous branches are one of nature’s most graceful additions to the landscape. But they are not just aesthetically pleasing, they are very useful and versatile. They provide erosion control and shelter for wildlife and can be used for basketry, phytoremediation, and windbreaks. Willows are also excellent pollinators for many fruit and berry crops, including apples and pears.
Weeping Willow (Salix babylonica) is perhaps the most familiar willow, and for good reason – it’s lovely and adaptable. It grows quickly in most any soil, can handle sun or shade and has low to moderate watering needs. It is also disease resistant and pest-free, with resistance to rust, leaf scorch, powdery mildew and root rot.
Its gold twisting branches and curly green leaves Salix Nurseries turn golden in autumn. It grows as a multi-stemmed shrub, though Portland Nursery carries it in a tree form. It is hardy to Zone 5.
Another handsome weeping willow, ‘George Newman’ is distinguished by its compact crown and densely pubescent, almost white foliage. This cultivar is named in honor of George Newman, a Bedford, NH, native plant collector.
‘Golden Sunshine’ is a very attractive golden-leafed cultivar that produces early silver-yellow flowers in female catkins. They are held along reddish twigs from emergence until frost. It is tolerant of urban pollution and drought, and shows some resistance to salt and alkaline soils. This willow is also deer and rabbit resistant.
A male hybrid clone of S. eleagnos ‘Angustifolia’ x S. americana ‘Americana’, ‘Pink Delight’ is vigorous and more colorfast than ‘Angustifolia’ with straight stems that become mahogany-red in the winter. It is a multi-stemmed shrub with a slightly taller form than ‘Americana’ and hardy to Zone 5. ‘Oranzhevaya Tolstostvol’naya’ is a robust, female hybrid of S. alba ‘Americana’ and S. eleagnos ‘Angustifolia’ that can reach 16 m in height with yellow orange stems that turn a rich brown color with age, and an elongated pyramidal crown that becomes weeping after 10 years. It was found by Dodge in Russia, where it is called ‘Oranzhevaya Tonkostvol’naya’, meaning “an orange thin-stemmed willow”.