Help with Salix Flamingo please

Good morning. A very inexperienced gardener is hoping for a little bit of help with my two Flamingo Salix. They were bought last year and all I have done is put them in larger pots. Now I do know that they need to be pruned but I haven't done it yet as I am so scared that I will end up with two pots of just twigs.

They are now quite tall and very spindly, not the bushy pink delight I was hoping for.

I would appreciate any and all help to get them looking their best. They will be staying in the pots and I have wondered whether to put both in one pot but I'm clueless if this would be a good idea.

So if you have any words of wisdom, I thank you

 

That's the reason they tend to be sold as grafted lollipops as the growth, being a willow is very soft and wispy. I don't see anything wrong with them as they are, as long as you don't expect them to look really formal and stiff. I really don't like them but I think yours are frankly some of the nicest I've seen in a while. Would just recommend taking off the topping of the pot as you can't assess properly the moisture levels like that. But clearly you're watering them enough to look this healthy.

 

Ah, I guess I made a mistake not getting grafted ones then as I wanted them a bit fuller. Lesson learned and thank you

 

All Salix flamingo are grafted, it just depends how.

 

Think mine is just a bush so no grafting. Might take some cuttings and see if they root. The topping is easy removed but it’s there to keep the moisture in so they don’t dry out as quick in this hot weather

 

I think they're all grafted too. They're mostly seen/sold as standards [lollipops] but there's a house near me which has a couple in the front garden and they're virtually at ground level, with a bigger spread to the canopy, rather than a globe shape. I've no idea if they do anything special with them. Doubtful, as they don't really have anything else out there, so they don't seem to be gardeners, as such.
I think you'd just have to snip carefully to get them into a bushier shape. Some people use chicken wire to make a cage for doing topiary, which then assists in getting the desired outline, as you clip back to that over time. That might be the way to go.
If you snip any stem/branch back to a leaf joint, that should encourage more branching, and therefore a bushier shrub. I've never done it withthat particular plant, as it's not something I would ever grow, but that would be the theory, as it's the way to make any woody specimen bushier. Maybe try a couple of those longer stems, and see how it goes.

 

I think the plan is going to be cut it right back, propagate the cuttings and add them in to give a fuller look and see how that goes