Salix integra 'Hakuro-nishiki'

Tree of the Week - Entry 2 - August 2026

Salix integra 'Hakuro-nishiki' - the flamingo willow

Gone all green on you? Don't worry, that's not a failure - that's just July. The flamingo willow's famous trick, that burst of candy-pink and cream new growth, is a spring performance, and by now it's well past its headline act. But this is actually the better moment to look at it properly. The foliage has settled into its quieter marbled green and white, the leaf arrangement is clearer, and - more to the point - it's decision time. A light prune now, in mid to late summer, will push out a second flush of that coloured growth before autumn closes in. If your flamingo willow is sitting there looking tired and entirely green, this is the week to do something about it.

Beneath the soil

Before anything else, crouch down and have a proper look at how the leaves sit on the stem. Willows, as a rule, carry their leaves alternately - one this side, then one that side, staggered up the shoot. This one doesn't follow that pattern. On a young shoot you'll often find the leaves sitting in opposite pairs, or in whorls of three around the stem. As the Missouri Botanical Garden's Plant Finder notes, this is "unusual for a willow which normally has alternate leaves." It's a small thing, but it's the kind of detail that separates someone who's really looked at a plant from someone who's only admired it from the path.

The cultivar arrived in gardens relatively recently - introduced from Japan in 1979 by the Dutch botanist Harry van de Laar, and now spread into gardens worldwide from there. It's almost always sold as a standard, a straight clear stem topped with a rounded head: a lollipop. That's not arbitrary. Left to itself as a shrub, the plant isn't especially vigorous, so nurseries graft a length of variegated wood onto a straight, sturdy stem of ordinary willow rootstock to give it height and presence. That graft union - usually visible as a slight knuckle near the top of the bare stem - is worth knowing about. Anything sprouting below it is the plain green rootstock trying to reassert itself, not your flamingo willow, and it needs removing on sight. Leave those suckers unchecked and the rootstock will slowly swamp the ornamental head entirely.

Below ground, willows are famously easy rooters - this genus will strike from a stick pushed into damp soil - and that vigour extends to a fast, wide-spreading fibrous root system that establishes readily. Give a newly planted one decent, undisturbed soil and it won't need much encouragement to get going. Formative pruning matters more here than anything else in the establishment phase, because this plant's whole garden value depends on a steady supply of fresh coloured shoots, and fresh shoots only come from hard, deliberate cutting back. Being kind to it means being firm with it.

Practical use

This is a plant grown almost entirely for its foliage display. As a standard it earns its keep as a specimen by a doorway, on a patio in a large container, or as a bright accent at the back of a border. It's particularly at home near water - ponds, streams, the edge of a rain garden - both because it genuinely likes the moisture and because willows suit that setting visually. The RHS plant profile describes it as "particularly good next to ponds," and that feels right. BBC Gardeners' World Magazine calls it "much loved for its flamboyant foliage in spring," which is fair, though the summer phase has its own quieter appeal once you stop expecting the spring show to last.

It's honest to note that this cultivar has no particular known value to wildlife in the UK. If someone is weighing it against something for pollinators, it's worth saying so plainly - this one is chosen for looks, not ecology. It reaches around 1.5 to 2.5 metres over ten to twenty years, which keeps it in the range of a genuine garden specimen rather than a problem to manage.

Care and mistakes

For a Surrey garden, give it full sun or light dappled shade with soil that stays reliably moist. It'll take clay without complaint, which suits a fair few gardens round here. Container-grown standards need consistent watering through summer - this is not a plant that forgives a hot, dry, forgotten corner.

Things to do:

• Prune hard in late winter or early spring each year to encourage fresh coloured growth.
• Follow up with a light trim in mid to late summer to bring a second flush of pink new growth before autumn.
• Check the stem regularly for shoots appearing below the graft union and remove them immediately.
• Water container specimens consistently through dry spells - the roots must not dry out.

Things not to do:

• Don't plant it and leave it alone. Without that annual hard prune, the head goes leggy, lopsided, and progressively greener.
• Don't ignore suckers from below the graft. Left unchecked, the plain rootstock will eventually take over the whole head.
• Don't plant it in deep shade or a drought-prone spot where neighbouring plants are thriving on neglect - this one needs the attention.

Context and companions

The flamingo willow plays well as a contrast plant against darker foliage - deep purple berberis, dark-leaved heucheras - where its pale variegation really lifts the planting around it. It suits Japanese-influenced or contemporary schemes well as a specimen, and works as a poolside or pond-edge accent alongside other moisture-loving plants. It fits naturally into a Surrey garden that has a damp corner, a pond margin, or a patio where a lollipop standard gives vertical punctuation without the scale of a full tree.

Questions people actually ask

The most common question is why the colour has gone. The vivid pink and cream is a spring flush, and it fades as the season moves on - that's not a problem with the plant, it's just how it works. A light summer prune will bring a second, smaller flush before autumn, so there's still time to act.

People often ask whether it will cause the problems associated with full-size willows near foundations or drains. This compact cultivar stays modest in size and isn't a spreading concern in the way a large willow can be - the root system is proportionate to what is, after all, a small garden tree.

Standard forms do well in containers provided they're watered consistently. The roots won't forgive drying out, but in a large pot with reliable moisture this is a good patio specimen.

And the graft question comes up often enough to be worth repeating: yes, keep an eye on anything sprouting below that knuckle on the stem. Remove it cleanly and promptly, every time.

We stock Salix integra 'Hakuro-nishiki' as a trained standard at Cedar Nursery in Cobham, Surrey. Come and see it in person - and if you have questions about pruning, positioning, or companions, our team is here to help.

Come and stand under it. Cedar Nursery, Cobham, Surrey.