Tricolor Willow
Salix integra ‘Albomaculata’

To many discerning gardeners, flowers can be an all-too-fleeting element in a garden composition. While there’s no questioning their impact on the scene in terms of color, form and interest, most plants only bloom for a week or maybe two at a time. This has turned many gardeners in the direction of unique foliage plants for more enduring color, and there are a lot of these plants that are more than worthy of a place in our northern gardens. But are there any plants with colorful foliage that can actually compete one-on-one with their flowering counterparts?

There aren’t many, but there is at least one - the aptly named tricolor willow. Also called by its Japanese name Hakura Nishiki, this plant features foliage that from a distance is so abundant and brilliantly colorful that one could easily be fooled into thinking that this is a flowering shrub, when in fact there are no flowers on the plant at all!

Tricolor willow is a medium-sized shrub that would be rather unremarkable were it not for the incredible foliage, which is not only showy but dynamic over the growing season. The finest performance comes with the new foliage as it emerges and develops into a combination of pink, pure white and speckled soft green. Over the season as the foliage matures, the pink fades and the leaves become a mottled variegated white on green, still very showy. The most dynamic coloration appears on the most vigorous growth, which is why gardeners often give this shrub a harsh pruning every spring, which also helps to keep it compact.

This shrub colors best in full sun, but it will tolerate partial shade and still color well. Like all willows, it enjoys average to moist soils, and will even grow in wet locations. It can grow a little shrubby if left to its own devices, which is another reason a pruning here and there would be in order. It is often available grafted onto a standard for garden applications.

Click here to read more details on this plant in the Landscape Plant Search resource.