Willows are often large trees, but these are dwarf plants, found on open mountains or in damp places, and well suited for cool places in a rock garden or in other places in the garden that do not dry out. Some spread outwards, rooting as they go, and if they go beyond their planned space, lift the shoots from the end, and cut them back.

Salix 'Coire Kander' is an beautiful dwarf willow that we were given, and which has done very well in the garden. It makes a neat shrub, not spreading laterally, with small, softly hairy leaves, and silvery catkins in spring. It was found in Coire Kander in the southern Cairngorm mountains in Scotland, and is probably a hybrid, perhaps of Salix lanata and some as yet unidentified species. It has the collection reference CK 8/95.