About February is right, and hard back to nearly the old wood.

MANY THANKS, I ONLY BOUGHT IT A FEW MONTHS AGO AND IT LOOKED GREAT, BUT UNFORTUNATLEY I WATERED IT ON A VERY HOT DAY WHEN THE SUN WAS OUT AND I THINK IVE SCORCHED THE LEAVES AS THEY ARE ALL TURNING BROWN AND CRISPY, NOW I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH IT, I REALIZE NOW NOT TO WATER MY PLANTS IN FULL SUN, DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE PLEASE.

More likely from what you describe is that it dried before you watered it. Bear in mind it's a willow and they cope with quite a lot of water. Just trim the crispy bits off and put it somewhere away from the hottest sun (I've got mine in a spot where it only gets the late afternoon sun), keep it well watered and it should make some new growth which will hide any tatty bits.

Now, for once I am going to disagree with the noble Worthy1. Willows produce Catkins next year on wood grown this year, so the time to prune is once the old Catkins have finished. This encourages the tree/shrub to produce new branches which will flower the following year, if you see what I mean.
As the man says, water is the key to success with Willows, the more the merrier.

OB, I only prune mine for the leaf colour and the selling power of the leaf. Apologies for not thinking further ahead!
W

thankyou very much for your advice, ive just been in my garden and on closer inspection of my salix tree i can see new shoots appearing, so i guess the old crispy ones i can gently pick off ?
it is in a place where it gets morning sun till about 1pm in afternoon so i hope this is ok ?

Well in that case I agree. I grow all our Willows for the Catkins.

IS THE CATKIN A SEED POD ? AND IF SO DO I JUST OPEN THEM TO GET SEEDS OUT THEN SOW THEM ? IVE NEVER HAD ONE BEFORE SO IM CLUELESS ?

the catkins are male flowers lily rose The female flower is small and stubby. the seeds will form in them but most willows are either male or female trees. So if it has catkins it wont have seed pods.

And the seeds only have a life span of about 30 days maximum. If they are not sown in that time they are dead.