GaryStPaul, The 'Hakura Nishiki' is a borderline plant, I wouldn't be afraid to try it as long as you understand it has about a 50/50 chance. I have clients with them, about 1/2 have made it. There is also a house down the street from me with one, they initially had two. I have just recently seen the standard form of the ABW...Love the way that looks, I would say it would be much hardier, but have not had personal experience. I would not be afraid to try it though. If it acts like I think it will, it will be a big thing... Good luck, Helen.

For anyone still reading this outdated thread, the tree form of the dappled willow is not just the original shrub "trained" as a standard - it is the willow shrub grafted onto the stem of another upright (tree) willow species. Where the graft is located is as tall as the trunk portion will ever get. But the willow shrub itself - Salix integra - can get quite large if left to its own devices.....6-8' across and as much as 10' tall. Allowing it to reach that size as a grafted topknot on a shortish trunk would look ridiculous, so the shrubby top portion is routinely pruned to keep size in check. And many folks apply the same principle to the ungrafted shrub as well, routinely cutting it back each year to keep size in check. This can sometimes have the advantage of increasing the twiggy stem growth so the plant looks very full and lush when it leafs out. And the pink portion is only the coloration of new leaf growth. Flowers on this shrub are the typical willow catkins and not particularly heavy in production or very showy.

There appears to be some confusion here. The dappled willow is normally a weak-wooded (yet vigorous) bush. However, this sort of bush can be top-grafted onto a standard (standard=trunk) of some stronger sort of willow to make a TREE FORM willow. If it is "tree form" it is 99% certain to have been grafted--check where the "bushy" part meets the trunk to be certain. Because the tree form is grafted, any growth from the trunk of a tree-form dappled willow will not be the same kind of willow as the top growth, and therefore, should be (must be) cut off. The pruning of a standard (grafted) dappled willow tree involves cutting the TOP BRANCHES (the grafted-on part) back by 1/3 or even 1/2 every spring, and removing unsightly sprigs at any time. If you saw the graft off the trunk, you will get either a dead trunk OR the trunk will sprout into whatever kind of willow was used for the trunk. As to the height of the dappled willow TREE FORM, once the graft has been put onto the new trunk, the trunk grows very slowly--for all intents and purposes, the height you buy is pretty much the height it will stay, except that the top bushy part will get to be a bigger and bigger tuft every year.

Ok well a couple of questions on the pruning. Can you cut back young plants like mine or are you supposed to wait until the plant matures? How far down do you hard prune it? And if you hard prune it ever year won’t that defeat the purpose of privacy since it won’t grow back to the desired height until summer. I thought of letting the tree grow high enough so that it blocks my neighbors view(they’re elevated on a slope) and then take a ladder and prune it but still be able to have privacy even after the pruning. So say like the tree is 15ft. I’ll prune it down to like10ft. Is that a bad idea?