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The Gardens of Mien Ruys - a book review

I don't know how I missed her, but I was totally unfamiliar with Mien Ruys. A beautiful new book The Gardens of Mien Ruys details her life and work. Born in the Netherlands in 1904, she was the daughter of Bonne Ruys, who founded Moerheim Nursery in 1888. She grew up in a liberal atmosphere and encouraged to learn and study. She found great comfort in the natural world around her and learned all the plants in her father's nursery at a young age. After leaving school at the age of 19, she knew that she wanted to work in the garden center. The Moerheim Nursery, in addition to selling plants, had an on-site design studio where they published a detailed catalog and sold landscape design plans to customers. It was in the design studio where Ruys first began to work and she was soon encouraged to venture beyond her country and study abroad. Her father's connections helped her secure a traineeship with Wallace & Sons Nursery in Tunbridge Wells in England. There, she met Gertr...
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Pruning Dappled Willow

In our garden

A woman I do occasional garden work for asked if I would prune her dappled willow. Hers is in tree form (ours is shrub). I remembered hers as being massive last year although it appeared smaller when I went to prune it earlier this week but of course it is not fully leafed out yet. 


Before...


After

Dappled willow (Salix integra 'Hakuro-Nishiki') is a beautiful shrub or small tree and when the new variegated pink and white leaves appear in spring, we quickly sell out at the garden center. People come rushing in wanting to know what that shrub is they are seeing all over town. As soon as they start to describe it, we immediately know what they are talking about.

They are extremely easy to grow and they are a good recommendation for people wanting a fast-growing plant to screen out the neighbors. They don't require special care and unless you need to control the size, pruning isn't necessary although it will be more attractive and the leaves will be denser and more colorful.

Ours is cramped into a tight spot along our front fence and we barely keep it under control by cutting it back several times per year. This is a really fast grower! Generally speaking, however, one pruning per year is good and the time to do that is in late winter or very early spring. 

The amount of pruning that you do isn't precise - you can cut it back about 1/3 or you can go more drastic like I did in the above photo. The plant will rebound either way. This is a very tough customer!

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy
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