Salix purpurea

Purple Willow (also known as Arctic Willow) is a fantastic shrub willow that grows dozens to hundreds of thin stems from the base of the plant. The leaves have a light purple color and the young stems are dark purple in the spring and summer. The branches grow dense enough that a hedge of Purple Willows planted 5 feet apart forms an excellent visual, sound, and access barrier. Although these trees do great when left alone to do their thing, many gardeners prune them back to about six inches tall at the end of each winter to keep all the stems to just one season old. Plants that are pruned annually will have a much darker purple color in the summer than unpruned plants. The flowers attract honey and bumble bees as well as many other important pollinators such as butterflies (especially the smaller species) throughout the summer and at our nursery the dense branches on larger trees were popular nesting sites for small birds like finches.