Yep, the willow family of plants are very easy to root. I had great success putting them in a vase of water. I changed the water out every 7 to 10 days. They started to sprout roots after about 2.5 weeks I believe. Willows are a great thing to try rooting if you're new to it. Good luck! Diana

bumping duplicate post

Knowing your zone or general geographic area would help. We had such a bizarre winter it produced a spring where things just sort of happened in an unusual sequence. My forsythia did not bloom this year, and I was waiting for it to signal me it was time to go gather some branches to force inside. I got to the pussy willow and found out it was already in heavy fuzzy bud and I almost missed it. I don't know how closely you were watching yours but sometimes if we get a warm spell after long cold spells, if you have a larger property, you can miss the show entirely in a matter of days.

Yep, size of catkins is all I can find about the differences. Might be a slight difference in color. MOBOT says this about Salix caprea "Before the foliage emerges in late winter, male trees produce a showy display of catkins (1-2" long) that are pinkish gray and woolly. These catkins are larger than the pearl gray male catkins that appear on the American native plant most commonly called pussy willow (Salix discolor). " And that is just talking about the MALE catkins. Here is a link that might be useful: mobot page