Arboretum & Botanical Garden Bulletin Board

Scarlet Curls® Willow

Salix ‘Scarcuzam’ Scarlet Curls®
Location: Grid S10 East side of upper pond

Scarlet Curls® is a hybrid between Golden Willow (Salix alba) and Corkscrew Willow (Salix matsudana). It combines the twisty branches and leaves of the Corkscrew Willow with the colorful bark of the Golden Willow.

The color of the bark on the new branches intensifies in cold weather to almost scarlet.

Like all willows Scarlet Curls® is fast growing, brittle and grows shallow, aggressive roots, all of which make it less desirable in a residential yard.

Because of the shallow roots several years ago the whole tree blew over in a wind storm. Most of the roots seemed to still be intact and it was going to be a daunting task to pull it out of the pond, so I decided to leave it and prune it out of the pond.

It is now a popular photo opportunity and adds some character to the pond bank.

Monthly Projects

I think every year in February we have a spell of really nice weather and I tell people that there will be several days in April when we wish the weather was that nice. It did it this year, but just barely, happening this last week. We also had the coldest temperature of the winter and the most snow in mid-February, so signs of spring are kind of scarce.

Moscow did set a record for rainfall for Sunday, Feb. 23, with over an inch of rain (unusual for Moscow) on top of 4” or so of snow. That meant lots of run off and local flooding. The stream in the Arboretum overflowed the culvert under the parking lot and flooded the parking lot and the road at the top also washed out pretty badly. It took three buckets of gravel to fill the bottom and four to the top!

We have been able to finish updating the planting database and that inventory is on the website, and we have almost finished producing the corrected accession labels and the new planting labels.

Upcoming Events

• Arboretum Associates Annual Meeting
  6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9
  1912 Center Great Room
  • 25 years of progress in the Arboretum
  • Paul Warnick reporting on his career
• Plant Sale
  10 a.m. to noon on Saturday, May 17
  U of I Facilities Greenhouse (875 Perimeter Drive)
  • Traditional favorites and new things to try
  • Annuals, perennials, natives and xerirscape

When visiting the Arboretum, please remember that for your safety, the safety of others and for the protection of wildlife and plant collections, no pets are allowed. Ice on ponds is very unstable — stay off any ice.