Silver Birch In Winter

[Larry the Lamb]

All the leaves bar one have gone,leraving the skeleton of the Broom style.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/Dawnrider/Bonsai/SBB011winter05.jpg

[MrSeedy]

How old is that one??

[Larry the Lamb]

Well, it was collected in 2003 so it will be 3 years old next summer!

[MrSeedy]

I love the briches , but unfortunately our most common and most ornamental one here, the paper bark birch, is prone to birch borers , so those trees are often killed by the insects, or at least severely damaged by them , so the trees aren't as attractive. My favorite however, is the weeping "cutleaf" birches I rarely see, which were discovered in Norway some years back , and which have to be grafted to a regular birch rootstock, since they don't come true from seeds and are hard to root I guess.

[Larry the Lamb]

Unfortunately Birches dont live too long, 20 years tops. Theyre pioneer trees in that theyre one of the first trees to grow after a fire or similar disaster, yet they live short lives.

[MrSeedy]

I think you're quite right about that one Larry, and I've heard that about many of the birches. They're generally fast growing , but short lived , but that seems to be the case for very fast growing trees in general.

[Larry the Lamb]

Not sure how they fare as bonsai but there are many fine examples of silver birch bonsai out there.
BTW our native Silver Birch(Betula pendula-one of my favourite trees) is great but not near as bright white as those birches found in parts of america-and Aspens, well, theyre just fantastic(though a type of poplar they do have white bark)